Most failures in the ministry are not due to a lack of activity or organizational ability, or even to a lack of visiting or study, but to a lack of prayer.
Of course, a minister will pray for himself, for he, like his people, is only a sinner saved by grace. But his prayers must reach beyond the immediate circle of his home and friends and personal needs. He must bear upon his heart the needs of his people. He is their intercessor, and like Aaron, must carry their names before the Lord.
When that ancient priest appeared in his official dress he wore as a memorial a breastplate of twelve stones over his heart and an ephod of two stones upon his shoulders. (Ex. 28:12, 29.) In these stones were graven the names of the children of Israel. As their representative he shared their hurts and heartaches, and carried their burdens and sorrows.
And even when, through their willful sin, a plague swept through the camp and they were dying by the hundreds and thousands, in the hour of desperate need this man of God rushed to the sanctuary, took fire from the altar, and ran through the camp, "and the plague was stayed." (Num. 16:46-48.) He stood between the living and the dead.
Not only in the hour of urgent need, however, must the shepherd's heart be moved to pray; he must pray continually. The fire on the altar of prayer must never go out, for only that which is accomplished by much prayer will endure the final test of God.
Prayer is power. When Jesus prayed, the heavens were opened. To pray like that is the greatest accomplishment on earth. Few attain to it because few will pay the price. Too many of us are content with surface piety. Our souls are not drawn out to God in importunate supplication.
The apostle Paul says, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks." I Tim. 2:1. If a candidate's call to the ministry were based on his ability to pray and intercede, as well as his aptitude to preach or to promote, we might then be giving a balanced emphasis. The prayers of the first Christian preachers moved buildings as well as hearts. Prayer had first place in their evangelistic program. Surely we today need to recapture that apostolic pattern.
R. A. A
