He was a student at Glasgow University in Scotland and a seeker after God. A Bible left on a table caught his notice. Up until this time, it had been a sealed book to him, mysterious in meaning. He wondered if there could be anything in the Bible for him, opened it at random, or so it seemed, and his eyes fell upon Ephesians 5.14, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” He sensed the words were intended specifically for him. He said later, “If anyone in the world was sleeping, it was myself.” He emerged from his spiritual slumber, filled with “wonder and peace and joy.”
Alexander Moody Stuart (1809-1898) became an influential Scottish preacher. The distinguishing mark of his ministry was his commitment to prayer. He regarded the weekly prayer service at St. Luke’s Free Church in Edinburgh as the single most important weekly meeting in the church. His ministry was shaped by long hours in prayer and people remarked that they derived more help from his public prayers than his sermons. He believed nothing was too great or small to bring before God in prayer. Kenneth, his son, who compiled his father’s memoir, included three rules of prayer that his dad practiced. 1. Pray till you pray. We tend to give up on prayer before we have truly entered into it. 2. Pray till you are conscious of being heard. This one may be harder and more subjective to discern yet Jesus’ repeated words about God giving to those who ask may be the secret sauce. 3. Pray till you have received an answer. Sometimes, we don’t really desire God’s answer. We want only what we want.
Included in Alexander’s journal was a reflection at the end of his life based on Psalm 143, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life” (Psalm 143.8):