Totally - Phoebe Palmer

1807–74

“I do hereby consecrate body, soul, and spirit, time, talents, influence, family, and estate . . . to be for ever, and in the most unlimited sense, the LORD’s.”

In an 1845 book, Phoebe Palmer urged her readers to make this commitment. Her suggested prayer went on for five more paragraphs, full of the language of totality—putting everything on God’s altar, trusting him “unwaveringly.”

For more than three decades, Phoebe delivered a message of sanctification, calling casual Christians to get serious about their faith. Historically, she bridged the gap between the great revivalists Charles Finney and Dwight L. Moody. She shaped American Christianity as much as they did, paving the way for social ministries, camp meetings, and the Holiness movement—but unlike those revivalists, she avoided emotionalism. She called for sober decisions from serious believers.

Phoebe Palmer’s message came out of her own experience. Brought up as a Methodist, she struggled with her faith. Distracted by the normal activities of life, she worried about her failure to live God’s way all the time. Was she lacking something? Did she need to have some emotional experience to be a complete Christian?

After her infant daughter died in a household accident, Phoebe brooded for about a year and then decided that she could commit even this horrific experience to God. One day in 1837, she wrote that her “heart was emptied of self, and cleansed of all idols.” God had become her “ALL in ALL.”

Phoebe’s sister Sarah had started a “Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness”—essentially a group where people would share their experiences and encourage one another. In 1840, Phoebe began leading that group. This led to broader influence: editing a devotional magazine, writing eighteen books, and speaking at revival meetings in the United States and Great Britain.

Palmer also put her sanctification to work with some adventurous efforts in social ministry. She dared to enter the crime-infested slums of New York, providing food, clothing, and medicine, starting a church and an innovative settlement house to help people out of poverty.

When God gets hold of your life, he may lead you in all sorts of unexpected directions. Ultimately, it’s not about your own religious experience or how you feel about it; it’s about letting God have his way with you.

I want your will to be done, not mine.

Matthew 26:39