I’ve been working on my homework, which means some more good quotes. This is from Floyd McClung and comes by way of the textbook for Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (we’ve offered the Perspectives course at NCC before, and need to do so again):
A young man in Bible school offered to help David Wilkerson years ago when he was ministering on the streets of New York City. Wilkerson asked him how much time he spent in prayer. The young student estimated about 20 minutes a day. Wilkerson told him, “Go back, young man. Go back for a month and pray two hours a day, every day for 30 days. When you’ve done that, come back. Come back, and I might consider turning you loose on the streets where there is murder, rape, violence and danger… If I sent you out now on 20 minutes a day, I’d be sending a soldier into battle without any weapons, and you would get killed.”
You can get into heaven, my friend, without a lot of prayer. You can have a one-minute quiet time every day and God will still love you. But you won’t hear a “well done, good and faithful servant” on one-minute conversations with God. And you certainly can’t make it on that kind of prayer life in the hard places where Jesus is not known or worshiped. Here’s a challenge for you: Read everything Paul says about prayer, then ask yourself, “Am I willing to pray like that?” Paul said that he prayed “night and day… with tears… without ceasing… with thankfulness… in the Spirit… constantly… boldly… for godly sorrow… against the evil one.”
Ryan, this stings– in a good way. Especially in this season where I’m adding more prayer, this is good reminder of what the standard is.
Lanre
February 8th, 2008
Lanre — Yeah, it was really convicting to me. Especially, “you won’t hear a ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ on one-minute conversations with God.” I struggle just to have a consistent quiet time (anybody want to offer a Remedial Quiet Time small group?) and am apt to forget how important it is to stay connected to God.
I feel like in some ways Christians recognize that we are all equally loved in the sight of God and stop there, forgetting that that does not necessarily mean we are all equally effective for God. The more connected to God we are, the more effective we can be in helping Him achieve His mission.
Ryan Z
February 9th, 2008