Isaac Watts spurs us to excellence in ministry by asking us hard questions… Enjoy!
OF CONSTANT PRAYER AND DEPENDENCE.
1. Do I ‘give myself to prayer, as well as to the ministry of the word?’ Acts 6.4.
2. Do I make conscience of praying daily in secret, that I may thereby maintain holy converse with God, and also, that I may increase in the gift of prayer? Mat. 6.6.
3. Do I make it my practice to offer ‘prayers, supplications, and intercessions for all men,’ particularly for our rulers, and for my fellow labourers in the ministry, and for the church of Christ, and especially for those to whom I preach? I Tim. 2.1. Rom. 1.9, 10. Phil. 1.4.
4. Do I seek by prayer, for divine direction and assistance in my studies and in all my preparations for the public? and do I plead for the success of my ministry with God, in whom are all our springs? Eph. 3.14-19. Phil. 1.8,9.
5. Do I ever keep upon my spirit a deep sense of my own insufficiency for these things, that I may ever depend and wait on the power of Christ for aid and success? 2 Cor. 2.16. and 3.5. and 2 Tim. 2.1.
April 12, 2008 at 2:29 am
Yogi,
This exam is far more important than the exams I’m working on for finals. Thanks for focusing our attention on the heart of ministry, our heart devotion and dependence upon the Lord.