You may have seen reports of the murders of three people associated with the U.S. Consulate in Juárez, Mexico, earlier this month. Sadly, these are among the latest of thousands of murders in the city of Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico as the country battles drug traffickers. The weekend of the Consulate shootings, 28 other people were murdered in Juárez alone. Stunning doesn’t quite capture it; it’s devastating, a social shock to the people of Juárez.

We recently received some updates and prayer requests from Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Cd. Juárez, the Sovereign Grace church in that city, and wanted to pass them along to you. Will you join us in praying for believers in Juárez?

First, some more specifics. As Mexico’s war on the drug cartels continues, the city of Juárez is embroiled in violence. On average, at least seven people have been murdered every day since 2009, including more than 500 murders since January. The violence is not limited to those involved in drug trafficking—innocent bystanders, including children, are among those killed. In addition, the city is facing a crime wave in which anyone can be a target of kidnapping, armed robbery, and extortion.

This ongoing social catastrophe has far-reaching effects. About 5,000 businesses have closed, and some estimate that as much as 15–20% of the city’s population has left. Those who remain face the daily threat of ruthless violence.

Carlos Contreras is senior pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Cd. Juárez (Sovereign Grace Church of Juárez). For more than 20 years this church has been a faithful gospel witness in their city. They have trained a number of pastors and leaders and in 2006 planted another church in Aquascalientes, Mexico. And they’re continuing to preach the gospel faithfully in spite of the trials they’re facing.

After describing the violence in Juárez Carlos writes,

But there is good news also. The church in the city remains strong and has apparently become the only remaining source of hope for many people. We all pray and we pray a lot, and we pray boldly and we pray publicly for God to intervene in a miraculous way to change things and to do justice. But mostly we pray for revival and for the salvation of thousands.

Under the leadership of their pastoral team, Iglesia Gracia Soberana is taking the gospel to the streets. The most recent session of their Alpha class (an introductory class on the gospel) graduated 63 students, more than they’d ever had. The church is airing evangelistic programs on local TV. Earlier this month, 150 church members went to two busy intersections, handed out about 800 evangelistic tracts and about 200 New Testaments, and prayed for about 300 people. On Saturday they hit the streets again, handing out 6,000 invitations to church, 300 copies of the Gospel of John, and 200 New Testaments—and praying for 1,300 people.

Here’s a slideshow of their outreaches: 

My friends, this is authentic Christianity.

Carlos’s email continues,

What is most encouraging to me is to see our dear church steadfast in Christ while enduring faithfully in the midst of all this. Christ is certainly our solid rock, there is nothing more to trust in. Scripture has been our guiding light in the midst of great darkness and our fellowship is a constant source of joy and encouragement….My main job is to serve them by almost daily having the privilege of pointing their eyes to Christ and away from the despair surrounding us.

So here’s our appeal: Will you join us in praying for our brothers and sisters in Juárez? Please pray…

• that God would grant wisdom and strength to Carlos Contreras and other pastors in Juárez

• that God would give sustaining grace to Iglesia Gracia Soberana and the other churches in this city

• that the gospel would be clearly preached and many would put their faith in Christ for forgiveness of sins

• that peace and justice would be restored to Juárez

Thank you for joining us in prayer.

For more about the Sovereign Grace churches in Juárez and Aguascalientes (as well as in Bolivia), see this 35-minute film produced in 2007.

If you’d like to support Sovereign Grace Ministries’ work outside the U.S., you can make a designated gift by clicking here.

As the typical day unfolds, the unexpected expectedly happens. With one eye on the clock and another on our schedule, we can often watch our planning derail throughout the day. And as I realize my plans for the day will not be flawlessly executed, my soul has a tendency to be weighed down by accumulating cares. But rather than humbling myself as I should, I find myself vulnerable to self-sufficiency, at risk of relying upon my limited strength and wisdom. This is pride.

If we are not watchful, our burdens will subtly accumulate over time, and will gradually weigh down our soul. But it doesn’t need to be this way. There is a biblical alternative.

Casting Pride and Casting Cares

Scripture calls us to cast all our anxieties on God, because he cares for us.

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6–7, ESV)

Casting all my cares upon the Lord is a means of humbling myself before the Lord. In reading these passages we discover that casting our cares upon the Lord falls under the command to humble ourselves. Casting our cares is an expression of humility. When I fail to cast my cares upon him, I display prideful self-sufficiency.

