Mondays are sermon prep days, at least for me. Rarely is the day occupied with anything else.

When Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers”, was asked why his ministry was so effective, he responded, “My people pray for me.”

It is my hope that congregations everywhere pray consistently for their preachers. I have told my congregation which days of the week I devote to sermon preparation in hopes they offer supplication and intercession on my behalf (Eph. 6:19). Consider these words from Thomas Watson:

God’s Spirit must fill the sails of our ministry. It is not that scatters the seed which makes it spring up, but the dews and influences of heaven. So it is not our preaching, but the divine influence of the Spirit that makes grace grow in men’s hearts. We are but pipes and organs. It is God’s Spirit blowing in us that makes the preaching of the Word by a divine enchantment allure souls to Christ. Ministers are but stars to light you to Christ. The Spirit is the lodestone to draw you.

Oh, then pray for us, that God will make his work prosper in our hands. This may be one reason why the Word preached does not profit more, because people do not pray more. Perhaps you complain the tool is dull, the minister is dead and cold. You should have whetted and sharpened him by your prayer. If would have the door of a blessing opened to you through our ministry, you must unlock it through the key of prayer. (Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes, 23)

May our people be praying people and our preachers “prayed for” preachers.