David Brainerd II

There have been so many penetrating quotes in Jonathan Edward's The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, but so far my favorite is "Oh, the closest walk with God is the sweetest heaven that can be enjoyed on earth."

I remember praying, many many many times, "God I desperately want to have the closest relationship with you that is humanly possible while on earth. Please do what You must to make that a reality. Like Paul, I want to know you so badly (Phil 3:10)."

Sadly, I've lost sight of that singular passion as time has gone by, but listening to Brainerd's diary has rekindled that flame, even though that is a very difficult, challenging, convicting prayer to pray because God wants that from us too, so He'll seek to remove all that hinders the closeness of that relationship, which at times can be very painful.

Three parts of the whole audiobook is available for free download here.

You can listen to this particular quote in context at 1 minute and 26 seconds into the mp3 for part two.