A Few Words of Prayer

As I make my way from meeting to meeting, decision to decision, and phone call to phone call, I find the counsel of Charles Spurgeon very helpful. “I always feel it well,” he wrote, “to put a few words of prayer between everything I do.” Throughout his busy days, Spurgeon scattered words of prayer between each activity, a model I have sought to emulate over the years.

The content of my “few words of prayer” is not unique and if you overheard them, you wouldn’t be impressed. I am a simple man and when I think of casting all my cares it is a simple acknowledgement of my dependence upon God and my need of grace throughout the day.

But the very act of pausing in a busy day to pray is an act of weakening pride in my life, acknowledging that I am a dependent creature. I am not self-sufficient.

And taking a brief moment to humble myself in prayer makes all the difference in my soul throughout the day.

At its root, weariness is often the result of pride and self-sufficiency in my life. When I neglect casting my cares upon the Lord, the heavy fatigue of weariness will settle into my soul.

Casting our cares upon the Lord and humbling ourselves before him are critical activities, regardless of how busy we are. And this practice cannot be replaced by hours of careful planning and scheduling.

How about you? Do you follow the practice of Spurgeon and “put a few words of prayer” between everything you do throughout each day? Are you casting cares or accumulating burdens? Are you humbling yourself before the Lord or displaying self-sufficiency?

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Biblical Productivity: This post is likely the final in C.J.’s series. For a complete index of the series posts click here. A printable PDF of the entire series is forthcoming.
 

Welcome to the second part of my interview with biblical counselor and author Dr. David Powlison (part one here).

David, apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?

Two books are nearly as marked up as my Bible: Valley of Vision and Luther’s Prayers. I don’t read them straight through, but I frequently return to them, dipping in here and there, returning to favorite places. Why? They freshly express how faith lives, thinks, feels, talks. They struggle, they delight, they need God, they see God.

I extensively annotate, add, reword, update, personalize VoV prayers to make them my own. For example, simply turning “thee/thou” into “You” makes a prayer sing more pointedly and personally. I find that I often add two strands to VoV prayers:

[1] a brighter note of joy, gratitude and meditation on the mercies of Christ (so the prayers don’t turn introspective regarding a sense of sinfulness);

[2] a more candid awareness of and expression of our experience of sufferings (so the prayers don’t turn stoic, as if spirituality rises “above” our life situation). To my ears, the Puritans can have a slight drift towards sin-centricity and stoicism, somewhat slipping from the grace-centricity and humanity of Scripture. But that said, these prayers are a gold mine of living wisdom.

Luther’s way of engaging God and Scripture has deeply shaped me. He takes Scripture (and the Creeds) and puts it to work in a “four-stranded wreath”:

[1] as a textbook, revealing God and His will, wisdom and work;

[2] as a hymnbook, giving reasons that call forth gratitude and joy;

[3] as a book of confession, teaching me where to repent, where I need forgiveness, mercy, and awakening;

[4] as a prayerbook, guiding intercession into rich paths, rather than the “list” mentality that can make prayer so dull and man-centered.

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

For many years I used the EndNote bibliography program to track what I read. I’d make summaries, take notes, and write out key quotations. I’ve not been as diligent with it in recent years, as I’ve tended to re-read choice books more often than read new books. I mark up books extensively with highlighting and marginal notes, and I write notes in the front pages that direct me to the page numbers of significant quotes and discussions.

If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?

I can’t decide on only one! But I can settle on two: Augustine and Calvin. These men lived, breathed, prayed, thought, felt, and communicated so very well all that they understood of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Both men were mastered by the Psalms, and so their humanity and their ministries flourished in the ways of God.

What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?

Live your message for a day, a week, a month, a lifetime. Then aim low, and you’re sure to hit something.

What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?

I don’t preach very often, but THE influence has been the model of how Scripture brings truth to bear. The Lord and His prophets and apostles always speak TO human beings and what they were facing, and they always speak personally, rather than speaking ABOUT topics and speaking impersonally. Jay Adams calls such I-you directness and relevance in communicating God’s truth “the preacher’s stance.” The Bible is not just “normative” truth about God, but enters into the “situational” realities and “existential” choices of the people to whom God speaks. (That way of putting it comes from John Frame.) Ministry must do the same, afresh, entering people’s experience of troubles (external) and struggles (internal).

Please join me next time for part three of my interview with David.
 

Meet Jerry Bridges.

Jerry Bridges is 79 years old and has served faithfully on staff at The Navigators for over 50 years. And he continues to serve there within the Collegiate Mission where he is involved primarily in staff development, and speaks at various student events. Mr. Bridges also teaches on the gospel around the country.

