DAY 1

MORNING PSALMS 1–5

Psalm 4:3 “Set apart”

Prepared Before He Was born

John Wesley once said, “If I were to write my own life I should begin it beforeI was born.”8
 This was the way he paid tribute to his past. Wesley’s family tree had a huge effect on his personality and prepared him for the work of evangelism long before he came into the world. He had a strong sense of God’s purpose for his life, as did the prophet Jeremiah. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)Wesley’s ceaseless travel ministering up and down the land, it could be said, “was in his blood”9. Samuel Wesley, John Wesley’s father, was an Anglican, and John was brought up at Epworth in the family rectory. John Wesley’s mother Susanna was the daughter of Doctor Annesley, a well-known puritan, and she herself had been raised in a very disciplined home with very strong moral, devotional and educational standards.10 Susanna Wesley ordered her timetable very strictly. She examined herself before God, she meditated and set herself apart through daily times of devotion, and she kept a spiritual journal, which helped her observe the strict puritan sabbath. This was all part of her daily ‘method’ (a Puritan word, that described the way she ordered her life, many years before John Wesley started his ministry). Wesley drank in his mixed Anglican and puritan inheritance “with his mother’s milk”11, and it influenced him powerfully.
He stayed a Church of England man to the
end of his life, but his prime concern was for the good of souls. He had a strong sense of discipline and he had a keen desire for reform within the Church of England. if existing church order stood in his way, he would cast it aside without hesitation. “The rebel under the skin would keep bursting through.”12

Prayer

In the foreword to John Mulinde’s ‘Set Apart For God’, Charlie Cleverly, vicar of St Aldate’s, Oxford, writes, “I believe we need to see in the West every Christian an intercessor, in every home a prayer altar, every church become a house of prayer and in every town a city-wide prayer centre, but before all these we need people SET APART.”13 Today we pray with the psalmist Psalm 4:3 “The Lord has set apart the godly for himself”. Lord, you set John Wesley apart to be your vessel, to see a national awakening unto revival in the 18th century. Do it again Lord—set your people apart for a national awakening today. Prepare me Lord—SET ME APART, LORD, I am here to do your will.

8 Clarke, A. Memoirs of the Wesley Family, Vol 1, 94.


9 Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart John Wesley: Evangelist, 19.

10 Monk, R.C. John Wesley: His Puritan heritage, 21.


11 Newton, J.A Methodism and the Puritans, 5


12 Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart, 19.


13 Mulinde, J. Set Apart for God, Foreword, 10.

DAY 1 EVENING PSALMS 6–8

Psalm 6:4 “Save me because of your unfailing love.”

Saved From Drowning

There is an incident that John Pollock relates at the beginning of his biography of John Wesley concerning how Wesley was saved from drowning. This took place in Cornwall in the late 1770s. Wesley himself was over 70 years of age. Peter Martin, the proprietor of a hostel in Redruth, Cornwall, was preparing John Wesley’s horses, while Wesley was eating his meal with some other travellers. He could tell that John Wesley 
was telling one of his innumerable anecdotes because of the periodic roars of laughter. Every so often, there was a silence. It was then that Mr Wesley must have been speaking of the things of God.14

Although Wesley had made a commitment to preach at St Ives that evening, Peter Martin was concerned about the danger of crossing the estuary by the ford. The man responsible for the vessel tried to persuade him not to cross because it was so dangerous. Although Wesley listened very politely, he said that he had made a promise that he intended to keep. John Wesley looked out of the window of the carriage and cried loudly to Peter Martin, “Take the sea! Take the sea!” Peter Martin responded quickly and after spurring the horses, there was a splash and the carriage entered the ford. Peter Martin says, “I struggled hard to maintain my seat in the saddle, while the poor affrighted animals were snorting and rearing in the most terrific manner and furiously plunging through the opposing waves. I expected every moment to be swept into eternity and the only hope of escape I then cherished was on account of my driving so holy a man.”15 Wesley called quite loudly to him, “What is thy name, driver?” “Peter.”
“Peter, fear not; thou shalt not sink!” Wesley put back his head and peter urged on the horses. They got safely over, but as Peter recalled, “It was a miracle, as I shall always say.” They arrived at St Ives, both
 wet. “Mr Wesley’s first care was to see me comfortably lodged at the tavern. He procured me warm clothes, a good fire, and excellent refreshments. Nor were the horses forgotten by him,” said Peter Martin. Totally unmindful of himself, Wesley proceeded according to his appointment.16Pollock says at the start of his biography that “A biographer may well feel like Peter in danger of being drowned in a sea of material: the millions of words that Wesley wrote!”17 But the story of John Wesley being saved from drowning at St Ives also reminds us that he was a man who was very confident that the Lord was his personal saviour. It was this truth of personal salvation that he preached across the length and breadth of our land.

Prayer

Lord, we pray that you would raise up more John Wesleys in our day to bring a message of hope and deliverance and freedom from sin. Yours, Lord, is a message of unfailing love. Save us, save our nation because of your unfailing love, we pray. We are in perilous times, you are our only hope of escape, Lord. Save us, Lord, from the huge tide of opposition we face today. You, Lord, are our only hope. Save us and deliver us, Lord Jesus, we pray!

14 Pollock, Wesley: The Preacher, 7.

15 Pollock, Wesley: The Preacher, 8.

16 Pollock, Wesley: The Preacher, 9.

17 Pollock, Wesley: The Preacher, 9.