“Oy!!! How Did I Get Here”: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry

By Eric D. Tokajer

Thirty-one real life lessons for anyone involved in ministry or thinking about entering the ministry

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989490115

Book preview

effort.

THERE IS NO POWER

WITHOUT THE POWER

One of the most important tools available to a leader is prayer. However, I have found that many times a leader fails to set aside time to pray and then ends up limited in prayer time by the activities in his life.

Those who need to be praying the most tend to get caught in a trap of praying the least. Our ministry opportunities, which can only be accomplished through prayer, become a catalyst for action. We jump to our feet and head out our door to confront whatever beast is attacking our family, congregants or ministries; and we end up heading out to battle without our weapons and with little or no preparation to fight. It is no wonder we end up defeated, discouraged and disillusioned. Ministry without prayer is very much like a car without gas. It may look great, but there can be no power. It will not go anywhere.

Over the years, I have tried many different methods of praying. As a young believer, I was convinced that the longer I prayed the more effective my prayer life would be. So, I would try to pray extended periods of time each day. These prayer sessions would invariably follow this pattern. First, the excitement of effective prayer followed by a short time of prayer, and a longer time trying to think of things to pray about. After I prayed for those things which were truly on my heart, the rest of the time was consumed with what I can only describe as filler. I wanted to pray for a set time so I did. I found that God answered my prayers because He knew I was sincere, but this didn’t mean that I was praying effectively for the whole hour.

I found that most of the time after the pressing issues of the day were prayed, my mind would begin to drift. Even though I was calling out prayers to God, I would catch myself thinking about other things.

After coming to the conclusion that prayer, like most things, is not as much about quantity as it was quality. I changed my method. I began to pray for those things which were strongest on my heart or in immediate need. I would speak to God as I would speak to someone in authority over me, with simple straightforward words and request. I would pray fervently, but I would not extend prayer for the sake of extending prayer. I found by doing this, I had much more effective prayer time. Moreover, I found that the length of my prayer time grew naturally as I found that there were many pressing things that were important for me to pray about every day. I also found that making time first thing in the morning to pray and get my heart in order allowed me to focus more on the reality of God working things out rather than figuring things out myself.

Once I came to the conclusion that the only way things in the kingdom really get done is by the power of God’s Spirit, the more I accepted that my job was to connect with His Spirit, and then let Him minister through me. Without prayer, the best which we can do is to try to do what only God can do, then fail over and