Mr. Bridges is the author of numerous excellent cross-centered books like:

• The Discipline of Grace
• The Gospel for Real Life
• The Pursuit of Holiness
• Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate
• The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness
• The Bookends of the Christian Life (March 2009)
  

But you probably know all this already.

So who is Jerry Bridges? What is he presently reading? How does he structure his devotional time? What is his favorite book on the gospel? Let’s find out.

Thanks for your time, Mr. Bridges! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?

On a normal day, I get up at 5:00 a.m.

I spend from 5:30 – 7:00 a.m. reading and meditating on Scripture and spending time in prayer. I begin with what I have tried to teach others to do, which is to preach the Gospel to myself. My usual practice is to read through the Bible simply starting with Genesis and going through Revelation.

I am currently in the book of Numbers. For my prayer time, I start with thanksgiving and move to petition. I always start with the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed be Thy name.” Over a six-day period (Monday-Saturday), I pray for the progress of the Gospel around the world. I pray for my family, my organization and their leaders, and my own personal growth. I have about eight ongoing special prayer requests for friends who have acute needs.

What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?

(a) The Existence and Attributes of God by the Puritan, Stephen Charnock. I’m actually not reading the entire two-volume set but am focusing on two chapters, “The Holiness of God” and “The Goodness of God.”

(b) For my ministry (not pastoral but The Navigators) I have just finished reading Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck because I need to keep up with all the “bad stuff” that students are apt to read.

(c) For personal enjoyment, I have been reading John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology. I have to confess when I’m really mentally tired I read a murder mystery by Agatha Christie.

Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?

The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement by George Smeaton because it is the best book on the Gospel that I have ever read.

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

I don’t have a very good system but I note page numbers on the inside cover of the book with the key thought I want to go back to.

If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?

John Calvin, hands down, because he not only was a brilliant theologian but had a heart of devotion for God.

What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?

Years ago I took the Dale Carnegie public speaking course. In it I learned three things that I try to practice: 1) Know your subject thoroughly. 2) Be convinced your audience needs to hear your message. 3) Have a strong passion to deliver the message. Though these principles were applied in the context of secular speeches, I found them very helpful for my message preparation and delivery.

What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?

Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell, particularly chapters 10 and 11, and John Stott’s Between Two Worlds.

What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?

Arrange your “do list” in order of priority and work progressively through, starting with number one. You can’t get them all done but this way you get the most important things done. I have modified this advice by realizing that the morning hours from breakfast to noon are my most effective, creative hours, and as much as possible I dedicate those hours to study, writing and message preparation.

What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?

This question is not applicable to me since I have not been leading or managing anyone for about 15 years.

Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?

Too often, after preaching a message, I feel like I have not done a good job.

Do you exercise? If so, what do you do? If not, why not?

My main exercise is walking either outdoors or on the treadmill. I had a practice of minor weight lifting (no more than 25 lbs) but that practice got dropped in the busyness of life and I am trying to re-start it.

Currently, what sport do you like to play and/or watch?

I don’t play any sport at my age and seldom watch any on television. However, my main sport of interest is football and my favorite teams in order are: University of Oklahoma (I’m an alumnus), the Air Force Academy and the Denver Broncos.

What do you do for leisure?

Read something that is outside of my ministry. I like history, biographies and older (19th or early 20th century) novels.

If you were not in ministry, what occupational path would you have chosen?

Teaching.

Thank you, Mr. Bridges, for taking the time to answer my questions!

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Related: Last November, C.J. interviewed Mr. Bridges in the Sovereign Grace recording studio on the topic of cross-centered living (with some sports talk at the end). The interview can be found here.

Over the years many pastors, leaders, and authors who have influenced my life have also become my friends. I marvel at and am humbled by this fact. And while I am always eager to promote these men and draw attention to their writings and teachings, too often these friends are known primarily for their public ministry.
 
I know from personal experience that these men have much to teach us from their private lives. So on this blog I want to occasionally interview these men, ask them questions to draw out their personal example, and introduce you to a private side of them you possibly have not seen.
 
Here we go.

Wayne Grudem

Meet Wayne Grudem. Dr. Grudem is smart—B.A. from Harvard, M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from Cambridge, smart.
 
Dr. Grudem is the author of a number of excellent books including Systematic Theology and a simplified systematic theology for guys like me (Bible Doctrine).
 
He is the cofounder of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and coeditor (with John Piper) of one of the most important books I know of: Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
 
Dr. Grudem is now the Research Professor of Bible and Theology at Phoenix Seminary, having previously taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for 20 years.
 
