David Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians in the 1700′s.
He died from tuberculosis in his late 20′s. After he died people
found a private journal in which he described his spiritual life.
Here’s one entry that deeply impacted me regarding prayer:
30 Minutes of Dull Prayer — But Then
“I had been thus endeavoring to pray, though as I thought, very
stupid and senseless, for near half an hour; then, as I was walking in a
dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and
apprehension of my soul.
“I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing. Nor
do I intend any imagination of a body of light somewhere in the third
heavens, or anything of that nature; but it was a new inward
apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I never had before, nor
anything which had the least resemblance of it.
“I stood still, wondered, and admired! I knew that I never had seen
before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty; it was
widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had of God, or
things divine… Continue at Living by Faith
