James McGready: Revival Prayer Covenant

Let us generously dedicate time to fast and pray for the lost and seek the Lord for another Great Awakening! God, use us as catalysts for revival!

In 1796 James McGready (1763-1817) left North Carolina for Kentucky and took the pastoral charge of three congregations in Logan County—Gaspar River, Red River, and Muddy River. These congregations were small, and in a low state of interest in the things of Christ.

He drafted this revival prayer covenant for the people he served:

“When we consider the word and promises of a compassionate God to the poor lost family of Adam, we find the strongest encouragement for Christians to pray in faith—to ask in the name of Jesus for the conversion of their fellow-men. None ever went to Christ when on earth, with the case of their friends, that were denied, and, although the days of his humiliation are ended, yet, for the encouragement of his people, he has left it on record, that where two or three agree upon earth to ask in prayer, believing, it shall be done. 

Again, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. With these promises before us, we feel encouraged to unite our supplications to a prayer-hearing God for the outpouring of his Spirit, that his people may be quickened and comforted, and that our children, and sinners generally, may be converted. 

Therefore, we bind ourselves to observe the third Saturday of each month, for one year, as a day of fasting and prayer for the conversion of sinners in Logan county, and throughout the world. We also engage to spend one half hour every Saturday evening, beginning at the setting of the sun, and one half hour every Sabbath morning, from the rising of the sun, pleading with God to revive his work.”

To this covenant he and they affixed their names. 

Within a few years the Second Great Awakening of 1800 would break out in Kentucky… He would come back to North Carolina and the Revival would spread across North Carolina, into the Methodists and Baptists, then into Virginia, South Carolina, and north Georgia.

Excerpt from “James McGready: North Carolina Catalyst for Revival” by Gene Brooks (March 25, 2011).

“There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord; but few of us are willing to do the little things…There are many who are willing to preach to thousands, but are not willing to take their seat beside one soul, and lead that soul to the blessed Jesus. We must get down to personal effort–this bringing one by one to the Son of God…The trouble is, we are afraid to speak to men about their souls. Let us ask God to give us grace to overcome this man-fearing spirit…If we would do this, we might turn ten thousand to the son of God.”

Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) in The Gospel Awakening: Comprising the Sermons and Addresses, Prayer-Meeting Talks and Bible Readings of the Great Revival Meetings conducted by Moody and Sankey (Chicago: Fairbanks and Palmer, 1885) 154.

Today, I honor my wife, Jenni, for her willingness to help connect one person at a time to Jesus by providing soul care here in Littleton, CO, and for her service to God’s Treasures, the destitute poor children of the Guatemala City garbage dump.

This morning she departs for Guatemala City. She had the privilege of writing the curriculum, and this week she will train the staff and volunteers of Potter’s House in preparation for VBS for 2,000 of God’s Treasures. Last year 222 of 1,000 children made decisions for Christ.

Let us pray for a safe and fruitful trip (Aug 31 to Sept 7). Jenni will be joined by her mother, Wilma, from the SF Bay area. Pray that she too is blessed and is a blessing to all at Potter’s House. And may their example inspire all of us to a lifestyle of doing little things for our great God!

“Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again–until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other.”

William Booth (1829-1912) founder of the Salvation Army in the slums of London, England, as recounted in Christianity Today, “The Founder’s Messages to Soldiers” (page 48), October 5, 1992.

“To conclude upon this point: so work with that earnestness, constancy, and unweariedness in well doing, as if thy works alone were able to justify and save thee: and so absolutely depend and rely upon the merits of Christ for justification and salvation, as if thou never hadst performed one act of obedience in all thy life.

This is the right Gospel frame of obedience, so to work, as if we were only to be saved by our own merits; and withal so to rest on the merits of Christ, as if we had never wrought any thing. It is a difficult thing to give to each of these its due in our practice.

When we work, we are too apt to neglect Christ; and when we rely on Christ, we are too apt to neglect working. But that Christian has got the right art of obedience who can mingle these two together; who can with one hand work the works of God, and yet, at the same time, lay fast hold on the merits of Jesus Christ.”

John Fletcher (1729-1785) a contemporary of John Wesley and a key interpreter of Wesleyan Theology in the 18th century in The Works of the Reverend John Fletcher, volume 1 (New York: Waugh and Mason) 114.

