Quite Desperate

“How utterly dependent we are on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching! All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation. You wake up on Sunday morning and you can smell the smoke of hell on one side and feel the crisp breezes of heaven on the other. You go to your study and look down at your pitiful manuscript, and you kneel down and cry, ‘O God, this is so weak! Who do I think I am? What audacity to think that in three hours my words will be the odor of death to death and the fragrance of life to life (2 Cor. 2:16). My God, who is sufficient for these things?”

Phillips Brooks used to counsel young preachers with these words: ‘Never allow yourself to feel equal to your work . If you ever find that spirit growing on you, be afraid.’ And one reason to be afraid is because your Father will break you and humble you. Is there any reason to think that God should fit you for the ministry of preaching any differently than he d Paul (41-42)? “

“How utterly dependent we are on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching! All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation. You wake up on Sunday morning and you can smell the smoke of hell on one side and feel the crisp breezes of heaven on the other. You go to your study and look down at your pitiful manuscript, and you kneel down and cry, ‘O God, this is so weak! Who do I think I am? What audacity to think that in three hours my words will be the odor of death to death and the fragrance of life to life (2 Cor. 2:16). My God, who is sufficient for these things?”

Phillips Brooks used to counsel young preachers with these words: ‘Never allow yourself to feel equal to your work. If you ever find that spirit growing on you, be afraid.’ And one reason to be afraid is because your Father will break you and humble you. Is there any reason to think that God should fit you for the ministry of preaching any differently than he did Paul?”

- John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p41-42

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly, Dr Piper.