Watching and Praying with Wesley (Not That Wesley)

Susanna Wesley

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." - Colossians 4:2

If you know anything about John Wesley’s mother, Susanna, you know that she was a key influence on her children’s faith and education. Not only was she responsible for their learning for the first decade of their lives, but she continued to exchange letters with them and discuss theology well into their adult years.

One small piece of her legacy is this “Prayer of Susanna Wesley” included in The United Methodist Book of Worship:

You, O Lord, have called us to watch and pray.
Therefore, whatever may be the sin against which we pray,
make us careful to watch against it,
and so have reason to expect that our prayers will be answered.
In order to perform this duty aright,
grant us grace to preserve a sober, equal temper,
and sincerity to pray for your assistance. Amen.

I’m sure her opening line is inspired by Matthew 26:41 and Mark 14:38, when Jesus warns his sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane to “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Resisting temptation is definitely the aim of this prayer. But this also reminds me of Colossians 4 and Paul’s call to watchful prayer. That instruction in Colossians is brief and leaves a lot unexplained, but Wesley here really unpacks this idea of being watchful.

First, she says that if you’re praying against some sin—for strength to resist temptation, for repentance when you stray from Christ’s path, for transformation of some bad habits—if you’re praying against some sin, you have to be careful to watch against it. In other words, don’t expect God to do the work for you. Pray for God’s grace, and then do your part: be alert and on your guard against that sin. Then we’ll “have reason to expect that our prayers will be answered.” Devote yourself to prayer and be watchful.

The second thing Wesley asks from God is grace to “preserve a sober, equal temper.” To me, a “sober, equal temper” (that’s 18^th century-talk) means being controlled and even-keeled in your emotional responses, not reactive or volatile. That’s essential in all of the little interactions that make up loving your neighbor. It’s something we need to watch for, and, even if that’s not your normal knee-jerk reaction, with God’s help, with grace, that kind of calm, measured disposition is possible.

She closes by requesting “sincerity to pray for your assistance.” Wesley prays that she’ll keep praying. This prayer isn’t supposed to solve her problem. It’s supposed to bring her back before the Lord, seeking assistance again. This prayer is self-perpetuating. Overcoming temptation isn’t the result of one moment’s effort or one cry for help but of an unbroken chain of prayers that have us continually watching out for sin, watching our own tendencies, and watching for God to come to our aid. Like Paul wrote, this kind of watchful prayer is something that you devote yourself to.

Are you being watchful in prayer?

Are you watching for temptation, watching your own attitudes and behaviors, and watching out for God’s grace to help you day by day?

What do you need to start watching more closely today?

You can listen to this week's devotional below:

Training Up

This Sunday we talked about the passage in Mark 9 where Jesus calls his followers to welcome children in his name. Engaging and caring for children is what serving our King looks like. (See Mark 9:37.)

There’s another reason, that I didn’t get into that morning, that our love for and ministries with children are so important. It’s simply that, a kid today is already being formed into the adult they’ll be tomorrow. That’s why Proverbs 22:6 famously says, “Train up a child in the way, and when they’re old they will not stray.” (I love that translation—it captures how proverbs are meant to be catchy.) The way Eugene Peterson put it, in his Message Bible, is “Point your kids in the right direction— when they’re old they won’t be lost.” Childhood is the most impressionable time of someone’s life, and so you want to give them the right impressions about the things that matter most.

Every adult in a child’s life is making impressions on them—aunts and uncles, family friends, grandparents, church volunteers, teachers and classroom aides. Of course, as Andy and Sandra Stanley have pointed out, the source of words determines the weight of those words, and words from a parent weigh the most. So, think about the children in your life:

1. How much do your words (and example) weigh to them?
2. How are you using those words and that example to train them and point them in the right direction?

We should be realistic about the influence we do or do not have, but we should also always be intentional about giving them the right impressions—about themselves, about other people, about money, health, their bodies, the environment, priorities, and, certainly, about faith.

I never realized until someone pointed it out, but that proverb is not just a prescription for how to guide a child: it’s also a warning. Whether you realize it or not, whether you are doing it with care or not, you are training children in the way they’re going to go. We are constantly training them in what kind of behavior is acceptable, what attitudes are normal, what activities are important or unimportant.

Every now and then I’ll hear someone say, “Practice makes perfect,” and someone else will immediately chime in, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” This is point they’re making: you can be trained badly. You can be discipled in the wrong direction. The warning of the proverb is, take care how you train a child, because whatever way you train them in, when they’re old they won’t stray from it.

No one’s going to do this perfectly. God knows I don’t. But we can all strive to do it deliberately, to give thought to the impressions we’re making with our words and examples.

Do you give thought to the words you use and example you set around children, to leave the best impressions you can? Are you intentional about interacting with kids and being a positive influence in their lives?

Remember: engaging and caring for children is what serving our King looks like.

Listen to this devotional right here:

Dedicate a Space

I met someone recently who was a prayer closet person.

A prayer closet person is someone who has a designated space or room or literal closet in their home where they do their praying—a prayer closet. As far as I know, the idea comes from something Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: “whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Matthew 6:6) The King James Version actually says “enter into thy closet.” There was even a whole movie about a prayer closet a few years back called War Room. It’s a thing.

This isn’t something I’ve ever done, and it’s very rare that I ever hear someone talk about one, but, like I said, I met a real, live prayer closet person recently.

And she told a story.

She said that there were some guests coming over to the house, and, of course, she had junk everywhere that she needed to clean up, stat. So, in the rush before folks got there, she crammed all of that junk into her handy, dandy prayer closet.

But it’s a lot easier to cram junk into a closet than it is to clean the closet back out, isn’t it?

So, everything just sat in her prayer closet. And sat. And sat.

And she said, “Yes, I was praying, but I lost my dedicated space, because I put junk in there.”

I don’t remember what point she was making with that story. All I remember is thinking, ‘Wow. That’s a parable.’ I don’t think she meant to tell a parable, but that’s how it hit me: this wasn’t just a story about her closet; it was a story about all of our schedules.

She had a space in her life dedicated to prayer, but she lost it, because she’d filled it with junk instead. Meanwhile, you and I don’t have space in our days for prayer. Why? Because we’ve filled every moment we can find with something else.

TV.

Social media.

Hobbies.

Socializing.

Podcasts.

Sports.

Work.

Exercise.

You know what your schedule looks like. Some of the busyness is really good, valuable things. Some of it’s junk.

The psalmist said he would lift up his hands in prayer as long as he lived (Ps 63:4). The first Christians were known for their devotion to prayer (Acts 2:42). The Apostle Paul exhorted believers to “never stop praying” (1 Thess 5:17).

But I don’t have time, because I fill all my opportunities with other things instead.

What would it take to clean some of the junk out of your day and dedicate a space in your life for prayer?

How would you need to rearrange your schedule?

What might need to be cut out of your current routine?

What new thing might you need to say ‘no’ to?

Everyone has at least a little margin in the day that they can control, but if you aren’t intentional with that time, devices and distractions will happily colonize it. So make a plan. Prioritize the things that are vital.

That cup of coffee in the morning.

The chance to decompress at the end of a long day.

Those moments of connecting with your Lord in prayer.