Original: September 5, 2007
McMinnville, OR
4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep… . 1 Samuel 30:4
6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God. 1 Samuel 30: 6
Reformer, Martin Luther used to pray two hours a day, but when he had a really difficult day ahead he prayed four hours! Oh, how different is that from a statement describing the modern Church from John Maxwell, “In Acts chapter two they prayed for ten days, Peter preached for ten minutes and 3,000 were saved. Today, churches pray for ten minutes, preach for thirty days and three get saved.”
Faith was much different than our fast food faith of today!
I woke up this morning to a “heads up” phone call from one of my leaders that a student will be calling me about an issue in his life. Today I have a big meeting with a mother about the choices her daughter is making (I think they are positive), which seem to be taking too much of her time away from school and family. I know today will be difficult so I was excited to get out of bed at 5:15 to kick off the day in prayer and reading the Scriptures.
As of editing this entry on May 16, 2011 I am rounding the corner on 22 years in youth ministry and I can honestly say that consistent mornings in prayer/silence and Bible reading/study are the catalysts that have kept me in the game.
I should not be here. Few youth pastors ever reach the twenty year marker. But here I am nonetheless.
I find tremendous strength in pursuing God before I begin my day. Like an offensive lineman guarding his quarterback I fight for my 5:00-7:00 in the morning spot. My quiet times have made all the difference in the world. Sometimes I wonder if a personal devotional life is the best kept secret in the church.
No, I know it is.
In the mid nineties I went on a quest to interview youth pastors. My goal was to discover whether I was doing youth ministry right or not. So I composed a set of questions meant to help me figure out if I was in the ball park when it came to how I did youth ministry. One of my twenty questions was simply, “Tell me about your personal devotional life.” Out of those twenty youth workers only one had a consistent time with the Lord, which was from 7:00-7:30 am! Thirty minutes and, yes, that was the best! And yes, that included Bible AND prayer!
I walked away with a new awareness of why youth pastor turnover is so embarrassingly high and why youth pastors are so disrespected in the local Church. One guy even confessed that he never had a personal quiet time though admitted that our goal as youth pastors is to encourage students to pursue Christ based on Matthew 6:33, Jeremiah 29:11-13 and others. If pursuing God is our goal then how can we ask others to be spiritual champions if spiritual leaders are spiritual wimps?
Will a man rely on the pastor to warm up the milk, put it in the bottle and let him nurse off of it forever? This word-picture makes me want to throw up in my mouth. Wait, didn’t Jesus say something like that, “So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). The man God should know the Word of God better than anyone else in his family-the pastor even more so.
Sadly, this is rarely the case.
David was in a humble situation. The people were upset, weak (4), and turned to David as their scapegoat. David was weary and in serious danger for his life as the “people spoke of stoning him” (6). With no where else to turn, he turned to God for strength.
And God came through, again. He always does. Always.
The Bible tells us that David “strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (6). How often do men turn to the Lord our God for their strength? A lot of men turn to the television when they are weakened by the troubles of life. Others turn to pornography, alcohol, or other forms of gluttony. Even more turn to hobbies and other forms of hedonism. A man, a godly man, is the man who consistently turns away from worldly things to his God for strength when weary.
Where did you turn this morning? Where will you turn tomorrow?
