While I add a lot of posts on this site that are somewhat technical in nature, the foundation of effective preaching has to be our personal walk with the Lord. As good stewards we must do everything we can to be the best that we can, but none of that can replace the fundamental reality of a close personal relationship. I appreciate this quote from Jonathan Edwards reflecting on his early years in ministry:

“I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplation. I was almost constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent.”

For many of us the danger of busy-ness and distraction is higher than it has ever been. Let’s be sure to turn off the mobile, the email, the internet, etc., and deliberately make time to think, to pray, to stir the burnings of our heart. Our listeners will benefit greatly, but that is secondary. First things first . . . you and God.