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 IV. Of Self-Denial, Humility, Mortification, and Patience
1) Do I seek to serve all people for their good and not make it my chief business to please myself? (Romans 16:2). But to become a servant to all, that I may win them, laboring for their salvation, so far as it is consistent with being true and faithful to Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:23), and (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22).
2) Do I behave myself before people, “as proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord, with myself as their servant for Jesus’ sake?” and do I treat them not as lording over their faith, but as a worker for their joy?” (2 Corinthians 4:5, 2 Corinthians 1:24).
3) Am I “kind to all people, patiently enduring evil, correcting my opponents with gentleness?” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).
4) Do I “commend myself as a servant of God in every way with great endurance,” by having control of my own spirit? (2 Corinthians 6:4).
5) Do I, as a man of God, whose business is heavenly, flee from the love of money and all the evils that go with it; not seeking my own things so much as the things of Christ? (1 Timothy 6:10-11). But if I have food and clothing, will I be content with these things? (1 Timothy 6:8).
6) Am I willing “to share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus?” (2 Timothy 2:3). and am I learning to endure whatever God calls me to, “for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory?” (2 Timothy 2:3, 10).
7) Am I more and more fortified against shame and suffering for the Gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ? (2 Timothy 1:8-12).
8) Am I willing “to most gladly spend and be spent for the souls of people, or even to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of their faith? and do I not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus?” (Philippians 2:17, 2 Corinthians 12:15, Acts 20:24).