In my twenties, I was very independent. Even though I came to Christ when I was in high school, in pastoral ministry I discovered—and the people who worked with me, I’m sure, discovered—that I too was very self-reliant.

I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic. Without a doubt, the greatest lesson I’ve learned through it is to depend not on myself, but God.

George Verwer, a man I dearly love and respect, and one of the great global missions leaders in church history as well as a champion for the unborn, has rewritten and updated a chapter from his book Out of the Comfort Zone. 

In light of the 112th Congress opening today, here is the prayer that opened the First Continental Congress on September 7, 1774.