Born in Connecticut in 1718, David Brainerd had early-on problems that were personal setbacks. Both his father and mother died when he was young and he was raised by an older sister and her family. Besides, he also picked up many maladies including the measles and tuberculosis that ultimately killed him. Nonetheless, as a young man he developed an extraordinarily intense prayer life.
While walking through a dark forest at the age of twenty-one, as he put it, he was "endeavoring to pray" when he felt as if he heard the voice of God as "light dawning." From that day forth he prepared for the Christian ministry and found a home with the Presbyterian Church.
Inspired by The Great Awakening, and the Christian zealousness of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, Brainerd went to Yale to prepare for the ministry. He would feel a calling to reach the Native Americans, the tribes of the Mohegans, the Mahicans, the Delawares, the Susquehannas, and others. He prayed at the outset, "Here I am, Lord, send me, send me to the ends of the earth, even to death itself, ... if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy Kingdom." Often he would feel depressed but he used prayer to overcome personal "great darkness."
Shored up by prayer, Brainerd walked for thousands of miles to reach the Indians, sometimes going for months and never seeing a white face. He became a living example for generations of missionaries in America. In describing his prayer life, Brainerd said he asked God continually to satisfy his inner deep and longing desire after Him!
When his tuberculosis became more severe, it was Jonathan Edward’s daughter, Jerusha, to whom he had proposed marriage, who began to take care of him like a nurse. The two returned to her parent’s home in Northampton where she nursed him along in his final days. Jonathan Edwards later said that Brainerd’s prayer life was stunning even as he was facing death. Brainerd’s prayers at the invocation of grace at the table were "awe-inspiring." Brainerd and his prayer life were considered the epitome of Christian piety by John and Charles Wesley, the Anglican founders of the Methodist Church.
It was said by these two brothers that Brainerd’s prayer life was like the weaving of the shuttle, the weaving of his life "into their sermons, essays, and even the hymns they created for their evangelistic services."
David Brainerd was truly a man of prayer!
