The Role Of Emotion

The Role Of Emotion

Where is the joy?

ON WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1738, John Wesley grudgingly accompanied a friend to Aldersgate Street in London for a meeting of the Moravians, the followers of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf. There the leader was reading Martin Luther’s preface to his commentary on the book of Romans. In his journal Wesley recorded what happened that night: “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins. . . . But it was not long before the enemy suggested, ‘This cannot be faith; for where is thy joy?

That night John went to see his brother Charles, who himself had been converted just three days earlier. Charles was overflowing with newfound joy, but John had no such feelings.

The next day after attending a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral he recorded in his journal: “I could taste the good word of God in the anthem, which began, ‘My song shall be always of the loving-kindness of the Lord: with my mouth will I ever be showing forth thy truth from one generation to another.’ Yet the enemy injected a fear, ‘If thou dost believe, why is there not a more sensible change?’ I answered (yet not I), ‘That I know not. But this I know, I have “now peace with God.”’”

Two days later on May 26, 1738, John, perplexed that he still did not have the joy he felt he should have, went to seek the counsel of John Toeltschig, an older Moravian friend who had befriended him during his missionary days in Georgia. Toeltschig was passing through London on his way back to Herrnhut, the Moravian headquarters in Saxony, Germany. Wesley explained to Toeltschig that he knew that he had experienced the new birth and that his salvation rested not on good works but on the death of Christ for him, but he had no joy and was still buffeted by temptations. “What should I do?” he asked his friend.

Toeltschig’s answer was, “You must not fight them as you did before. You must flee from them the moment they appear and take shelter in the wounds of Jesus.”

After his visit with Toeltschig, John Wesley went on to evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he found further encouragement as the choir sang, “My soul truly waiteth still upon God, for of him cometh my salvation; he verily is my strength and my salvation, he is my defense, so that I shall not greatly fall.”

Day after day he spent much time in prayer and found himself growing more in spiritual strength “so that though I was now assaulted by many temptations, I was more than conqueror, gaining more power thereby to trust and to rejoice in God my Saviour.” Yet joy continued to elude him.

A few days later he wrote in his journal: “I determined, if God should permit, to retire for a short time into Germany. I had fully proposed, before I left Georgia, so to do, if it should please God to bring me back to Europe. And I now clearly saw the time was come. My weak mind could not bear to be thus sawn asunder. And I hoped the conversing with those holy men who were themselves living witnesses of the full power of faith, and yet able to bear with those that are weak, would be a means, under God, of so establishing my soul, that I might go on from faith to faith, and from strength to strength.”

Three weeks after his conversion at the Aldersgate meeting, Wesley left with Toeltschig and several others to go to Herrnhut, the Moravian center in Saxony. There in Germany he grew in his newfound faith. When he returned to England three months later, the joy of the Lord had become his strength.

Reflection

John Wesley learned a valuable lesson in the days immediately following his conversion. He learned that faith does not depend upon feeling. Some Christians experience great joy at conversion; others do not. Salvation is not a matter of emotions; it is wholeheartedly putting our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

You will grow and experience the joy of your faith.

Philippians 1:25