Over the last few weeks I’ve been re-reading the life of George Whitefield one the greatest evangelist that brought revival to England and America in the 18th century. Whitefield was an amazing preacher who preached anything up to 40 hours a week going from town to town, speaking to men and women in the churches and in the fields. The secret to his ministry lay I believe in his personal devotion and walk with God. His Diary begins with a list of criteria which he used each night as the basis of examining his actions and attitudes during the day. Here is his list (which I’ve edited slightly given that it was in old english).
Have I,
1. been fervent in private prayer?
2. used set hours of prayer? (1 hour in morning, 1 hour at noon, and 1 hour in the evening)?
3. used spontaneous outburst of prayer in supplication, intercession, praise and thanksgiving every hour?
4. after or before every deliberate conversation or action, considered how it might lead to God’s glory?
5. after enjoying any pleasure, immediately given thanks?
6. planned my day so as to not waste time?
7. been responsible and thoughtful in everything?
8. been zealous in my work and active in doing what good I could?
9. been meek, cheerful, gracious in everything I said or did?
10. been proud, vain, impure, or jealous of others?
11. thoughtful in eating and drinking? thankful? self-controlled
12. taken time for giving thanks according to Law’s rules?
13. been diligent in studies?
14. thought or spoken unkindly to anyone?
15. confessed all sins?
Here is the lesson I learnt from this. Until we begin to scrutinize our motives, our hearts, our attitudes, our actions, we remain blind to our sinfulness and to the ongoing need to repent and live by God’s sovereign grace in our lives. As I shared last week, though we are free from enslavement to the world, the devil and our sinful nature, the shadow of our old nature still seeks to enslave us. And unless we are diligent and watchful we will easily fall back into our old pattern of life. And so more than anything else the regular spiritual discipline of searching and examining our hearts intentionally and diligently leads us to depend all the more on the cross of Jesus, reminding us of what we should be free from and that we are no longer enslaved. That should then bring us back time and time again to repentance and faith constantly bringing our lives under His sovereign grace. I believe that’s what it means to walk with Jesus and to grow to be more like Jesus. We want to not just follow Jesus, we also want to grow to be more like him, and to do that we must put off our old life and put on our new life (Col.3:1-14; Gal.5:1-26).
We must learn to pray each day as we examine our hearts and lives –
Psa. 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
p.80, George Whitefield: The Life & Times of the Great Evangelist of the 18th C Revival. Volume 1 by Arnold Dallimore.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }