The weight of preaching

No matter how many times I preach right before I walk up to the pulpit my stomach is in knots and my knees are shaking. This is something that I pray that I will never lose, because it makes me step back and realize whose words I am about to utter. When I open my bible and begin to read my text for that Sunday these words are not just ink on a page, these are the very words of the creator of the universe. The God who with his very words and by his words worlds came into existence, also by this word the whole universe is held together. If for One nanosecond he decided to not hold the universe together that it would cease to exist.

As I look at pastors through our history we can see that even the giants of our faith felt the burden of preaching the words of the living God. One example is prince of preachers Charles Spurgeon, who is quoted as saying that

"My deacons know well enough how, when I first preached in Exeter Hall, there was scarcely ever an occasion, in which they left me alone for ten minutes before the service, but they would find me in a most fearful state of sickness, produced by that tremendous thought of my solemn responsibility.… " 

We can see how heavy the burden of preaching was felt by this giant in our faith. As we look at another giant Martin Luther who it is said that,

  his knees often knocked together when he stood up to preach

When I read these stories of the giants of the faith who felt the heavy burden of preaching the word of God and realizing that when you preach you are not speaking the words of man. My fear is that I will be walking up to the pulpit in a church one day and not feel nervous or the weight of the words that I would preach. May the Lord see it that I will always have reverence for his word and know that I am merely a vessel in which the Lord will do whatever he wills to do through me, I pray that when I have the opportunity to preahc preach that it would be a sweet aroma to God and the he would be pleased with me.