But you may already know all this.
 
So who is Wayne Grudem? What does he read for fun? What discourages him? How does he structure his devotional time? What correction from others has most benefited him? What career path would he have chosen if not ministry?
 
Dr. Grudem was kind enough to entertain my curiosity. I divided the interview to run over the next four days (Tuesday–Friday).

Thanks for your time, Dr. Grudem! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?

I usually wake up about 6:00 a.m., but sometimes as late as 7:00 or 7:30 (if I’ve been up late the night before—I need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep or I don’t think as clearly). I get a cup of tea and one of Margaret’s excellent high-protein muffins and open my Bible.

I simply read sequentially through the Bible and then start over at the beginning (I’m currently in 1 Corinthians and Psalms, reading two portions each morning). I will read the Bible for 15 or 20 minutes, underlining some verse, or making some very brief notes. Many times I will wonder about something in the Greek or Hebrew text and check it briefly, but I don’t get involved in extensive exegesis because that is not my purpose at that time. I’m looking for God to teach me directly from his Word, with application to my life.

Usually I just “camp” on a phrase or verse, sometimes writing it out and pondering application to my own life. I also keep a blank notepad beside me because God often brings to my mind things that I need to do and I make a quick note.

Then I will usually pause for five or ten minutes just waiting in the Lord’s presence and thinking about the verse or talking to him about it. After that, I pick up a notebook with different pages for people and things that I am praying for—some pages about various things in my own life, then my wife Margaret, then our children and their families, then my parents and other members of my extended family, and then other friends and people in different organizations such as our church or Phoenix Seminary where I teach.

There’s also a section having to do with our government and concerns of our nation and world. That will take 15 or 20 minutes, and sometimes longer, so the total time may be between 30 and 60 minutes.

At the end of the time I will usually bring before the Lord my “to do” list, and pray about various items on the list, asking the Lord to help me know what to make a top priority today, and asking his blessing on the things that I plan to do. Often at the end I also have another time of maybe two or three minutes or maybe five or ten minutes just resting in the Lord’s presence and waiting on him.

I find in those times of quietness, when I’m not praying about anything in particular but simply resting in the Lord’s presence, that he will bring to mind solutions for problems, or people I need to contact, or things I need to write, or things I should not spend time doing, or any of a number of other things. I also find that over the course of the entire Bible reading and prayer time a deeper sense of peace and rest in the Lord’s presence comes on my heart.

What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?

For my soul: Only the Bible at the present time, no other Christian books. But I recently finished your book Worldliness and was challenged and rebuked by it!

For pastoral ministry: I’m not in pastoral ministry, but for professional ministry I’m just finishing Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. This is an attempt (unpersuasive I think) to show that geography and local types of plants and animals determined why some nations became rich and some did not. It’s all materialistic determinism and, in the end, terribly dehumanizing because it gives no importance to the real factors, human choices and human cultural values, and whether those choices and values were obedient to the truths established by the one true God.

For personal enjoyment: I just finished a new Vince Flynn novel, Extreme Measures. I think I have read all of his books and I enjoyed them a lot (the terrorists are the bad guys and the Americans are the good guys, and the Americans win in the end). But I liked this last one the least because it was so inconclusive at the end. I’ve also enjoyed a number of spy novels by Daniel Silva within the last year (the hero is an Israeli Mossad agent). These are “escape” novels that give my brain a change of pace.

Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?

Probably The Hidden Life of Prayer by David MacIntyre, because it encourages my faith to read of Christians in the past who have had such a significant effect on advancing God’s kingdom through their ministries of prayer.

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

I underline and write notes in the margin as I go through the book and often write some key thoughts or summary points on the title page as well. Then I shelve it in the right place in my home library!

Join me tomorrow for the second part of my interview with Dr. Grudem.
 

 

At a number of conferences, I have had the privilege and joy of sitting in the front row to hear my friend John Piper speak. And a few times I have been assigned to speak after him. It’s never my preference to speak after John. Preaching after John is always a humbling experience.

As you know, I cannot preach like John Piper. But what I have discovered over time is that great preachers like John, Charles Spurgeon, and Jonathan Edwards do model practices all preachers can emulate and benefit from.

At the Together for the Gospel conference, I had the privilege to participate with Mark, Al, and Lig in interviewing John. During the panel discussion, John provided us with a glimpse into how he prepares his sermons, and how he prepares his heart as he prepares his sermons.

