HOW PRAYER ENERGIZES PREACHING
Richard J. Foster
July 1, 1983
What is it about prayer that links it to preaching? Why would a person like Martin Luther set down as a spiritual axiom that "he who has prayed well has studied well"? Why would E. M. Bounds, the great Methodist preacher and pray-er of a century ago, say, "The character of our praying will determine the character of our preaching. Light praying makes light preaching. . . . Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still"?
In Touch with God
Prayer gets us in touch with God, causing us to swing like a needle to the pole star of the Spirit. It gives us focus, unity, purpose. We discover serenity, the unshakable firmness of life orientation. Prayer opens us to the subterranean sanctuary of the soul where we hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of the Lord. It puts fire into our words and compassion into our spirits. It fills our walk and talk with new life and light. We begin to live out the demands of our day perpetually bowed in worship and adoration.
People can sense this life of the Spirit, though they may not know what it is they feel. It affects the feeling tones of our preaching. People can discern that our preaching is not the performance of thirty minutes but the outlook of a life. Without such praying, our exegesis may be impeccable, our rhetoric may be magnetic, but we will be dry, empty, hollow.
We are told that when the Sanhedrin saw the bold preaching of Peter and John they perceived them to be men who had been with Jesus. Why? Because they had a Galilean accent? Perhaps. But more likely it was because they carried themselves with such a new spirit of life and authority that even their enemies sensed it. So it is for us. If we have it, people will know it; if we don't, no homiletic skills ...
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