Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. — Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NIV)
New England revivalist Charles Finney (1792-1875) was credited with leading more than half a million people to Jesus. His methods and doctrine laid the foundation for revival services as we know them today. Finney’s preaching catalyzed the Second Great Awakening in America and transformed New England from impotent Calvinism to effective evangelism wherever he went.
One powerful aspect of his conversion story is the way Finney relentlessly pursued an encounter with Jesus. On Wednesday morning, October 10, 1821, 29-year-old Charles Finney was desperate to find God. Overcome with a fear of going to hell, the young attorney took a detour while on the way to work, heading out into the woods instead of to the law office that morning.
Charles had walked these woods many times before, but this journey would be unlike any he’d made before. Hiking out a quarter mile into the forest, he found a place where some trees had fallen together and formed a partially covered enclosure. Charles climbed in among the fallen trees, knelt to pray and decided, “I will give my heart to God, or I never will come down from here.”*
Mumbling in despair and afraid that someone might be watching, Charles felt foolish, self-conscious and discouraged, but he determined not to leave that place unchanged. As he wrestled to find words to pray, another noise caught his attention, and he looked to see if someone had followed him. Suddenly, he saw his pride. More afraid that someone should see him than he was that he wasn’t saved, Charles said to himself,
““What! ... such a degraded sinner as I am, on my knees confessing my sins to the great and holy God; and ashamed to have any human being, and sinner like myself, find me on my knees endeavoring to make my peace with my offended God!”*
Suddenly, a Scripture passage came to his mind:
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:12-13
Charles seized on the message of these verses with all his inner strength, crying out:
“Lord, I take thee at thy word. Now thou knowest that I do search for thee with all my heart, and that I have come here to pray to thee; and thou hast promised to hear me.”*
At this very moment, Charles was able to open his heart, and as he did, God filled it with promises from His Word. Charles accepted each personally, as if it had been made to him alone, and he clung to them like a drowning man would cling to a branch or tree limb offered from the shore.
Charles returned after his time in the woods with no idea how long he’d been there. As he walked back toward his office, he thought, “If I am ever converted, I will preach the Gospel.”* It was then and there that he realized … the despair for his soul was completely gone — he had no conviction of sin in his heart. Charles could not get over the peace that now filled his heart as he returned to town to discover that it was dinnertime. He had been in the woods all day.
May this story ignite a fresh passion in you to pursue your own encounter with Jesus. Charles made a vow not to leave those woods before he gave his heart to God. What do you need to give to God today? Are you carrying the burden of loved ones and friends who don’t yet know Jesus? Give their names over to Jesus again today. Are you feeling distracted or overcome by difficult circumstances that are keeping you from Jesus? Make a bold declaration that you will not relent until you encounter your God today. The enemy will try anything to keep our attention elsewhere, but we have resolved to seek Him with all our heart. And He has promised to answer us and light a fire in our hearts that burns with His love.
Look forward to Part 2 of Finney’s great encounter with Jesus next week.
Our God Hears,
AJ
*Quotes taken from “God’s Generals: The Revivalists,” by Roberts Liardon.