John Cennick (1718-1755) recalled an event from his childhood which had lasting impact on him. As his impoverished aunt lay dying, she gave a stirring testimony to her salvation in Christ. “Who calls me poor? I am rich in Christ. I’ve got Christ. This night the Lord stood by me and invited me to drink from the fountain of life freely and I shall stand before him, bold as a lion.” Her words pierced John’s soul. Several years later, John opened his life to Christ, producing in him a dramatic change and leading him to become active in the Methodist movement to renew the Church of England. Methodists were reviled by many sectors of eighteenth-century England. They were regarded as enthusiasts; what some today would call fanatics. The Church of England treated their open-air preaching with suspicion and disdain.
John recorded in his diary a preaching mission he led in Wiltshire, England. An angry mob fired guns over their heads, so near that gunpowder blackened their faces. The crowd tried to dunk them in a dirty pond and threw buckets of water and mud at them. Hecklers tried to interrupt their preaching. The windows at the home where they were staying were broken and four members of the family were injured. As they left, their detractors hung their images in effigy. In my forty-plus years preaching, the most I had to endure was an occasional put down at the door.
John Cennick, like his aunt, became bold as a lion. His well-known prayer at meals (sometimes sung in churches) is an appropriate way to give thanks for God’s provision. It can add new meaning and depth to our tired, well-worn table graces: