For Jesus there was no separation between personal piety and action. He was equally concerned about the misery of human beings and the glory of God! The times alone with God gave him the resolve to turn belief into behavior and words into deeds of compassion and justice.

We can see that same resolve in the life of John Wesley, the great Methodist preacher. A biography of Wesley gives this description of his very busy but fruitful life: Wesley always arose at four in the morning, preached whenever possible at seven, and was often on the road again at eight. Sometimes he followed his morning sermon with five others in the same day. In fifty years, he preached over 40,000 times! That's an average of fifteen sermons per week. It is estimated that he traveled more than 250,000 miles all on horseback! Even when he was eighty-three years old, he recorded with some regret that he could only write about fifteen hours a day before his eyes hurt too much to continue. At eighty-five, when his friends urged him to ride his horse to a place six miles away where he was to preach, Wesley said indignantly, "I'd be ashamed if any Methodist preacher in tolerable health made a difficulty of six miles." And off he tramped on foot to keep his engagement!

At the end of this description of such a full and busy life, the biographer tells us the secret of Wesley's resolve: "His ability to achieve was due in the main to a temperament which was remarkably steady and self-possessed. He never seemed to hurry or to worry, and he always made time in his busy day to be alone with God."