Mystical Union in Work & Rest
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This article has been excerpted from The Simple Way of Prayer by Madame Jeanne Guyon.
Our activity should consist in endeavoring to acquire and maintain such a state as may be most susceptible of Divine impressions, most flexile to all the operations of the Eternal Word.
Whilst a tablet is unsteady, the painter is unable to delineate a true copy: so every act of our own selfish and proper spirit is productive of false and erroneous lineaments; it interrupts the work, and defeats the design of this adorable Painter; we must then remain in peace and move only when He moves us. “Jesus Christ hath the Life, in himself” (John 5:26), and He should be the life of every living thing.
As all action is estimable only in proportion to the dignity of the efficient principle, this action is incontestably more noble than any other. Actions produced by a Divine principle, are Divine; but creaturely actions, however good they appear, are only human, or at best virtuous, even when accompanied by Grace. Jesus Christ saith, He hath the Life in Himself. All other beings have only a borrowed life; but the Word hath the Life in Himself, and being communicative of His nature He desireth to communicate it to man. We should, therefore, make room for the influx of this Life, which can only be done by the ejection of the Adamical life, the suppression of the activity of self. This is agreeable to the assertion of St. Paul: “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17), but this state can be accomplished only by dying to ourselves and to all our own activity, that the activity of God may be substituted in its place.
“We must remain in peace and move only when He moves us.”
Instead, therefore, of prohibiting activity, we enjoin it; but in absolute dependence on the Spirit of God, that His activity may take place of our own. This can only be effected by the concurrence of the creature; and this concurrence can only be yielded by moderating and restraining our own activity, that the activity of God may gradually gain the ascendancy, and finally absorb all that is ours as distinguishable from it.
Jesus Christ hath exemplified this in the Gospel: Martha did what was right; but because she did it in her own spirit Christ rebuked her. The spirit of man is restless and turbulent; for which reason it does little, though it would appear to do much. “Martha,” saith Christ, “thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41,42). And what was it that Mary had chosen? Repose, tranquillity, and peace. She apparently ceased to act, that the Spirit of Christ might act in her; she ceased to live, that Christ might be her life.
The Simple Way of Prayer
To all for whom prayer seems a mystery, who are aware of its importance, but unsure of the proper posture and method; for those who nevertheless ache for an authentic connection to the Living God, and can offer nothing more than their sincere longing to commune with Jesus — this short but profound work is a simple path leading directly to His feet.
