Aldersgate assurance and fluctuating feelings Be merciful to those who doubt. Jude 22 (NIV)
E
very May, Methodists celebrate John
So perhaps we should not be too alarmed
Wesley's Aldersgate Street experience
if our feelings of assurance or doubt come
of which he wrote: "I felt my heart strangely
and go. There is a place for both faith and
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ
doubt. And when doubt presses upon our
alone for salvation, and an assurance was
hearts and minds, let us "doubt wisely", to
given me that [h]e had taken away my sins,
quote the English poet John Donne (Satire
even mine, and saved me from the law of
III), who was also a Christian pastor.
sin and death." The Church would be wise to follow the We thank God for such times when we feel
Bible's advice: "Be merciful to those who
assured of God's accepting and forgiving
doubt" (Jude 22 NIV). Or as a modern
love. God desires all his children to be
paraphrase renders that verse, "Go easy
assured of his divine love. But God knows
on those who hesitate in the faith" (The
that feelings ebb and flow, and feelings of
Message).
assurance and doubt are not exempt. Are you feeling uneasy with doubts today? This seems to have been true for John Wesley also. Wesley was brutally honest
Go easy on yourself, and be merciful to
about his feelings in his Journals, and
any who are living with doubts. But even
within months of his heart-warming
as we doubt, let us find hope and help
assurance of God's forgiveness in May 1738,
by clinging to the Bible's promise that
he would express his spiritual inadequacies
"(nothing) will be able to separate us from
and doubts. On 4 January 1739, he wrote,
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
"I feel this moment I do not love God."
Lord" (Romans 8:39 NIV).
John Wesley: The World, My Parish by Favian Ee is a graphic novel about the life John Wesley's Aldersgate experience, taken from the graphic novel John Wesley: The World, My Parish by Favian Ee
of John Wesley. The book will be sold at the Aldersgate Celebration Service and Lectures. Also available via this order form https://www.methodist.org.sg /graphicnovel/
May 2023 Methodist Message 1