Pastors, these two quotes from Charles Spurgeon have really been working on me. This is not intended to be a pastor-bashing message. Instead, it’s more of a wake-up call.
“We too often flog the church when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders. We should always remember that we are a part of the church, and that our own lack of revival is in some measure the cause of the lack of revival in the church at large. I will lay the charge before us; we ministers need a revival of piety in our lives.”
“You don’t need a new preacher, another kind of worship, another type of preaching, new ways of doing things or even new people. You need life in what you have.”
If I’m going to pray, “Start a revival, Lord,” the prayer needs to begin with, “Start it with me!”
Wow, what a prayer by Charles Spurgeon. I hope you will join me in making this our prayer too.
“Lord, help me to glorify You; I am poor, help me to glorify You by contentment; I am sick, help me to give You honor by patience; I have talents, help me to extol You by spending them for You; I have time, Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve You; I have a heart to feel, Lord, let that heart feel no love but Yours, and glow with no flame but affection for You; I have a head to think, Lord, help me to think of You and for You; You have put me in this world for something, Lord, show me what that is, and help me to work out my life-purpose: I cannot do much, but as the widow put in her two mites, which were all her living, so, Lord, I cast my time and eternity too into Your treasury; I am all Yours; take me, and enable me to glorify You now, in all that I say, in all that I do, and with all that I have.”
A couple of weeks ago a lady in our church asked me to pray for a need in her life. She is a single Mom, as well as a caregiver for her bed-bound grandmother, which means money is tight.
She knew her car needed some repairs, so she took the car to the mechanic on Thursday afternoon. His initial estimate was $400. On Sunday we prayed about this, and joined our faith that God would either provide the funds, or provide another way for her car to be repaired.
Here’s a powerful verse of Scripture—
…Your Father knows exactly what you need evenbefore you askHim! (Matthew 6:8)
This lady returned to her mechanic the next day, and he told her the repairs had been completed. But the repairs were not as extensive as he originally thought, so the bill was only $105.
Now, here’s the best part—on Thursday, this lady had looked at her financial situation and had set aside all the money she could afford for this repair: $125!
So not only did God provide for her even before she asked, but she even gave the mechanic a $20 tip!
I love the fact that God knows what we need even before we ask Him!
This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
Exhausted For God
Jesus said to Peter, ‘Feed My sheep,’ but He gave him nothing to feed them with. The process of being made broken bread and poured out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you to the dregs. Be careful that you get your supply, or before long you will be utterly exhausted. Before other souls learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus direct, they have to draw on it through you; you have to be literally ‘sucked,’ until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and His sheep as well as for Himself.
Has the way in which you have been serving God betrayed you into exhaustion? If so, then rally your affections. Where did you start the service from? From your own sympathy or from the basis of the Redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually go back to the foundation of your affections and recollect where the source of power is. You have no right to say, ‘O Lord, I am so exhausted.’ He saved and sanctified you in order to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that your supply comes from Him. ‘All my fresh springs shall be in Thee.’
He saved and sanctified you in order to exhaust you. I want to be continually filled up and poured out for God. But in order to be of any good to others, I have to keep going back to the Source of life. If I’m not filled up with God’s presence, I will be exhausted, but not in the right way.
I have shared quite a bit about the correct way for godly leaders to be replenished through self-care. Check out these posts.
Sometimes what needs to go on my To Do list seems logical. But logical to whom? If I’m not careful I can get so focused on doing the next logical thing, that I miss out on the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Bruce Wilkinson said it this way—
“If we aren’t passionately and deliberately focused on carrying out God’s agenda with God’s heart, we’ll end up putting our own agenda first. We’ll increasingly look for the kind of missions we enjoy most. We’ll tend to ask God to bless our busyness for Him instead of asking Him to send us on the miracle mission of His choice.”
Ouch!
I don’t think the Bible is against To Do lists, but I need to make my lists the right way.
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15)
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
With those verses in mind, this is what I’m praying:
Dear God, I want to decided right here and now that Your agenda is more important than mine. Not my “To Do” list be done, but Yours. I die to my plans so that I might live out your plans.
“The first business of a clergyman awakened by God into a sensibility and love of the truths of the Gospel, and of making them equally felt and loved by others, is to thankfully, joyfully, and calmly adhere to and give way to the increase of this new-risen light, and by true introversion of his heart to God, as the sole Author of it, humbly beg of Him that all that he feels a desire of doing to those under his care may be first truly and fully done in himself.”
God, if You want to do something in my congregation, start it with me. Right here, right now, in the privacy of my study, begin with me. When I come before my congregation this weekend, may my life be the example of the work You want to do in us all.
Have you ever heard someone that can pray really well? And then isn’t it a bit intimidating when you’re asked to pray right after that master pray-er?
Or maybe you hear about people that spend extended time praying. But you think, “I run out of things to say after just a few minutes,” or “I get so distracted when I’m trying to pray.”
Here’s a thought from Mark Batterson’s book The Circle Maker which may help you—
“Prayer was never meant to be a monologue; it was meant to be a dialogue. Think of Scripture as God’s part of the script; prayer is our part. Scripture is God’s way of initiating a conversation; prayer is our response. The paradigm shift happens when you realize that the Bible wasn’t meant to be read through; the Bible was meant to be prayed through. And if you pray through it, you’ll never run out of things to talk about.”
Think about it this way. If you are a parent, doesn’t it get your attention when your child says, “Dad, you said…”? I know that makes my ears perk up. It’s the same way when we use Scripture to pray. It’s like saying to God, “Dad, you said….”
“We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says ‘Sit,’ and He says ‘Go,’ go! When the body says ‘Eat,’ and He says ‘Fast,’ fast! When the body says ‘Yawn,’ and He says ‘Pray,’ pray!”
I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27)
Wow! Time for me to redouble my efforts to Go, Fast, and Pray.
We wrapped up our series on The Danger Of Prayerlessness by looking at a very innocent thing: just doing what seems the natural thing to do.
In Luke 18, Jesus told a story about a persistent widow who would not stop approaching a judge to get justice. She had been wronged, but she didn’t take matters into her own hands, nor did she get tired of asking the judge for help. Either of these responses would have been very natural responses. But that’s the point: they would be natural, and not spiritual; they would depend on us, and not on God.
Luke introduces this story like this: Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up (Luke 18:1).
The word for give up is one that means to slide back to the natural way of doing, feeling or acting. In other words, to handle things like we always have before. But Jesus said there was a better way: keep taking your request to our Heavenly Father.
Prayer overcomes the “gravitational pull” of my natural tendencies to do things on my own. Prayer is the rocket fuel to help me break free!
Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in EVERY circumstance and in EVERYthing, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. (Philippians 4:6 AMP)
Don’t get pulled back down. Insteadalways pray and never, ever give up! Let your prayers take you higher and higher!
Pastors, these two quotes from Charles Spurgeon have really been working on me. This is not intended to be a pastor-bashing message. Instead, it’s more of a wake-up call.
Craig T. Owens 