Today's encouragement comes from an interesting collation of two verses: Mark 1:35, and Acts 6:4. They say this:
"Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, [Jesus] went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. . . . 'But we [the apostles] will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ "Both our Lord Jesus Christ, and (later) His apostles put their priority on prayer and the preaching of the Word (gospel) of God. Everything else in the mini-stry would have to be either done by other people, (viz. the deacons, as in Acts 6); or it would simply have to wait until a convenient time.
After Christ rose from prayer, He announced that it was for the purpose of preaching that He had come forth, (Mk. 1:38). The same thing could be said of the apostles. While others served the tables, they served up the meal of the preached gospel of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[Puritan quote of the day: "When the times are troublesome, a good consci-ence makes it calm. If the conscience is clear, so what if the days are cloudy?” —Thomas Watson, in, "The Art of Divine Contentment"]
