Imagine yourself sitting in a small gathering of Christians. The appointed leader asks the same questions of each participant. You know the questions beforehand since they are asked at every meeting. How will you answer when the questions are asked of you?
1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my actions and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidently pass on to others what was told to me in confidence? I could go on–there are twenty-two questions in all–but you get the drift.
We would never ask such penetrating questions in our time. They would be considered a gross invasion of privacy and possible grounds for legal action. But to John Wesley (1703-1791) and people like him, these questions were intended to help believers grow into fully formed, mature disciples. John first asked them of himself and of five fellow students in a Christian group at Oxford. He led a reform movement in the Church of England that came to be known as Methodists. It was meant as a derogatory term to mock the adherent’ fastidious attention to religious methods (Get it? Method-ists!) It was never Wesley’s ambition to break away from the Church of England. His purpose was to restore to it ardor and spiritual passion. He became legendary for his circuit-riding (four thousand miles annually on horseback) throughout England and America to support Methodist “societies.”
Wesley’s prayer expresses total surrender and is characteristic of the way he lived his life: