October 25. Francis Asbury. Although Asbury suffered much and was often ill, on this date in 1773, after nearly dying, he miraculously rebounded.
Asbury spent 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States as a circuit-riding preacher, a minister, and a bishop. It is estimated that he ordained 2,000 ministers and rode more than 130,000 miles up and down the East Coast and as far west as Kentucky and Tennessee.
When illness is a constant companion, God’s grace is needed.
Asbury experienced so much sickness that anyone in his ministerial shoes would give up.
When he was 26, Asbury answered John Wesley’s challenge to cross the Atlantic Ocean and preach the gospel in America. He was appointed a superintendent and given the ministry of a circuit-riding preacher. A circuit consisted of 25 to 30 villages and towns, and usually encompassed 200 to 600 miles, often in bitter cold and snow or the stifling heat of summer.
Asbury kept a journal of his travels and his ministry: where he went, the people he met, responses to his preaching of the gospel of Christ. Throughout his journal he records that he was frequently ill: headaches, toothaches, horrible sore throats, swollen feet, and worst of all undiagnosed sicknesses that put him in bed, sometimes for days.
One of his entries reveals his belief that he was near death. “My disorder has increased.” His friends were sure he was going to die. “But the Lord thought of both them and me to raise me up from the bonds of death,” he later wrote.
He and his friends prayed and asked God to heal him of sickness because they knew the Scriptures. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1‒2 ESV).
The call of God was upon his life, and Asbury refused to let life drag him down. Yet his days of illness were far from over. At the start of the next year he wrote, “My body has been indisposed for some days past, but the grace of God has rested on my soul, and I have been enabled to preach … with freedom and power, and great boldness, the Lord being my helper.”
A little later on he noted: “I have been sick near 10 months … yet I have preached 300 times and rode near 2,000 miles.”
His days of illness and fatigue were far from over, yet Asbury declared throughout his journal, “What a miracle of grace am I!”
Asbury’s story is like that of the apostle Paul, who asked God to take away his thorn in the flesh, which was probably an illness of some sort.
Paul wrote, “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8–10 NLT).
Is there an obstacle dragging you down? God’s strength is a prayer away. When illness is a constant companion, God’s grace is needed.
Francis Asbury. The Journal of the Rev. Francis Asbury, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. I. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 1821. October 25, 1773, p. 54.
Christianity Today. “Francis Asbury Methodist on horseback.” Accessed July 7, 2020. https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/denominationalfounders/francis-asbury.html.
Story read by: Daniel Carpenter
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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