Sunday, June 8, 2014

DAY 27

MORNING

PSALMS 120–125

Psalm 122:7 “I lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

Kennington Common

From the Lord comes our help. He is our Saviour and Deliverer. The message that Wesley preached at Kennington in September was “believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.” In his Journal we read how the Lord granted peace and rest to the weary who cried to him to be saved:182

Monday 3 September 1739

Several persons who were then convinced of 
sin came to me to the next morning. One came also, who had been mourning long, and desired earnestly us to pray with her. We had scarce begun, when the enemy began to tear her so that she screamed out as in the pangs of death. But his time was short; for within a quarter of an hour she was full of the “peace that passes all understanding”.

Sunday 9 September 1739

I declared to about ten thousand in Moorfields what they must do to be saved. My mother went and with this about five others to Kennington where were supposed to be twenty thousand people. I again insisted on that foundation of all our hope “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.”

Tuesday 18 September 1739

A young woman came to us at Islington, in such an agony as I have seldom seen. Her sorrow and fear were too big for utterance; so that after a few words, her strength as well as heart failing, she sunk down to the ground. Only her sighs and her groans showed she was yet alive. We cried out unto God in her behalf. We claimed the promises made to the weary and heavy-laden, and he did not cast out our prayer. She saw the Saviour as it were, crucified before her eyes. She laid hold on him by faith and her spirit revived.

Prayer

Lord, we look to you, we lift our eyes to you. You are the one from whom our help comes. May the Gospel go out to the poor in our nation once again. We pray that the thirsty would come to you and drink. May they believe on you, Lord Jesus, and be saved. We pray for today’s poor — the oppressed, the neglected, the elderly, the fatherless, the single parents and the lonely. Melt their hearts and revive them with your love today, we pray.

182 Wesley, J. Journal, Vol 1, 225.

DAY 27

EVENING

PSALMS 126–131

Psalm 126:5 “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

Delivered From Distress

Wesley wrote in his Journal:

Thursday 27 September, 1739

I ... at six came to Turner’s Hall; which holds (about) two thousand persons. The press
 both within and without was very great. In the beginning of the expounding, there being a large vault beneath, the main beam which supported the floor broke. The floor immediately sunk, which occasioned much noise and confusion among the people. But two or three days before a man had filled the vault with hogsheads of tobacco. So that the floor after sinking a foot or two rested upon them and I went on without interruption.

Thursday 11 October 1739

One of these showed the agony of her soul by crying aloud to God for help, to the great offence of many, who eagerly “rebuked her that she should hold her peace.” She continued in great torment all night, finding no rest of either of soul or body. But while a few were praying for her in the morning, God delivered her out of her distress.

Wednesday 17 October 1739

The frost was sharper than before. However five or six hundred people stayed, while I explained the nature of that salvation which is through faith, yea faith alone. About noon I came to Usk, where I preached to a small company of poor people, on those words, “The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost.” One grey- headed man wept and trembled exceedingly. When I came to Ponty-Pool in the afternoon, being unable to procure any more convenient place, I stood in the street, and cried aloud to five or six hundred attentive hearers, to “believe in the Lord Jesus,” that they might “be saved.” In the evening I showed his willingness to save all who desire to come unto God through Him. Many were melted into tears. It may be that some will bring forth fruit with patience. 183

Prayer

Lord, teach us how to pray for revival to sweep our land, to sow in prayer that we might reap abundantly. May the word of God take root in receptive hearts and may many believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that they might be saved.

183 Wesley, J. Journal, Vol 1, 225.

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