The Lord has given me grace to teach and preach more this past month than usual. At the same time, He has reminded me about the importance of prayer. As a pastor, the Lord called me to a ministry of prayer and of the Word, and I try to live faithful to that calling (Acts 6:4). However, I have to confess that my natural tendency is to be given more to the Word than to prayer. I am tempted to not give as much attention to prayer as I do my studies. This month, once again, in the midst of responsibilities, I faced the temptation to trust in my own understanding and knowledge, rather than to trust in the Lord through prayer.
But God used an article by a pastor named Augustus Nicodemus to redirect me. The article was called, “Prayer is for Weak People, and That’s Why I Pray.”
The Lord is helping me to grow in my prayer life. It’s not that I don’t pray, but I want to pray more than what’s become habitual as I seek the Lord’s help for the church, for the messages I preach, for my family, for personal strength, etc. I want to pray more—much more!—because, though I know the Word of God is perfect, I am not. The problem is not in the Word, but in the preacher, and for that reason I must pray.
One of the opportunities I had to preach this month was in an event for young people. The pastors asked me to speak on the topic of “rebellion.” A lot of those present were under the impression that rebellion was something that was influenced primarily by external factors, such as smartphones, social media, video games, etc. However, I showed them from the Scriptures that rebellion not the result of something outside of us, rather it is the result of our internal problem. The human heart is evil from the days of our youth. To think that evil is merely something external causes us to think that we are merely victims of our circumstances, but the Bible teaches clearly that our problem is that we are sinners through and through by nature.
After showing them the foolishness of the human heart, and that all that defiles us comes from our hearts, I then presented to all the young people the gospel of Christ. I explained to them how Christ became our substitute. I told them about the glorious exchange that took place when Christ died in the place of sinners.
Leading up to the event, I begged the Lord to help me present this doctrine clearly to all who were present. I know that many of them had come for all sorts of reasons—to have fun, pressure from parents, etc. But I came to them with the truth they needed to hear, that we can now be clothed in the righteousness of Christ because Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross.
