An introduction to Thou My Best Thought by Rev. Tyler Boyer
There is a time when thou art openly to glorify God, to pray, and praise him, in the great congregation. But when thou desirest more largely and more particularly to make thy requests known unto God, whether it be in the evening, or in the morning or at noon-day, “enter into thy closet, and shut the door.”
John Wesley – Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount: Discourse Six
I would like to open this introduction by extending my thanks to the FMLN for introducing Thou My Best Thought through their website. I am so grateful for their help and for the encouragement I have received from so many at the FMLN. Thou My Best Thought was prepared in response to what I perceived to be a need at Knox Knolls FMC. Our worship together is wonderful. We celebrate word and table together on Sundays with joy. Our daily devotional practices and prayer times are a bit more scattered. My desire was to prepare a work that would allow us to extend our worship into our work week by offering a method of daily prayer. The (completely unoriginal) idea was that we would hear the lectionary texts together on Sunday Morning, and then return to those same texts in a prayerful and devotional setting throughout the week. I also wanted to introduce (or re-introduce) my congregation to some of the writings of John Wesley and authors from the history of the Free Methodist Church. As such each day of the year includes a meditation from one of Wesley’s sermons or from an historical Free Methodist source.
Thou My Best Thought is meant to assist people in developing a rhythm of thrice daily prayer; morning, noon, and night. Litanies are provided so that this rudimentary liturgy of the hours can be prayed either in solitude or with others. The backbone of the daily prayers is the recovery of the daily psalter that John Wesley sent with the American Methodist in the Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America. Wesley provided Psalms to be prayed and read morning and evening of each day of the month. I took the liberty stretching these Psalms out to include a prayer time at noon each day. Thou My Best Thought is built on the premise that our souls are formed best through repetition. Each day the Lord’s prayer and the creed are repeated as well as the scriptural foundations of the vision of the Free Methodist Church. The prayers offered here repeat the weekly lectionary readings heard on Sunday. Every month the cycle of Wesley’s Psalter starts over.
The FMLN has been kind enough to put a sample of this work on their website. Each day for the First week of Advent the Morning Prayer litany that is designed to be prayed in solitude is provided. The daily meditations for the month of December come from a work of John Wesley published in 1733 called A Collection of Forms of Prayer: For Every Day In The Week. In 1733, Wesley was teaching at Oxford University. Several of his students sought his counsel regarding how to pray and lead a more committed daily devotional life. In 1724, a widely circulated work called Sprinkes Devotions, was amended by Wesley with the permission of the author. Drawing upon the practices of Spiritual Examen developed by Ignatius of Loyola, Wesley included in this devotional guide his own questions for daily self –examination. He then gave his version of this devotional to his students to use with instructions that they report back to him on their spiritual progress.
May God richly bless you this Advent season as you await the arrival of Jesus Christ. May you come to wait prayerfully and with all virtue. Thanks to the Free Methodist Liturgical Network; may God bless and prosper your ongoing work!
Tyler Boyer
Thou My Best Thought by Rev. Tyler Boyer is available for sale in the Light + Life Bookstore.