from "Prayer" by Richard Foster

Transformation and intimacy both cry out for ministry.

We are led through the furnace of God's purity not just for our own sake but also for the sake of others.

We are drawn up into the bosom of God's love not merely to experience acceptance but also so we can give His love to others. The world writhes under the pain of its arrogance and self-sufficiency.

We can make a difference if we will.

In earlier days we tried to serve out of our spiritual bankruptcy, and we failed. We now know that ministry must flow out of abundance.

Bernard of Clairvaux writes,

"If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. For a canal spreads abroad water as it receives it, but a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing, and thus communicates, without loss to itself, its superabundant water.
In the Church at the present day, we have many canals, few reservoirs. "

We have determined to be reservoirs.

drawn from "Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home"
Richard J. Foster, p168