“I suggest we restore the church as it was in the New Testament day, rooting it firmly in the pattern set by the early disciples. With its roots there, it can sway and bend to adjust to the times, but fundamentally it would always be the same. A strong tree is still a tree whatever winds blow. And the church would still be the church despite men’s opinions blowing about it.”

This statement is ascribed to Barton W. Stone (1772-1844) one of many leaders in the Second Great Awakening, as recounted in Samuel Rodriguez in The Lamb’s Agenda: Why Jesus is Calling You to a Life of Righteousness and Justice (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013) 116.

“Those who are so redeemed from “Love of the World” as to possess nothing in a selfish spirit, their “Life is hid with Christ in God,” and these he preserves in resignedness, even in times of commotion.

As they possess nothing but what pertains to His family, anxious thoughts about wealth or dominion hath little or nothing in them to work upon, and they learn contentment in being disposed of according to His Will, who being Omnipotent, and always mindful of his Children, causeth all things to work for their good.

But where that spirit works which loves riches; works and in its working gathers wealth, and cleaves to customs which have their root in self pleasing…

A day of outward distress is coming, and Divine Love calls to prepare for it. Hearken then, O ye children who have known the Light, and come forth!

…Think not His pattern too plain or too coarse for you. Think not a small portion in this life too little: but let us live in His Spirit, and walk as He walked, and He will preserve us in the greatest troubles.”

John Woolman (1720-1772) The Journal and Essays of John Woolman (New York: MacMillan, 1922) 418-419.

“Many professors of religion seem just about as much determined to do good with their money, as impenitent sinners are to repent. They profess to engage in business for the glory of God, but instead of using their money for this purpose, they enlarge their capital, and their business, and transact business upon the principles of worldly men, and practice upon themselves a constant delusion.

Instead of laying out their money as they go along for the building up of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, they add their yearly profits to their capital, until nearly their whole time, and thoughts, and affections, are engrossed with money-making. Now, why do you not see, who practice this, that you are deceiving yourselves.

The only way in which money can be used for the glory of God and the good of men, is to promote the spirituality and holiness of men, and if you pursue business in a way that is inconsistent with your own spirituality, you might as well talk of getting drunk or swearing for the glory of God, as of making money for His glory. For you to neglect communion with God, under the pretense of making money for him, is sheer hypocrisy.”

Charles Finney (1792-1875) Sermons on Important Subjects, this excerpt taken from Sermon XII “Love of the World (New York: John S. Taylor, 1836) 263-264.

“The riches of his free grace, cause me daily to triumph over all the temptations of the wicked one, who is very vigilant, and seeks all occasions to disturb me. The LORD CHRIST is my helper, and the lifter up of my head. It is good for me to be tempted. By inward trials I trust my divine Master will prepare me for future mercies. I am persuaded that I shall see great things, and be called to suffer for his name sake.”

George Whitefield (1714-1770) in Letter LXXXV dated November 10, 1739 as collected in The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771) 82.

“Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.”

These resolutions are attributed to Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and thought to encompass his famous 70 Resolutions of which I offer you three more below today as a bonus from my reading. Reviewing them was his discipline weekly from 1722 to 1758.

17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die. Before December 18, 1722

47. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented, easy, compassionate, generous, humble, meek, modest, submissive, obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable, even, patient, moderate, forgiving, sincere temper; and to do at all times what such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so. Sabbath morning. May 5, 1723.

52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age. July 8, 1723.

“[The Church] was not instituted by human means; and it is not through them that it can be preserved and increased, but through the grace of the omnipotent hand of Christ our God and Lord. Therefore in him alone must be placed the hope that he will preserve and carry forward what he designed to begin for his service and praise and for the aid of souls.”

Then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Now-Pope Francis) here quotes Constitutions of the Society of Jesus 812 while leading an retreat for bishops in Spain following the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

Join me today in offering a prayer for young leaders like Linnea Smith of Alpha USA and fellow servants like John Savage of Artios who celebrate birthdays this weekend. They resolve to place their hope for the preservation and increase of ministry solely in the grace and provision of Almighty God. May God bless them for their commitment to Him, and their prayers and generosity toward me.