Remarks from William C. Burns (1815-1868) on prayer and/or about his prayer life:
* “O for a spirit of humble wrestling prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that sinners may be awakened, and saints greatly edified and advanced!”
* Burns knew that when he was close to God, when he was and had been dependent upon him, was when he felt God’s strengthening most. If his prayer-life wanted at all, even if was due to the ongoing duties created, he was quickly aware of the lack of closeness of God’s Spirit. Prayer then became all-important to Burns and he would do all he could to spend time alone with God even in the midst of his busy days.
* I spent the day chiefly alone, seeking personal holiness, the fundamental requisite in order to a successful ministry.
* …prayed, “and in doing so I felt…as if a direct communication were opened between my soul and the Divine Mind. My heart was truly drawn out and up to God for the advancement of Emmanuel’s glory, even more than for the salvation of guilty worms, as a heart-satisfying end.”
* But those who were so minded could learn from him the greatest lesson of all for the work of the ministry-the omnipotence of faith and prayer.
* Many were cut to the heart on that day, and Islay remembered seeing a white-haired man in the gate weeping bitterly, and saying, “Oh! It’s his prayers.: I canna stand his prayers!” “No matter what he did, or had to do, whether of importance or of a nature you might call trivial, he made it a matter of prayer. This prayerfulness of his seems to me to be the outstanding feature of his Christian life and missionary work.”
* Home to my studies at a quarter-past eight; got some humiliation, or rather some discovery of pride in prayer.
* I was led in a great measure to preach without writing, not because I neglected to study, but in order to study and pray for a longer time.
* I was alone during the greater part of the day seeking humiliation before the Lord, and began through grace to discover how far, alas! I have fallen from that contrition of soul for sin which I once enjoyed.
* I generally found that when the Lord meant to pour out his Spirit, he first made both preacher and people sensible that without him they could do nothing.
* I went out and getting down among the rocks by the river side, where the voice was lost in the noise of the gushing flood, I was enabled to cry aloud for help to the Lord.
* Are there those who feel for us in this unbroken land if heathenism, and cry to God with spiritual agonizings for the descent of the Spirit in his life-giving and converting power?
Burns saw revival in place after place that he went. His “method” was to seek a broken heart and humiliation from God by prayer and to pray from a heart that looked to God alone for the conversion of sinners. He was not satisfied to utter words, but instead he sought a broken heart that could seek the Lord in prayer. He was not satisfied with a broken heart either, but beyond that he sought the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He was not a man of prayer because he spent time uttering words to God, but because he spent time seeking a heart that was emptied of self so that he would be full of the presence of God. We will not see revival until we desire the glory of God so much that our heart’s desire is to be truly broken of self and pride. Even this desire will not come apart from a true breaking of our hearts and our being filled with the presence and power of the living God. Do we really desire revival? Is it our one great desire to be full of God so that His glory would shine through us? The question is not if we sort of want that desire, but is it what our souls crave? If not, we need to seek His face for that. Do we desire to be so broken that we have no hope or help but from God? If not, we are not ready for revival. If we pray for revival as a way to get people in the doors rather than God in our souls, we have no clue what true revival is. If we long for revival to gain attention of men, we have no clue what true revival is. We need to seek Him for broken hearts.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment