Pastoral Thought--June 29

We remember names like William Wilberforce and John Newton, but do you remember Hannah More? The middle-class daughter of a school teacher, Hannah was a contemporary of Newton and Wilberforce. She joined their work to end slavery in England and advocated for women’s rights in the 18th century. Perhaps she is best known for her work in creating Sunday school in the churches of England. This program would spread to the new colonies and take root here for 200 years. I have fond memories of my Sunday school time—something we can thank Hannah More for beginning. 

Hannah’s work was also grounded in an “internal principle that bears very practical fruit in the conduct of [our daily] lives.” In her work, Practical Piety, she writes:

"Prayer is the application of want to Him who only can relieve it, the voice of sin to Him who alone can pardon it. It is the urgency of poverty, the prostration of humility, the fervency of penitence, the confidence of trust. It is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul. . . Prayer is the desire; it is not a mere conception of the mind, nor a mere effort of the intellect, nor an act of the memory; but an elevation of the soul towards its Maker; a pressing sense of our own ignorance and infirmity; a consciousness of the perfection of God, of His readiness to hear, of His power t help, of His willingness to save. . . Prayer is the guide to self knowledge, by prompting us to look after our sins in order to pray against them; a motive to vigilance, by teaching us to guard against those sins which, through self-examination, we have been enabled to detect."

I know that this is a long quotation, but I assume that you also agree, that Hannah's words speak powerfully our relationship to prayer, and to God. There is not a single aspect of prayer that Hannah does not address in the above paragraph. From internal disciples and reflections, to the outward displays of prayer-at-work-in-us, Hannah covers it all. She sees it all happening when we approach God in that manner. And so I wonder about how you would address and speak about prayer in your life? 

We all say that we want to pray more, or pray more often, or pray longer, or become prayer-warriors for God. Maybe if we begin to see prayer differently, see it for what it is and can be, we might spend more time praying? 

Why not begin this new week by returning to prayer as Hannah More sees it??? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek