The Lord has used The Life and Diary of David Brainerd to inspire countless Christians in the centuries since its first publication1. Without a doubt, Brainerd’s journals attract and stir us because of the warmth of his own spiritual life. He gives us a window into his soul, both his struggles and sense of unworthiness as well as his delight in Christ and in a close walk with Him. These journals reveal that Brainerd found delight—deep, exuberant joy–in walking with God. Read two excerpts:
“Oh! One hour with God infinitely exceeds all the pleasures and delights of this lower world.”2
“Oh, the closest walk with God is the sweetest heaven that can be enjoyed on earth!”3
Was Brainerd referring to making it through his scheduled Bible reading for that day? Staying awake for a full 60 minutes while drifting in and out of prayer-like terminology? Checking off all the items on his prayer list? Successfully using the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method for organizing a prayer time?
Brainerd’s actual words reveal that he means far more than checking off a list or completing a good and important habit. He is talking about being with God and enjoying the closest walk with God. These expressions describe true, intimate communion with God in prayer, the “sweetest heaven” on earth and a “pleasure” and “delight” infinitely better than all this earth affords.
Bible reading schedules, prayer lists, and methods are good, and we should make use of them. But we all know that we can successfully and faithfully check all the boxes and get through the list without truly having our affections engaged. When that happens, we are left dry, dissatisfied, and longing for more. Our hearts desire fresh, living communion with God.
Consider a few Scriptural expressions that describe this communion.
Communion is the enjoyment of God’s presence. Genesis 3:8 tells us that Adam and Eve “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God” (NASB 1995). The opposite of hiding from His presence is seeking His presence, where we find “fulness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11, KJV). These words set our gaze higher than practicing the mechanics of prayer: fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore.
Communion is a meeting with God. Moses would often go out to the “tent of meeting” (Exodus 33:7, NASB 1995), which was not the same as the tabernacle that would later be built. Moses went in there to meet with God, and God spoke to him face to face (33:11). Do you think of a prayer time like that? I think of the round table next to our kitchen where I have my time with the Lord each morning. How it puts me in the right frame of spirit to think of leaving my bedroom and going out to have a meeting with God!
Communion is time alone with your heavenly Father. Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount that, instead of praying to be seen and praised by men, you should “… enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Matthew 6:6, KJV). You get to find a place, shut everything else in the world out, and be alone with your perfect, loving, heavenly Father Who knows your every need. Sit down with Him; let down all your defenses, and tell Him your worries, your sins, your needs, your longings. What a privilege!
Communion is drawing near to God’s throne. Think of God’s holy throne, established in the heavens, from which He rules over all things with perfect justice and absolute sovereignty. Christian, because of Jesus our High Priest, you can “draw near with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16, NASB 1995) to that throne. Your Father is on that throne. You can draw near, right up to it, and be received through Christ. When you pray, you don’t have to keep your distance because you are unworthy (though we are all unworthy). You don’t have to tiptoe around the edges because of your many sins (though we all have many sins). In Jesus you have a Savior, an Advocate, a Mediator, a Friend. In His name, you can go right up to the throne of God, and you will find it a throne of grace. Draw near!
Enjoying the presence of God, meeting with Him, being with your Father, drawing near to Him: These precious, thrilling expressions describe what Brainerd extolled as “the sweetest heaven” on earth and infinitely better than “all the pleasures and delights” of the world. This is communion with God in prayer.
Do you long for this communion in prayer? Do you wish your affections were engaged more when you pray? Do you currently find yourself struggling to pray or struggling to get beyond “mere habit” or mechanical praying? In next week’s post I will share seven suggestions to help us develop this communion.
1 Jonathan Edwards, ed., The Life and Diary of David Brainerd (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1989).
2 Ibid., 74.
3 Ibid., 86.