A while back, I came across Isaac Watts “Questions for Young Ministers Frequently to Put to Themselves, Chiefly borrowed from the Epistles to Timothy and Titus.” I wanted to update the language a bit and make it a more useful document for me (making Scripture quotes from the ESV), so I’m releasing it here, section by section.
Section III. Of Constant Prayer and Dependance
1) Do I “devote myself to prayer and to the ministry of the Word?” (Acts 6:4).
2) Do I make it a habit to pray daily in secret, that I may engage in holy conversation with God, and also, that I may obtain the promised reward in prayer? (Matthew 6:6).
3) Do I make it my practice to offer “prayers, supplications, and intercessions for all men,” particularly for our rulers, and for my fellow laborers in Gospel ministry, and for Christ’s church, especially for those to whom I preach? (1 Timothy 2:1, Romans 1:9-10, Philippians 1:4).
4) Do I seek by prayer, for divine direction and assistance in my studies as well as in all my preparations for the public? and do I plead for the success of my ministry with God, in whom all these blessings abound? (Ephesians 3:14-19, Philippians 1:8-9).
5) Do I ever keep upon my spirit a deep sense of my own insufficiency for these things, that I may ever depend and wait on the power of Christ for aid and success? (2 Corinthians 2:16, 2 Corinthians 3:5, 2 Timothy 2:1).