For starters, devotion to prayer must saturate the exegetical phase of my sermon preparation. I try to follow the example of commentator William Lane. In the preface to his commentary on the Gospel of Mark, he states:

"When a critical or theological decision has been demanded by the text before I was prepared to commit myself, I have adopted the practice of the Puritan commentators in laying the material before the Lord and asking for his guidance."

Prayer must also dominate the movement from exegesis to sermon. I have heard Haddon Robinson counsel his homiletics students to “pray through a passage” when they are not quite sure how to communicate it. He advocates this not so much as a technique, but as an act of dependence on God’s Spirit.

Your personality will likely dictate the form or rhythm of your sermon preparation prayer times. A pastor-friend of mine takes Friday afternoons off and prays through his sermon while fly-fishing. Personally, I am unable to do this because I get too wrapped up in fly-fishing and forget to pray! What works best for me is retreating to our church facility’s worship center where I can pace the aisles and kneel at the platform. Sometimes, I even take my notes and pray through them as I kneel near the place where I will stand on Sunday to deliver my sermon. Often, I will come in early or stay later than the rest of our staff so that I can be alone to pray.

Whatever else our sermons lack, they cannot lack fervent prayer if they’re going to do the powerful work that God intends.