A few weeks ago Independence day in Saint Vincent came during my church-history class. So I had the day off from teaching!
There was a lot of ministry that needed to be accomplished during that day off….
but instead, I stayed home
Other than thirty minutes that afternoon I didn’t walk out of my gate for the entire day! Time was spent on sermon prep, reading, prayer, and working on class notes. In other words, the day was filled with mental work. This is actually strange since teaching itself is very straining mentally. It would be better to give my brain a break!
This is actually the normal response because a day off is usually spent catching up with friends, and clearing my head so to speak (teaching tires out my mind).
So why spend Thursday studying?
Because my fire was burning low.
I will get into this a little bit more in a few days when writing about David Brainerd. But reading through a biography on his life deeply challenged me about the amount of time that I spend in private devotion with God using things like Scripture, fasting, prayer, and bible memorization. Though Brainerd had an active ministry, he spent hours each day in private time with the Lord, and longed for those experiences.
Within each of us, there should be a fiery desire to know the Lord and spend time with Him. Sadly that blazing inferno can die down to a small flame if we aren’t careful. The only way to keep the fire going is extended time with the Lord.
As the church history class continued I was doing well, and we were covering the notes.
But something was missing….
I had no passion!
In the busyness of everything I didn’t have extended time to spend with the Lord. And it revealed itself in teaching that wasn’t passionate or “spirit filled.” So Thursday was spent with Scripture through different projects (sermon prep, notes, bible reading) and allowing the Lord to rekindle my flame.
Life has ways of causing our flame to get smaller and smaller until it is in danger of being snuffed out! So we must place time with the Lord on the same level as activity.
Thursday wasn’t a time of great revival. It was just a time of comfort and fellowship wiht the Lord. A time when He could encourage and strengthen my heart before I went back out to war.
Johnhwilburn.org 