So much of what we do as pastors is routine: preaching, administrating, calling on people, visiting the sick, and so on. If we are not careful, these things will suck the spiritual life out of us. Before we know it, we feel a dryness creeping into our lives. At first, we can suppress this with our busyness. We try to ignore it. We can even put on a mask and look very spiritual on the outside. Our sermons do not at first essentially change. In fact, a pastor can preach a powerful sermon from the head without the heart being engaged. This spiritual desert is a common problem that tries to sneak into our lives and affect our ministries. All pastors experience it at different times. We should realize that if we experience it, how much more our people who may only rarely read the Bible or spend any time in prayer.
The essential question for us as believers to ask is, How can we get through the desert and find an oasis of sustaining life? Another way to ask this is, How can I as a pastor experience deep fulfillment, purpose, and direction in my ministry? After all, I think this is what most pastors want.
The answer is found both within ourselves and from the outside. The inner resource is the act of faith. The outer resource is God’s grace. Prayer is the bridge from our faith to God’s grace. Prayer opens the tap of God grace so it can flow in us and through us. The type of prayer I am thinking about is not the audible, short prayers many people are accustomed to. The type of prayer that will connect us to the flow of God’s grace is life-style prayer. This type of prayer prays continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It is having a constant awareness of God’s presence with us. It is meditating in God’s presence, listening to God’s Word and listening for the Holy Spirit.
This will lead us to praise for what God is doing in and through us. Many pastors face discouragement, sometimes because of the poor response of people, a lack of vision from the church, the trials of spiritual warfare, physical fatigue, and other factors. Like the psalms of lament, our praise will lift us up from the deep miry clay and bring a fresh awareness of God’s grace in our lives.
This type of listening prayer will open us to the leading of the Holy Spirit. One result of this will be a cleansing of sin in our lives. The Holy Spirit will point out areas we need to grow in. This is a refining process, which is sometimes uncomfortable. But the results are transformative, renewing, and empowering. As we worship, we are changed. As we are convicted, we have opportunity for new growth.
We will also be led to intercede for people. As we realize our own sins and weaknesses, we can appreciate the struggles of the people we lead. The Holy Spirit will draw our focus to the needs of others. Our love for God overflows through the Spirit’s presence and spills out onto the people around us. This prayer will empower our ministry by providing a spiritual connection to God’s eternal resources.
Our times of prayer are both public and private. They begin as private times and filter out to public actions. Earnest prayer will begin to affect our ministry. People may begin to see a difference in us and our interaction with them. Our personal change should become clear to those around us. They will be interested and want what we have. Thus, we become models to those around us. This prayer will open up opportunities for discipleship of others. It will empower all the other things we do that we typically call “ministry.” So, if we are looking for new life in our ministry, the place to begin is with prayer. This is not short, verbal prayer but deep longing to be in God’s presence and experience God’s Spirit.
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