Wholly Given Up

Mary Bosanquet Fletcher was one of early Methodism’s most well-regarded preachers and teachers. Though somewhat diffident about her own abilities, she became a mentor to women and men through her preaching, her letters, her Christian conversation, and her relentless faithfulness to the call of Christ. She kept a spiritual journal in which she reflected on her struggles with faith, her failing health, her deep and abiding relationship with Sarah Ryan, her love and respect for her husband John Fletcher, and her overwhelming sense of God’s goodness and her gratitude for it. She wrote:

I would be given up, both soul and body, to serve the members of Christ. My firm resolution was to be wholly given up to the church, in any way that He pleased. I desired not to be idle, but employed as those described by St. Paul to Timothy, “If she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, and diligently followed after every good work.” I can hardly express with what power these words would come to my mind. It seemed to me, the Lord had planned out all my way; and I only wished so to walk.

In doing research for my book Mothers in Israel: Methodist Beginnings Through the Eyes of Women, I encountered women of various backgrounds, educational levels, economic status, and ability. All of them possessed a fierce sense of the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and a purpose which God called them to fulfill. I hope you will enjoy getting to know these amazing “mothers in Israel “ and that you will be inspired and encouraged by their example so that you, too, may be wholly given to God.