Give yourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. If you do not pray, God will probably lay you aside from your ministry, as He did me, to teach you to pray.
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
Get your texts from God - your thoughts, your words, from God... It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God's Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of spiritual alignment and integrity in communicating God's message.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne highlights that true effectiveness in ministry and communication comes not from talent or eloquence, but from the purity of thought and intention that reflects the character of Jesus. He asserts that a minister filled with the Holy Spirit can have a profound impact, as their words carry the weight of conviction and divine authority, contrasting with those spoken without faith or righteousness.
Themes
FaithMinistrySpiritCommunicationJesus
In practice
Example use cases
During a church service, a pastor might use this quote to inspire the congregation to seek spiritual purity.
More from Robert Murray M'Cheyne
All quotes →I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
Rose early to seek God and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner.
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little In comparison to eternal realities.
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
Similar quotes
When my heart is cold and I cannot pray as I should I scourge myself with the thought of the impiety and ingratitude of my enemies, the Pope and his accomplices and vermin, and Zwingli, so that my heart swells with the righteous indignation and hatred and I can say with warmth and vehemence: 'Holy be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done!' And the hotter I grow the more ardent do my prayers become.
Martin LutherRead
That the entire People of God, to whom Christ entrusted the mandate to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, may eagerly assume their own missionary responsibility and consider it the highest service they can offer humanity.
Pope Benedict XviRead
Jesus Christ lives. He is our Savior, our Redeemer. He is a glorious, resurrected being. He has the capacity to communicate love that is so powerful, so overwhelming as to surpass the capacity of the human tongue to express adequately. He gave His life to break the bonds of death. His Atonement made fully active the plan of happiness of His Father in Heaven.
Richard G. ScottRead
If in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be 'devout' and to perform my 'religious duties', then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely 'proper', but loveless.
Pope Benedict XviRead
Intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word of God teems with its marvelous deeds. Believer, thou hast a mighty engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren.
Charles SpurgeonRead
I saw that giving even all my life to God (supposing it possible to do this and go no further) would profit me nothing unless I gave my heart, yea, all my heart, to Him.
John WesleyRead