Measuring prayer and the New Year

Family members gave me a “Nook” for Christmas. My first download was free, a biography of John Henry Newton (1725 – 1807). John Newton was a British captain of a slave ship as a youth and became an Anglican priest following a wonderful new birth. While he was pastor of the church in Olney, Newton authored many hymns, collaborating with William Cowper. "Amazing Grace” is considered the most frequently sung hymn ever written. The grace of God working in his life caused John Newton to be fully repentant of his former life and he became an avid advocate of the abolition of slavery.

While reading Newton’s biography we must remember that he was an Anglican Evangelical, not a Pentecostal! The generous quotations from decades of the clergyman’s journals is filled with his assessment of his personal passion for prayer. Newton describes his prayers as “hot” or “tepid,” with “freedom” or “labored.” His assessment of the spiritual progress of his congregation in Olney is similar.

A sample of journal entries captures John Newton insights into prayer and the heart desires resulting from prayer.

• “Prayer is the gate to heaven.”
• “Saturday, 26th. Favored in some degree with a spiritual frame through the whole week, and have redeemed more time than usual for prayer ... I often find that prayer is the index of my present state.”
• “I want more communion with Him, more conformity to Him. O, when shall it be?”
• “I want to be more lively, feeling, and affectionate in spiritual things ...”
• “The longer I live the more I am constrained to adopt that system which ascribes all the power and glory to the grace of God.”
Newton affirmed that attention to spiritual progress is essential. The natural man slips and slides away from the spiritual. In a letter to his brother-in-law he warned against wasting time playing games and amusements, investing time to gain wealth, and failing to spend time with one’s Maker. In short, Newton was passionate to know Jesus.

As we close our journals of activity and take time for personal assessment of 2011, a quiet review of our prayer lives is a worthy endeavor, foundational to our future spiritual maturity. An adage with which I grew up says, “Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” I suggest an amendment, “Only one life will soon be past. Only what’s done with Christ will last.” Do I hear a second to the motion?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!