Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Minister to be Ministered to.


You might be wondering why I spend so much time and effort in preparing these ‘sermons’ for you, but there are two very good pastoral reason why.  

First, I am so painfully aware how great a battle prayer is, so those who pray need to be encouraged and challenged in order to keep them on track.  If their prayer is to be intelligent, it must be informed about the current situation, which, as you know, can change from day to day, at times from hour to hour. 

Second, I am seeking to minister to myself in order to keep my spiritual fires burning brightly.  Prayer is when you really enter the battle-field with the devil, and the forces of evil, and he will contest every step you take in approaching the Throne of grace.  I, like you, find prayer both a delight and a challenge.  There’s is simply nothing to compare with having an audience with the King, and know you have been there.  For too often when I pray, it is merely words and little heart.  It is so true: a hearty prayer without words is better than a wordy prayer without heart.  Mere words just do not cut it.  So I need to be reminded of the very basics of prayer, and be taught that “there is a wicked spirit watching o’er you still, and he tries to tempt you to all harm and ill.  But you must not hear him though ‘tis hard for you to resist the evil and the good to do.”  How frequently I fall at this hurdle.  So these updates minister to my sinful heart as well as to yours.

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