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C.J. Mahaney: Most of these guys are already in the process of preparing a sermon for this Sunday. If they were to meet with you for lunch, how would you counsel them about both the preparation process and the preaching event?

John Piper: The most important thing I want to say in answer to that question is this: There isn’t any technique to preaching. It is not a technique. It is not a profession that you go to a homiletics class to learn how to do.

God is doing sermon preparation when your throat is blazing with yellow pustules and you have a fever and you feel like quitting. He is doing sermon preparation there. Don’t begrudge the seminary of suffering. Don’t begrudge the marriage difficulties. Don’t begrudge the parental stuff that is so hard. He is making you a preacher. He is making you a pastor.

So the main preparation work is walking with him through it all, and going deep with him, and being there and not running away from it into endless food or television. That would be a—very practical thing to do would be to get rid of your television so that you have some time, family time and reading time and reflection time, and basically keep your mind free from pornography.

We were talking about this pornography thing over lunch the other day, and we who are 60 years old were reflecting on how difficult it was to get pornography when we were teenagers. The implication of that is that in my brain I have two pornographic images from my teen years. I found a Playboy in a Laundromat, and they were passing a really weird book around in the locker room one day. I remember both images like I saw them yesterday. Most of you have a thousand images in your brain. That really makes sermon preparation hard, but not impossible. He died to purify our conscience, although you make your job a lot harder if you keep going to that cesspool.

…Keep your minds from being contaminated, because the preparation moment is a heart/mind thing in which every three minutes you are crying out to the Lord as you are reading your text in Greek or Hebrew or English. You are reading it and you are saying, “God, please. I have got to have a word. I have got to have a word for my people. Let me see what is really here.” That is a prayer for the mind part. My points must be here in the text. I can’t make this up. My people have to see it. I have to see it. I don’t want to pull rank on these folks by quoting Greek—and they say, “I don’t see that,” and I say, “Well, believe me it is there.” I don’t want to do that. I want them to see what is really there, so I need to see what is really there. So I am pleading with the Lord, “Show me what is there.”

And then I am pleading just as strong, “Help me to feel what is there. If it is a horrible thing, help me to feel horrible. If it is a beautiful thing, help me to feel thrilled over its beauty. Bring this dead heart into some kind of conformity—moral, affectual conformity to what is really there.”

Those are my two kinds of prayers, light and heat. If you try to work it up without the Holy Spirit giving it, people will know. They will know. Your people will know sooner or later. “I don’t think that was a real affection. That was planned.”

So there are a thousand details I could say about the preparation moment as far as poking at the text, but the preaching moment is the same. You plead with the Lord.

I do APTAT, before I stand up.

A—I admit, O Lord, that I can do nothing of any lasting value.

P—I pray for self forgetfulness, for fullness of the Holy Spirit, for love, for humility, for passion, for zeal, for prophetic utterance that may come to my mind while I am preaching so that I can say things that I hadn’t prepared that might penetrate where nothing else would.

T—I trust a particular promise from the Lord that I have found in my devotions early in the morning. So today I read Deborah’s song in Judges 5 as well as Psalm 84 between 6:30 and 7:00 this morning, and pointed out a verse to Mark as we were sitting there. “Oh my soul, ride on in strength.” That was my word this morning.

The Lord gave a word from his Word this morning: “Ride on in strength.” So I take that. That’s my T: trust. So as I am walking up, I am saying, “This is your work. It has come. Don’t leave me here. You have got to do something here. I am counting on you.”

And he is saying, “I got this under control.” He is God.

A—Then you act. You have got to do it. It is your hands that are moving. It is your voice that is moving. You have got to do this. Walking by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, bearing the fruits of the Spirit is a mystery. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10, ESV). That is the mystery. So sermon preparation is: You put out when you are preparing and when you are preaching. You put out, but if you have prayed and done APTAT and God is merciful, you won’t be putting out. He will be putting out.

T—Thank God. And when you have acted and you go sit down, you thank him. He is going to do, and is doing what he is going to do, and he regularly does more than you think he does.

I don’t think after 28 years of preaching that I can correlate with any degree of confidence my sense of effectiveness in the moment and the true effectiveness of the moment. I don’t know any keys to know how to correlate those two. This keeps me from being too excited or too depressed.

The Lord will be sure to put me in my place if I do the one and lift me up if I do the other, because he said, “I am working out there in ways you can’t make happen at all. You thought that was a good thing to say? That wasn’t it. You missed it. That wasn’t what did it. This thing over here that you didn’t even know I gave you did it, and you will find out in heaven that that happened.”

