Prayer is the Backbone of Ministry
You and I only have twenty-four hours in a day. No one has extra time. Unless you are King Hezekiah fighting Ahaz or Joshua coming to Gibeon’s defense. (Isaiah 38:8; Joshua 10:12-15) So, besides God’s divine intervention, we need to have some time management skills, or we are in trouble. When our time becomes overrun with busy life stuff or wasted in front of a screen, what is one of the first things that normally loses priority? Sadly, our time with God.
Now, why is this a problem? Because the ministry for the church we have been entrusted with belongs to the Lord. So, without devoting our precious time to prayer and having fellowship with God, we are flying blind. Jesus said of the offended Pharisees of his day, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” (Matthew 15:14). These are not the kind of servants we want to be. Blindly leading people into ruin.
Doing ministry our way, without talking to God about it first, will end in a disaster. The key to any spiritual success in the ministry is much prayer. It has been said, “The Church moves forward on Her knees.” Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, that the church as a whole and individual believers are to “Pray without ceasing.” Prayer is the backbone for personal and public ministry. C. H. Spurgeon said, “Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer can do.”
If we believe that the personal and public ministry we have been entrusted with belongs to the Lord, it only makes sense to talk to Him about it, right? I would hope so. Yet, we often work from a place of fleshly strength and ideas, not the Spirit. Why? It is our human nature to try to do things our way. The Psalmist writes, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7). So how do we avoid the potential disasters that come from ministry in the flesh? Manage your time well by prioritizing and guarding your daily prayer times. Simply putting your phone aside and listening to Jesus is a great place to start.