It's 5:50pm, again, and I have to get up, to get out of the house, to get a train to Reading, to get a bus to Tilehurst, to get to school. It can be hard work, and I've only been doing it for a week.
I don't write this for sympathy, but to make a point. I expect that, to most people, 10 to 6 in the morning is early to get up (even if they have children), and they wouldn't do it unless (as I do) they had to.
Which makes the attitude of godly men of the past very striking. By the time I struggle to get up in the morning, Samuel Rutherford would have been at prayer for nearly 3 hours. Joseph Alleine would have been nearly half way through the four hours he spent in prayer with the Lord, as would Charles Simeon. Apparently John Welch, a Scottish minister of the 16th and 17th centuries considered a day in which he didn't pray for 8 hours to be day poorly spent.
My guess is that many Christians of today would consider this unnecessary, perhaps geeky, or fanatical. But this is how we should seek to be. The guys mentioned above were all used greatly by God, if not in their own lifetimes, then after.
So guys, how about more of us get up at ten to six to pray, and me, even earlier?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
One of England's protestant martyrs - I forget which - got up at 12 every night to pray - and didn't go back to bed again. that is getting up early to pray.
Of course, when I were a lad, I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed.
Post a Comment