A great reminder.....

Wise counsel from John Piper’s, Brothers We Are Not Professionals:
Ministry is its own worst enemy. It is not destroyed by the big bad wolf of the world. It destroys itself. The top 3 obstacles to spiritual growth – busyness, lack of discipline & interruptions. The great threat to our prayer and meditation on the Word of God is good ministry activity. We must secure uninterrupted meditation or we will lose power. That is the point of Acts 6:2-4.
Without extended and consecrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers up and bears no fruit. The 120 were devoting themselves to prayer when the Spirit fell and gave them utterance with 3000 converts. These converts were also devoting themselves to prayer when signs and wonders were done and people were added to the church daily. Peter and his friends were in prayer when the place was shaken and they were filled with the Spirit and spoke the Word boldly. Paul relied on prayer that he might be given utterance to open his mouth and proclaim the mystery of the gospel (Eph. 6:19).
Without extended, concentrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers. And when the ministry of the Word declines, faith (Rom. 10:17; Gal. 3:2, 5) and holiness (John 17:17) decline. Activity may continue but life and fruitfulness fade away. Therefore whatever opposes prayer opposes the whole work of ministry.
Under the drain of ministry, we must “withdraw to desolate places and pray (Luke 6:12). For Jesus and the apostles the work of prayer demanded significant amounts of solitude: “In the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35).

I know this to be so true in my life! I have never heard God more clearly, or walked more intimatly with Him than I have over the past 3 months. The reason for that is that life circumstances caused me to cling to Him with all my might as He was all I had at times that didn't seem hopeless or harmful. There were many weeks that I spent an hour or more in the morning in the Word in prayer and then again at night before I went to bed. It was in there precious times that He would speak and that He directed me to the place I am now which is in complete peace despite the fact that chaos abounds around me! Just a great reminder by Mr. Piper of where real life change happens and that no "good works" is substitution for being in intimate relationship with the Jesus!