the best habit for highly effective people

Violet (picking her nose): “Spitting is an dirty habit”
Wonka: “I know a worse one.”

Robert Murray McCheyne, a godly Scottish minister and friend of Horatius Bonar from the 19th century, suggests the cultivation of a specific habit as a means of fostering holiness in a minister. That vital, daily habit is none other than prayer.

McCheyne writes: “I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, and then have family prayer and breakfast and forenoon callers, it is eleven or twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ rose before day, and went into a solitary place... Family prayer loses much of power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek for me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then, when secret prayer comes, the soul is often out of tune. I feel it far better to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another... It is best to have at least one hour alone with God before engaging in anything else. At the same time, I must be careful not to reckon communion with God by minutes or hours, or by solitude.”

Written in a previous article have examined the necessity of quality over quantity as it pertains to the work of the ministry and the life of the minister. We have also examined the sources and dangers of Lukewarmness against the blessings of effective ministry. Here we examine the necessity of prayer to the life of the one who does the work of ministry; that is, who leads a person toward biblical change.

Many times I have been asked if I have read a book called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” I have not. In this age of quick methods and easy answers (again, I am for effectiveness over success—see previous article), I shy away from trends. People approach me emphasizing how the book changed their life, their business, even their ministry. I ask them how Bible study and prayer have changed their lives, their business and ministry and they have no answer.

Why does this happen? How is it that these habits can help ministry but the habits that should be implemented are nowhere mentioned? Living with dignity, honesty, integrity and fairness are one thing altogether, but this does not separate the sinner from the saved. How can the minister go about his life and work without spending time alone with God? Steven Covey, Rick Warren and Bruce Wilkinson are getting more quiet time than God.

E.M. Bounds writes in his short book, "Men of Prayer Needed":
"WE are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men."

The problem with prayer is how it is misunderstood. Here are some “prayers” from a book called “Pocket Prayers”, which presents over 700 Bible-based prayers used for intercession. The prayers are laid out by New Testament book, almost by chapter and verse. Here is a sampling:

Matthew 4:4 “Give _____ victory over every temptation and technique Satan would use to defeat him/her. Just as you, Lord, quoted verses from the Word of God to resist the devil, help ____ to have a working knowledge of the Bible so he/she can do likewise.”

Matthew 8:26 “Give ___victory over all fear. Also, may he/she have big faith, not little faith.”

Luke 17:34 “Give ____ the spirit of forgiveness.”

These are not prayers. These are incantations, placations. These “prayers” are no different from the animist who manipulates the powers to serve his own interests. These are statements made TO God, not conversations WITH God. If McCheyne (or anyone) sat down to spend one hour in prayer and “ding” the timer goes off, now onto something different—they have not prayed but have expressed selfish cajoling.

Again, E.M. Bounds: "What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use-men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men-men of prayer."

The one who seeks to see others changed according to the power of the Holy Spirit under the direction of God’s Word must spend time alone with God, talking and listening. We tend to think these things take too much time—actually we have it backwards—the time consuming things are robbing us of time with God.

What are your habits? What drives them? Whom do they serve?

"It is said of the energetic, pious and successful John Berridge that “communion with God was what he enforced in the latter stages of his ministry. It was, indeed, his own meat and drink, and the banquet from which he never appeared to rise.” This shows us the source of his great strength. If we were always sitting at this banquet, then it might be recorded of us ere long, as of him, “He was in the first year visited by about a thousand persons under serious impressions.”" Horatious Bonar