ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
I take it that as a minister he is always praying. Whenever his mind turns to his work, whether he is in it or out of it, he ejects a petition, sending up his holy desires as well-directed arrows to the skies. He is not always in the act of prayer, but he lives in the spirit of it. If his heart be in his work, he cannot eat or drink, or take recreation, or go to his bed, or rise in the morning, without evermore feeling a fervency of desire, a weight of anxiety, and a simplicity of dependence upon God; thus, in one form or other he continues in prayer.
If there be any man under heaven, who is compelled to carry out the precept—“Pray without ceasing,” surely it is the Christian minister. He has peculiar temptations, special trials, singular difficulties, and remarkable duties, he has to deal with God in awful relationships, and with men in mysterious interests; he therefore needs much more grace than common men, and as he knows this, he is led constantly to cry to the strong for strength, and say, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe our confidence in the truth of God.
Copernicus declared the truth that the earth and the planets revolve around the sun. His opponents replied that this could not be true, for if the planet Venus revolved around the sun, she must present the same phases as the moon. This was very true. Copernicus looked up to Venus, but he could not see those phases, nor could anyone else. Nevertheless he stuck to his statement and said, “I have no reply to give, but in due time God will be so good that an answer will be found.” Copernicus died, and his teaching had not yet been justified. But soon after Galileo came forward with his telescope, and on looking at Venus he saw that she did pass through exactly the same changes as the moon.
Thus wisdom is justified by her children. Truth may not prevail today or tomorrow, but her ultimate victory is sure. Today they say that the doctrines of grace are antiquated, obsolete, and even injurious. We are at no trouble to answer the charge. We can wait, and we do not doubt that public thought will alter its tone.
THANKS FOR READING
Brothers,
We cannot grow the church, make disciples, convert the lost, preach the gospel, or lead the church without God. So we pray.
Oh, may God empty us of our vain self-confidence and fill us up with a Christ-centered hope that drives us to our knees in desperate prayer.
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Blessings to your ministry,
Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC