Teach me such obedience

Almighty God and gracious Father,

You have granted me another day. Thank You for the rest of last night and the beauty of this new day. Thank You for the house we live in, the security we enjoy and your providence in every way. We are blessed and privileged. Please accept my thanks in the Name of Christ.

You have spoken to me from your word this morning. The instruction of the Apostle to Timothy is your instruction to me as someone called to preach the Word and take care of the flock of the Lord Jesus.

The study of the paragraph brought home to me the enormity of the charge. I feel as if I can’t do the work. I look back on my ministry over years, I confess that I stand guilty before You. I beg for your forgiveness and ask that You will accomplish your will, even through my stumbling efforts. I plead the blood of Christ and the sanctifying work of your Spirit upon it. Hear my prayer, dear Father.

I accept by faith and experience that your Word is indeed holy. It is the lamp for my feet and the light for my path.

I thank You for those who taught me to love the Word. I thank You for your grace in many generations who preceded me who loved your Word, and for the faith in which my parents taught me so I could teach my children too. You are the God of your Covenant.

There were also relatives, many Sunday School teachers, many friends, and many ministers over many years. But most of all, it was your Spirit who illuminated my mind constantly to understand the message and the importance of the message.

Because I know the outcome of the lives of those who taught me the Word, I can continue in it.

The Word gives us insight and wisdom. I know it by experience because of the salvation in Jesus Christ. You want us to grow in knowledge and deeper understanding of your Word. Give me a deeper love for your Word, and help me to understand the beauty and splendor of your revealed will for my life.

When You instruct me from your Word, give me the grace to humbly put my life at your feet to bow before its authority because it is God-inspired. And because this is the case please open my eyes to its teaching. Build me up by teaching me.

When You find it necessary to rebuke me because of stubbornness and sin in my life, give me grace to understand that You mean the best for my spiritual growth to be holy before You. Your Word is like the two-edged sword which cuts deep into the marrow and wrists, dividing soul and spirit, exposing the dead wood and cutting out the festering sin which stifle growth. When You speak like that to us, it hurts. We have to make adjustments and have to leave behind things we might even enjoy doing. But it is good for our growing in You. Give me grace, Lord.

I pray that your Spirit will lead me to correcting my ways. Forgive me for doing my own thing and sometimes just want You to follow where I go. Help me to see the path as You walk ahead and correct me conduct to eventually end up with You in heaven.

My righteousness is not my own. It is the righteousness of my Lord and Saviour. I thank You for giving me that perfect righteousness. But to only confess it, to only know about it is just to beginning. Your Word is our instructor to train us in that righteousness. I need to understand how to apply it more and more in my life. It implies growing, more and more. Teach me, Father, the depths of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Form my mind and thoughts to determine the way I would think and talk and walk before You to the benefit of others.

Equip me therefore to do good work. So, in what I say and do, and even in the things I don’t say and do, your Name might be glorified, and others around me will benefit from. The good works You want me to do are things You have already worked out for me. Teach me obedience to your guidance so that I will never add to, or even go beyond, what You want me to do. I guess, Lord, want You want is the obedience of a child who fully trust his father and just what to please his father. This is my prayer this morning: teach me such obedience.

To receive the charge to be your minister is enormous and so responsible and wide that I shrink at the wideness of it. The solemnity of being called, being inducted and being charged by the most holy God who is Creator of the universe, and Father of my Saviour, is almost overwhelming. But isn’t it just what Paul wanted Timothy to know? He charged Timothy by oath: under God and under Christ who will judge the living and the dead. You are over all things. You triumph over time so that You have given life in the beginning has the right to take it once again when You have accomplished your purposes; but then You have the right to judge and call to account of how we lived our lives. And for this task You call your ministers. Your Kingdom will appear, You will open the books, You will demand from us how we discharged of our duties and stewardship of time, talents and otherwise.

You did not purpose for your Word to return to You void. Through the preaching and teaching of the Word You determined that people be prepared for eternity. Your Word will secure for You a harvest of saved people in Jesus Christ. Thank You Lord, that You know the number of your elect. There will not be one missing one the day of your return. I can rest in this thought. But it also charges me once again to with my full might and full diligence commit myself to the preaching and the teaching of it. To do this and to accomplish what You determined I cannot go on my own. I need to submit to your will and your leading. I need your empowerment. Please, Lord, grant me this prayer and save the lost through my preaching of your wonderful Word. I may only ask this if You will get the glory. So, strip me of conceitedness and pride, and make me like clay in your hands. Hear my prayer, Lord.

Need need you daily empowering to really keep going even when the times and opportunities to do so may look, according to my understanding, not the best. Give me faithfulness to do it in good and bad times. All times belong to You in any case.

As I am corrected by the Word, help me to correct with the Word. As You rebuke me, help me to with love and compassion rebuke others and not shrink at opposition. Teach me to always have a view of your purpose of rebuking: You want to teach your children that You want them to be holy; You don’t want to hurt for the sake of hurting people. You want them to understand that being disciplined is to be receiving the instruction of a father. If we were not legitimate children, we would not have received this grace. So, Lord, help me to represent You in your love and righteous and just love to rebuke when I need to do so.

Give me the grace also to encourage. What a ministry this is! To encourage presupposes love, understanding, a relationship, but also personal development to help others to another level of service. Help me to be an encourager of others. Use my prayers for them. Give me opportunities to do so through personal interest, maybe a book or just a visit. If we do not encourage one another, some might fall away like we read about it in Hebrews. Help me to be and encourager to other in Jesus Christ. Hear my prayer, Lord!

May my preaching be faithful and careful instruction of the Word to help stem the tide when people would rather love to hear what their itching ears would love to hear. May the Word of truth have a greater attraction for them to overcome the desire to drink from other fountains.

You prepared me today for hard times too. I thank You for the smooth ride thus far. I don’t particularly look for persecution, but You also declare in this part of the Scriptures that who want to be godly will be persecuted. Thank You for the example of Paul: he endured hardship, and he testifies that You helped him through it. So, Lord, when You want me to prepare for hardship, please give me the grace to endure, always trusting You. You are ever faithful; and what counts is not to just make it through this life, but to one day stand before You who will judge the living and the dead.

Empower me, Father, to do the work of an Evangelist and to complete fully the work of a minister called and charge with this responsibility. I humbly stand before You with nothing in my hands, but failures of the past. Forgive me Father! Make me a willing servant of the Most High. Accomplish your purposes through my ministry. I tremble at the sight of the responsibility. Give me grace, comfort me and help me. Hear my prayer, Lord Jesus; go ahead before me, Holy Spirit. Be glorified in me. For Your sake.
AMEN.