Tim Keller’s Most Personal Regret in His 50 Years of Ministry
Accessing the Happiness of God
Just a few months before Tim Keller went to be with the Lord, he was being interviewed and the person asked, “Looking back over your nearly 50 years in Christian ministry, what’s something you regret? What’s something you wish you had done differently?” And he didn’t hesitate. He said, “Oh, that’s easy. I wish I’d prayed more.”
And that’s coming from someone who had written and taught eloquently on the subject for decades. But prayer for him, just as it is for us, was not only a joyful privilege but it was a grueling discipline and a lifelong pursuit. And what Keller loved to point out was that prayer is how we step into and access the very happiness of God. It’s where we experience God as God. It’s easy to pray in emergencies and pray when you need something. But what requires the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit is not just praying to get things but praying to get God.
Tim Keller on the Christian Life
Matt Smethurst
Matt Smethurst distills over 40 years of Tim Keller’s teaching topic by topic—drawing from popular books to lesser-known conference talks, interviews, and sermons—to present practical insight for generations of readers eager to grow in their walk with Christ.
Keller loved to share the illustration from a Puritan of a man and a young boy walking down the street. From a distance, you see the man stop and pick up his boy, twirl him around, kiss him, and then put him back down. And they keep walking. And Keller would ask in that moment, when the son was in his father’s arms, if he was legally any more his child. No. But he was experiencing his sonship.
In another sermon, Keller asked who would dare to wake up a king at 3:00 a.m. for a glass of water? Only his child. And we have that kind of access. That’s the privilege of getting to be a Christian—an adopted son or daughter of the living God. To know him, to enjoy him, to delight in him, and ultimately to experience his delight in us.
Matt Smethurst is the author of Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel.
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