Fervent

Read: Isaiah 55:6-12

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.

                                                                                                                       Isaiah 55:6 

     David Brainerd, a missionary to the American Indians in the northeast, died in 1747 at the early age of twenty-nine,. His story has done more to inspire future missionaries than perhaps any other. On the advice of John Wesley (a contemporary of Brainerd), William Carey read The Life of David Brainerd and was inspired to become the “father of modern missions.” Many others, including Henry Martyn and Robert McCheyne, were influenced to become great missionaries of their time by reading about David Brainerd. Even as a child, Brainerd was frail and sickly. However, his abnormally pale face (caused by the tuberculosis from which he later died) was set like a flint on doing the work of his Father. Though just a young man, David Brainerd was a man of intense prayer; therein lay the secret of his power. Once, as he spent the night outside an Indian village, preparing to take the gospel to them the next morning, a rattlesnake slipped up beside him as he prayed. Indian warriors who were stalking him, waiting for their chance to end his life, were amazed when the snake, which had slithered up to him as he poured his heart out before God and had struck a threatening pose, suddenly lunged toward the underbrush. The next morning, Brainerd effectively reached the Indians for Christ. Brainerd’s diary reveals that he spent at least two hours a day in agonizing prayer, and that he often spent the entire day in prayer, begging God to show him His glory and praying for the souls of the Indians.

     Is it because of a serious lack of prayer that there is such a lack of power in the lives of most young men today? The idea has crept into Christianity that, in order for God to use a person, he must be talented, good-looking, or both. Let me remind you that God used a frail, sickly David Brainerd who was neither good-looking nor had special talents. He made himself available to be used, and he begged God for His power. Will God refuse a young man who is seeking to have a close relationship with Him and who is begging to be used? Perhaps another reason David Brainerd was so mightily used of God was that he had a singular focus. His desire was to share the gospel with the Indians, and he gave his entire life to that endeavor. Young men toady are so wrapped up in video games, movies, music, and girls to even hear God’s call, let alone drop everything and answer it.

     It is time to let go of the things of the world, find God’s will for your life, and throw all your energy and prayer into what God wants you to do.

Quote of the day: “Pray hardest when it is hardest to pray.”