Acts 6:4

Just following up on Monday’s post on prayer . . . I appreciate the next chapter in Piper’s Brothers We Are Not Professionals – Beware of Sacred Substitutes. What is the greatest threat to genuine prayer and true meditation on the Word? It is ministry activity. “Ministry is its own worst enemy.” (p59)

How true this is! Turning to Acts 6:2-4, Piper exhorts the reader to guard against the many sacred substitutes, the real needs, the pressing concerns of ministry. “Without extended, concentrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers.” (p60)

Consider what must be sacrificed in order to take genuinely focused time in prayer this week. Don’t leave prayer until your message is prepared. Don’t leave prayer until the unplanned needs are addressed. Don’t leave prayer until your next day off. Don’t even leave prayer until it can be used to “redeem the time” in the car journey between appointments.

There are many sacred substitutes that come our way. Even apart from the flesh, laziness, entertainment, and the enemy himself. Just in the good and the right and the needy and the appropriate – there are many substitutes that will steal us away from the real priority. “Without extended, concentrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers.”

Today is a great day in America. I’m not referring to the election (every other blog on earth is writing about that, but I’ll keep my views in my prayers). I’m referring to the 90th birthday of Billy Graham. What a man of God he is!

I heard him live on two occasions in England when I was just eight. Five years later they had the follow-up “crusade” with live satellite links around the country. I remember sitting there as a whole family in our church party responded to the call and went forward. In my short life I’ve seen leaders fall into disrepute, but not Billy Graham. I have heard the criticisms coming from some quarters, but I have also enjoyed the benefit of being influenced by people saved under Billy Graham’s preaching.

His eyesight is failing, his hearing too, his body is growing weak, but he claims that although the body grows weaker, the spirit doesn’t have to as well. He is writing another book. He is still a man of prayer. Perhaps in Billy Graham we see a great example of a man of God who has lived out an Acts 6:4 life – prioritizing prayer and the Word. As his spokesman Larry Ross said, “The lion still has a roar!”

Let’s praise God for the privilege we have of seeing Billy Graham press on to the finish line. Let’s pray that we will each be as faithful, as humble, and as prayerful as Billy Graham. We may not preach the gospel live to 215million people, but let us give everything we can in the ministry God gives to us and try to finish as well as Billy Graham.