John Wesley’s Prayer Life

In Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ Preaching and Preachers, Lloyd-Jones discusses the essential need for each minister to pray often. He used John Wesley as an example. He said:

John Wesley used to say that he thought very little of a man who did not pray four hours every day.

Wow! Wesley would not think much of me. I did a little search to see what else I could find about John Wesley’s prayer life and thoughts on having regular prayer time. Here’s he best description I found.

At Arminian Today, The Seeking Disciple wrote:

John Wesley would rise up at 4 AM every day to seek God for the first four hours of the day.  In his later years Wesley was known to spend up to 8 hours in prayer.

The Seeking Disciple also had a picture of Wesley’s prayer room, which I have included in this post.

In today’s church climate, where ministers devoted to the Word and prayer are valued less than ministers who can design the best ministry systems and run the staff effectively, it is difficult for a young minister to see John Wesley as a model for ministry.

But shallow ministers create shallow churches. Our weak churches need ministers who seek God in prayer and study for hours each day. Let’s pray that God raises up ministers who make seeking God the core of their daily work. (And pray that God makes me into that type of minister.)

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