The Doctor: Don’t Tie Joy to Power in Ministry

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the most influential preachers of the century.  A few weeks before he died, someone asked him how, after decades of fruitful ministry and extraordinary activity, he was coping now he was suffering such serious weakness it took much of his energy to move from his bed to his armchair and back.  He replied in the words of Luke 10:20: ‘Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’  In other words, do not tie your joy, your sense of wellbeing, to power in ministry.  Your ministry can be taken from you.  Tie your joy to the fact that you are known and loved by God; tie it to your salvation; tie it to the sublime truth that your name is written in heaven.  That can never be taken from you.   Lloyd-Jones added: ‘I am perfectly content.’  – From A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson