"You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your
soul, and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5
By the grace of
God, David Brainerd obeyed this first and great commandment. He
prayed with sacrificial passion, pursued perfect holiness and
called sinners to repentance; all because he fervently loved the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Sad to say,
some Christians may have a difficult time understanding David
Brainerd's zeal and love for JESUS. "To him the material and
physical world had little value. He was of the race of the early
martyrs. To him all things were naught that he might attain a
deeper spiritual fellowship with God." Brainerd's diary states,
"Thirsting
desires and longings possessed my soul after perfect
holiness. God was so precious to my soul that the world with
all its enjoyments appeared vile. I had no more value for
the favor of men than for pebbles."
He spent a great
deal of time in prayer and frequently set aside days for prayer
and fasting. He loved to retire into the woods to be alone with
God. "Prayer became Brainerd's priority and it was his joy to
spend two hours at a time in secret communion with Christ. He
would rise early in the morning and get alone with God to enjoy
His presence. He thirsted for God, the living God and he was not
disappointed!"
Determined to
share Christ, Brainerd embraced a life of self-denial and
sacrifice. He spent as much as twenty hours a week on
horseback. His diet consisted of hasty pudding, boiled corn,
bread baked in the ashes, and sometimes a little meat and
butter. His home was a small log room complete with a heap of
straw laid upon boards for a bed.
David Brainerd
consistently and fervently interceded for the lost souls of the
American Indians. Often he would travail with such
earnestness that when he rose from his knees he was covered in
sweat and could hardly walk straight. Like the persistent widow
in Luke 18, David Brainerd's prayers were finally answered.
Entire camps of
Indians were converted by the power of God as he proclaimed a
message of repentance and grace.
"Old men and
women who had been drunken wretches for years, and little
children not more than six or seven years of age appeared in
distress for their souls. There was almost universal praying
and crying for mercy. Many could neither go nor stand."
The countless
hours spent in prayer and fasting, his faithfulness in spite
of physical weakness and having to endure the most terrible
hardships, were now rewarded openly. The fire of the Lord
fell. The remarkable thing was that all this happened at a time
when he confessed that his hopes were at their very lowest. He
had seriously entertained thoughts of giving up while on the
very brink of glory and blessing.
Brainerd now saw
a remarkable change in the lives of the Indians.
He recorded in his
diary, "I know of no assembly of Christians where there seems to
be so much of the presence of God, where brotherly love so much
prevails . . . "
David Brainerd
poured a lifetime of holy passion, prayer and preaching into
four short years. He ministered from 1743-1747, dying of
tuberculosis at the age of 29, Brainerd once wrote in his
diary,
"I longed to be a flame of fire continually glowing in
the divine service and building up of Christ's kingdom to my
last and dying breath."
That prayer was
abundantly answered.
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Source:
www.watchword.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=23
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