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Listen to the T4G panel discussion here.

 

 

The Sovereign Grace Leadership Interviews feature a roundtable discussion among C.J. Mahaney (president of Sovereign Grace Ministries), Jeff Purswell (dean of our Pastors College), and Joshua Harris (senior pastor of Covenant Life Church). The three gather on a regular basis to discuss a wide array of theological and practical leadership issues.

In the second episode, the topic turns to care for the pastor’s own soul. Harris’ opening question sets the stage:

Pastors are obviously called to care for the souls of others, and yet today we want to turn the focus and ask: How does a pastor make sure that he is caring for his own soul? What does it look like for a man to pursue his own personal relationship with God and make sure he is growing spiritually?

The full hourlong podcast, “The Pastor and His Soul,” can be downloaded here.

In this second excerpt from the upcoming Sovereign Grace Leadership Interview podcast, “The Pastor and His Soul,” C.J. highlights counsel from C.H. Spurgeon and how it’s helped him cast his burdens upon the Lord. And C.J. warns of the weariness of soul that results when we seek to carry these burdens ourselves.

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C.J. Mahaney: We must be prepared for the experience of weariness of soul, particularly when one is involved in pastoral ministry, because each day we are carrying in our hearts those entrusted to our care.

A certain percentage of those individuals are experiencing the gift and test of prosperity. And when we interact with them, we rejoice with them as we hear how God is blessing and providing for them.

But there will always be a certain percentage of the congregation who are experiencing the test of adversity and who are suffering. And it is our privilege, our role, and our responsibility to care for them.

There will always be a certain percentage in the congregation who are fighting particular besetting sins, and it doesn’t appear to us they are making consistent progress. And though we are deploying the best information we have on biblical counseling, it doesn’t appear that progress is being made.

And, of course, there are each week unexpected incidents of suffering and death. One cannot be interacting with individuals in the various seasons of life, walking through severe suffering over a lengthy period of time, and remain unaffected by what they are experiencing. We are affected, and if we do not pay attention to our own souls, after a period of time, we will become weary if we do not regularly at the outset of the day keep watch over our souls. And then, throughout the day, we must pay attention to our souls and be casting our cares upon the Lord.

I came across a quote by Mr. Spurgeon recently where he said, “I always feel it well just to put in a few words of prayer between everything I do.” That is seriously helpful counsel, because too often I don’t put in just a few words of prayer. I move from one meeting to the next meeting, and cares are accumulating in my soul because I am not stopping at a certain point to “put in a few words of prayer.”

I don’t necessarily need, nor do I have, an extended period of time to pray during the day. But that moment of dependence upon God, trusting in God, casting a care upon God, can make all the difference in the maintenance of my soul. And I have always found it so helpful and so encouraging and so relevant that in the context of addressing elders, Peter exhorts us to be “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 ESV).

It would appear that as Peter thinks of exhorting the elders and caring for the elders, he intentionally and strategically places this passage there, knowing this is our daily temptation.

So that’s how I seek to monitor my heart, not only with the consistent practice of spiritual disciplines at the beginning of the day, but also this attention to my soul throughout the day, so that I am not eventually overwhelmed by the cares present every day.…

I think if you overheard me pray, you wouldn’t be impressed with the content of my prayers (and maybe that can be an encouragement to all who are listening). My prayers are simple because I am simple. When I think of casting all my cares, it is a simple acknowledgement that I am dependent upon God. At the conclusion of pastoral interactions, I must acknowledge that at best I can be a means of grace. They need the God of all grace, and I am insufficient in myself to care for them and provide for them the grace they need. Therefore I must humble myself and acknowledge my dependence upon God.

And I think that very act of pausing to pray is an act of weakening pride in my life, acknowledging that I am a dependent creature, I am not self-sufficient.

But if I understand faith, it is not simply or solely acknowledging my dependence. It also involves actively trusting the God revealed in this passage, who does indeed care for them and has demonstrated that care, ultimately, by crushing his Son on Calvary for them.

Therefore, I trust you, Lord, for this individual, and I trust to you my care for this individual. I trust your sovereignty. I trust your goodness. I trust your wisdom to intervene and to provide.

Those words would form the content of my prayer, which I hope express a certain sincerity and, I trust, certain humility in prayer that makes all the difference in my soul. And I am aware that when I neglect that practice, weariness eventually sets in to my soul, a weariness rooted in pride and self-sufficiency.

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The full hourlong podcast, “The Pastor and His Soul,” will be available for download this Tuesday (iTunes).