Keeping a Diary: Church History Spotlight Part 2: G.Whitefield
Oct 22nd, 2007 by Nathan White
Picking up where I left off in Part 1 of this look at George Whitefield, I’d like to point out how Whitefield kept a strict account of his daily actions.
Whether we write down the specifics or not, a daily reckoning before the Lord is absolutely necessary for the Christian life. Daily confession of our sins, although sometimes tough to do, is an essential part of our obedience to the Lord, and every true believer will strive for such, or be miserable when they fail to do so.
As I read Whitefield, and the times in which he lived, I fear that we have abandoned the simplicity of this kind of thinking. A diary? An objective look at how we have served the Lord in the day? Sounds outdated, legalistic, and just plain time-consuming! But I ask you to consider it further, as I believe the abandonment of simplistic obedience is to our detriment, not to our benefit.
Why Keep a Diary?
We all stumble in many ways, but a few simple measures, like a diary, can help in our daily fight against sin. In keeping a diary, with a few specific daily questions which indicate our obedience for the day, we are more inclined to think critically about our life and thus seek to honor the Lord. In this ‘digital age’, critical thinking has largely been supplemented with sound bytes, PowerPoint, and constant entertainment that takes little or no actual thinking. Taking the time to write down our behavior patterns will encourage us to think more objectively about our daily lives.
Overall, we are all too prone to:
- Waste our time.
- Overlook small sins.
- Waste the precious resources God has given us in stewardship.
- Completely miss or ignore God’s providence in teaching us through our experiences.
- Fail to obey simple, daily commands.
- Fail to look for opportunities to obey, rather than simply trying to avoid gross disobedience.
- Neglect the daily spiritual duties that are so vital for the obedient life.
All of things and more, I believe, are combated by taking special time to write down, think about, and pray over our specific obedience and disobedience.
Whitefield’s Diary
George Whitefield’s diary had a criteria he used each night as the basis for judging his actions each day. Here is a brief example of how this Godly man used the diary to stimulate himself to good works:
Have I:
- Been fervent in private prayer?
- Used stated hours of prayer? [He had set hours of prayer every morning, noon, and night.]
- Used [spontaneous prayer] every hour?
- After or before every deliberate conversation or action, considered how it might tend to God’s glory?
- After any pleasure, immediately given thanks?
- Planned business for the day? [Organization]
- Been simple and recollected in everything? [Not acting hastily, but thinking through everything.]
- Been zealous in undertaking and active in doing what good I could?
- Been meek, cheerful, affable in everything I said or did?
- Been proud, vain, unchaste, or enviable of others?
- Recollected in eating and drinking? Thankful?
- Temperate in sleep?
- Taken time for forgiving others?
- Been diligent in studies?
- Thought or spoken unkindly of anyone?
- Confessed all sin?
This list came from Whitefield’s younger days, so there is no doubt that he constantly amended and added to this as he got older and more mature. But it gives us a brief glimpse into his daily devotion. Can you imagine yourself asking these questions every single morning as you prepare to pray and confess before the Lord? I challenge you to try it for a week, for if you are not used to doing so, I think you may be very surprised at your lack of obedience that has otherwise gone overlooked by the hardness of heart. Of course, we must take a deep and honest look within, as it is certainly possible to deceive ourselves with just surface-level questions. But the true believer, no doubt, will be sincere and fearful in examining the heart before the Lord.
And for further research, I’d also highly recommend Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions as well.
I hope that this can be of benefit to you all. After seeing Whitefield’s life, and his simple but strict watch of his own heart, I have certainly been challenged and edified.
I’ve looked at these lists before, and wow- it ain’t ever gonna happen in my life…. When I run into men and women who are uniquely gifted in this way, I often wonder what it is that drives others to try to be like them? It takes me hours to compose a simple essay on the puter, if I had to hand write it, besides having to have a cryptologist decode it for me, by the time I had written my sins down it would be bed time and I would have sinned by missing everything else that day.
It is the same with any and all talents. It takes me a tiny fraction of the time to complete some tasks compared to my wife. And no matter the number of times I explain my methods and reason
she doesn’t get it, always.
But, I want to discusse the quote above. How do I know what the lesson is from my experiences? I know what the Word teaches me, and I do learn naturally common sense wisdom, but how do I know what spiritual significance any particular instance has for me. I am specifically thinking about Solomon’s quest to find this knowledge, and it stumped him. The same thing happens to both, but one prospers, and the other dies, kind of thing. One man eats and is satisfied living long, another eats the same and dies of a massive coronary from cholesterol build-up. The only thing that I can take away from my experiences is the that God will be glorified. Take this for instance. Inevitably, if I a diligent to repair and maintain my vehicle consistently, something unforseen, or even well maintained will go out. On the other hand, somethings that I should have maintained, seem to never wear out. Why does it rain on the righteous as well as the wicked, and why does the wicked prosper and the righteous man just get poorer? I know why I get poorer, I am wicked, but should I sin all the more so that I might get rich? To me this mystery of experiencing God’s providence and understanding what it means to me exceeds my little pea brain.
Nathan,
Thank you for the post. It was truly blessed me and convicted me.
Thomas said:
I would recommend a puritan paperback to you, John Flavel’s Mystery of Providence. I posted on this book here.
But certainly there is no real objective way to determine *exactly* what we are to learn from Providence. However, that does not mean that we shouldn’t reflect on what God has done, and consider what He might be teaching us. Scripture says that even Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered”. Thus, we ourselves, if we look at Providence with not simply the eyes of secular maturity (what can I learn from this), but with the eyes of faith (what scriptural principles can I learn from this), then I would submit that the Lord has a wealth of knowledge stored up in these reflections.
The fact remains is that God ordains every aspect of our lives, but does so do the good of those who are called. So I find great comfort in looking back at where I’ve come from and how God has gotten me here, and thus rejoice in His infinite wisdom in doing so.
Yes, thanks. I do review life script like a reverse map seeing where I turned here and there, where then I came to. And, also, those unforseen popups and the like that determined outside my actions the course of the day. We are currently studying providence at church, and I fully expect to be there two weeks from now barring the narrowing of the way and an angel with a flaming sword preventing me from getting there. The Scripture tells us to “Remember the Lord in the days of our youth.” And, there is a now looking forward aspect of this, but then there is a retrospective aspect also which begs us to see how good the Lord was. This is like the marker stones of the Israelites that showed them where they came from and also set boundaries for them, or like the philacteries, and teaching of the children the stories of the great things God has done. Which is interesting, because, the commandment is to taste and see that the Lord is good.
Thanks,
tt
Thank you brother for your notes about keeping a diary. I was very much challenged.
Hi Nathan,
I just started reading through Dallimore’s Biography Volume 1. Whitefield is certainly an interesting character, and Dallimore is an excellent writer of biographies.
I too think it is not accidental that the great and the good of Church history have frequently been journal keepers of one sort or another….they used their diaries not as a sort of social history, or navel gazing introspection, but for sanctification purposes….to ascertain whether indeed they had fulfilled 1 Cor. 10:31 or not, and to correct where they had failed tomorrow.
I just read Whitefield’s “list” tonight before checking your blog and thought it to be a remarkably useful thing (if applied) for this purpose. I also thought it would be extremely useful to review that list on completion of morning devotions, sort of to set the agenda for the day.
I also thought his reasoning concerning the move to Georgia was a good example of using Providence as a guide, he was not mystical, rather he prayed much and having prayed much, sought to understand where God had him providentially and how differing potential futures might either assist or hinder him in a selfless glorifying of God.
Good stuff.
JP