DAVID

  Sitting here and unable to sleep. I have been praying and reading through the night hours. I had finished my Bible readings when my hand fell upon one of my favorite books, “The Life and Diary of David Brainerd.” It was the first Christian biography that I had read as a new believer. The impact of David’s life still resonates within my heart to this day. In a day that is sadly lacking for true role models here is one of the Lord’s finest. I would like to share with you why he has always been one of mine.

      Many have stated how that David had suffered greatly from melancholy or what some would call depression. He himself in the opening pages of his diary makes note of this fact as well.  Yet, David also had a keen awareness of sin in his life. Like Luther, before his salvation, he would try to appease God by involving himself in religious duties. It was to no avail, as he could not merit the grace of God, through empty works.

      One author, describes those who seek to please God through their works, will only find insanity. David, would come to this point, in which he struggled with, “the divine strictness of the Law,” and that, “faith alone was the condition of salvation.” God’s grace would be poured out upon David’s life and the salvation that he so deeply craved and needed would burst forth like an ocean’s wave.

     David would still battle with sin in his life. He would constantly bring up his sorrow over battles that he had lost. As believers we are forgiven. We are cleansed by His blood. Our position before Christ is safe and secure because of His finished work. Yet, do we still weep over our sin? Do we feel grief when we offend others or our God? Have we become calloused to our sinful desires? This is one part of David’s life that we can all learn lessons from.

     Total abandonment to the will of God, is another one of the things that impresses me the most about David. He was willing to do whatever the Lord would have him to do with his life.  Through the grace of God he lived the words of the verse, “take up your cross and follow me.” His was a life of self-denial.

     One must think of the time in which David served the Lord. He would set out to reach a group of the Delaware Indians.  Reaching out, to such a. “lowly group,” as some people would have called them, was not a popular thing to do.  David saw the need and lovingly reached out. Are we willing to reach out to all of mankind?

     The word comfort, was not a part of David’s vocabulary. He was willing to literally stand in the rain. Miles upon miles he would travel upon horseback. Through the cold winters he would sleep in the snow. He would become so sick with consumption that he would spit up blood. The coughing became nightmarish in his life. He would actually towards the end of his short life, be held up by men on either side of him, so that, he could finish his sermons. He was consumed with the need of the souls of men.

     Where David speaks to me the most is his intense love for the Savior.  Every page of his diary is fixed upon his relationship with the Lord. This was the driving force in His life. The glory of God must reign supreme. He was constantly aware of the presence of God and lived in light of it. His prayer life was forever upon his lips and what a sweet communion it was.

     David, like one of my other heroes Jim Elliot, would only be here for a short while. Like Elliot, there were some who would say, “What a waste.” In God’s eyes though I believe they are the true heroes of the faith. Elliot put it best when he said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”