August 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"You all are partakers with me of grace" (Phil. 1:7).

Devotional

It is most true that all the members of the flock share in the grace bestowed by God upon a Christian pastor. They partake of that which belongs to him. They partake of all the grace with which he is enriched. They partake of all the gifts with which he is endowed. They partake of all the attainments with which he is furnished. They partake of all the afflictions with which he is visited. They partake of all the comforts with which he is soothed. They partake of all the strength with which he is upheld. They partake of all the distinction and renown with which he is adorned. These belong alike to the church over which God has made him an overseer.

There is a community of interest in the pastoral relation. He holds that grace and he exercises those gifts, not merely for the sake of his own personal holiness and happiness, but with a view to your holiness and happiness. You are partakers with him. You are enriched by his "fatness;" or you are impoverished by his "leanness." The degree of his grace will be the measure of your own. The amount of his intelligence will be the extent of yours. As he is taught and blest of Christ, so too will you be. The glory which he gathers in communion with God will shine on you. The grace which he draws from Jesus will sanctify you. The wealth which he collects from his study of God's Word will enrich you.

Thus, in all things you are "partakers with [him] of grace." How important it is, then, that on all occasions he should be a partaker of your prayers! Thus your own best interests are his strongest plea for your prayers. Your profit by him will be proportional to your prayer for him.

Much of the barrenness complained of in hearing the Word may be traced to the neglect of this important duty. You may be prone to leave God's house sitting in judgment upon either the substance or the style of the preacher, dissecting the sermon in a spirit of fault-finding criticism, quibbling at the doctrine, and bitterly complaining of the unprofitableness of the preaching. With all tender faithfulness we would lay this question upon your conscience, "How much do you pray for your minister?" Here, in all probability, lies the secret of the great evil which you deplore.

You have complained of your minister to others (alas! how often and how bitterly, to your deep humiliation may it be spoken). Have you complained of him to the Lord?

Have you never seriously reflected how closely the deficiency in the pulpit, of which you complain, may be allied to your own deficiency in the closet, of which you have been blissfully unaware?

You have restrained prayer in behalf of your pastor. You have neglected to remember in especial, fervent intercession with the Lord, the instrument on whom your advancement in the divine life so much depends. You have looked up to him as a channel of grace, but you have failed to ask at the hands of Jesus that grace of which he is only the channel. You have waited upon his ministry for instruction and comfort, but you have neglected to beseech for him that teaching and anointing by which alone he could possibly establish you in truth, or console you in sorrow.

Perhaps you have been aware of a poverty of thought or lack of power in his ministry; but you have not traced it at all to your own poverty and lack in the spirit and habit of prayer in his behalf. You have marveled at, and lamented, the absence of sympathy, feeling, and tenderness in his performance of his pastoral duties, but you have forgotten to sympathize with the high responsibilities, oppressive anxieties, and bewildering engagements inseparable from the office which your pastor fills, and in which he may largely share, often "so utterly burdened beyond [his] strength that [he] despaired of life itself" (2 Cor. 1:8].

Thus to a great degree the cause of an unprofitable hearing of the Word may be found much closer to home than was suspected. You have suspended prayer and sympathy on your part, and God has permitted a suspension of power and sympathy on his.

Speed thy servants, Savior, speed them;
thou art Lord of winds and waves;
they were bound, but thou hast freed them;
now they go to free the slaves:
be thou with them,
'tis thine arm alone that saves.

(Thomas Kelly, 1820)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.