ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
The best and holiest men have ever made prayer the most important part of pulpit preparation.
The closet is the best study. The commentators are good instructors, but the Author himself is far better, and prayer makes a direct appeal to him and enlists him in our cause. It is a great thing to pray one’s self into the spirit and marrow of a text; working into it by sacred feeding-thereon, even as the worm bores its way into the kernel of the nut. Prayer supplies a leverage for the uplifting of ponderous truths. Waiting upon God often turns darkness into light. Persevering enquiry at the sacred oracle uplifts the veil and gives grace to look into the deep things of God.
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe the relationship between prayer and Bible reading.
You will frequently find fresh streams of thought leaping up from the passage before you, as if the rock had been struck by Moses’ rod; new veins of precious ore will be revealed to your astonished gaze as you quarry God’s Word and use diligently the hammer of prayer. You will sometimes feel as if you were entirely shut up, and then suddenly a new road will open before you. He who hath the key of David openeth, and no man shutteth.
The laborious student often finds it with a text; it appears to be fast closed against you, but prayer propels your vessel, and turns its prow into fresh waters, and you behold the broad and deep stream of sacred truth flowing in its fulness, and bearing you with it. Is not this a convincing reason for abiding in supplication? Use prayer as a boring rod, and wells of living water will leap up from the bowels of the Word. Who will be content to thirst when living waters are so readily to be obtained!
RESOURCE FOR PASTORS
Free Course from Midwestern Seminary
My friends at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are offering a free course to my subscribers. In “The Story of Everything,” Jared Wilson will teach how God’s glory explains the most incredible (and the most mundane!) things in our lives.
This is a great resource that will help you craft sermon application. It’s also a great, trustworthy resource you can send to your congregation to help them form a more robust biblical worldview.
Click here to get started with this FREE seminary-level course.
THANKS FOR READING
Brothers,
We are not sufficient to preach or prepare sermons — we need God’s help. And yet, it’s so easy to neglect prayer in the grind of sermon preparation. Let’s devote ourselves to prayer before we rush to understand Scripture in our own wisdom.
One mentor told me that he longed for a sermon prep process that looked like this: “I pray until I’m hot, I study until I’m full, and I preach until I’m empty.”
Oh, may we be men who are mighty in prayer and devoted to the Word.
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Blessings to your ministry,
Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC