The book contains 1 chapter , Total length 19 mins
Madame Guyone
Your Faith is Your Fortune
The influence of Madame Guyon’s inner life experiences of the Lord has filtered down to many of the most spiritually-minded saints in the history of the church — John Wesley, Hermann Francke, Andrew Murray, Jessie Penn-Lewis, Watchman Nee, and countless others.
The revelation of Christ that transformed her entire life was the simple discovery that Christ was in her. This revelation was similar to the apostle Paul’s in Galatians 1:16. Prior to that time she had passed through a long journey of searching after God. As a young girl she had sought for God under her Roman Catholic environment and understanding. She kept times of private prayer, visited the poor, read devotional books, subjected herself to bodily austerities, made vows, and even made a resolution to enter a convent to become a nun.
Madame Guyon
“Madame…you seek without what you have within.”
• A Searching Heart • (1648-1717)
While she was searching for God, Madame passed through periods in which He allowed her to see the depths of her corruption. During one of these times, she was living in Paris and, under God’s dealing, was left to herself. She became vain in her deportment, read romance novels, became proud of her beauty, spent a good deal of her time in front of the mirror, walked the streets to be noticed, and received several marriage proposals. About this time her father arranged a marriage for her. She did not meet her husband-to-be until three days before their wedding. She soon saw that this marriage was to be “a house of mourning” for her in which all her earthly hopes were “blasted.” Many trials, sorrows, and sufferings followed in her domestic environment. Her unpleasant mother-in-law, who lived with them, constantly influenced Madame’s husband against her. Madame felt like a slave in her own household. In the midst of these troubles, she passed through cycles of searching after God, in which she made new resolutions to change and then found herself breaking those resolutions. While experiencing this state of failure and defeat, she came in contact with three people who were used by God to direct her to Christ. One was a truly pious lady who was able to discern and point out that Madame was seeking the Lord “by a system of works without faith.” Through her, Madame realized that she was trying to gain by efforts what could only be gained by ceasing from efforts. The second person who deeply touched her was her missionary cousin. When he visited her, he expressed a relationship with Christ that caused her to long for what he had. Finally, the Lord brought a devout man of the order of St. Francis to visit her father. The man had spent five years in solitude, and was divinely led to her father’s house. It was to this godly man that Madame opened up her dissatisfaction with her spiritual condition. From the influence of these three persons, Madame Guyon was led to discover the riches of an indwelling Christ. Here in her own words she tells the story: I NOW APPLIED MYSELF to my duties, never failing to practice that of prayer twice a day. I watched over myself, to subdue my spirit continually. I went to visit the poor in their houses, assisting them in their distresses. I did (according to my understanding) all the good I knew. You, O my God, increased both my love and my patience, in proportion to my sufferings. I regretted not the temporal advantages with which my mother distinguished my brother above me. Yet they fell on me about that, as about everything else. I also had for some time severe fits of fever. I did not indeed serve You yet with that fervor which You did give me soon after. For I would 4 — How They Found Christ — still have been glad to reconcile Your love with the love of myself and of the creature. Unhappily I always found some who loved me, and whom I could not forbear wishing to please. It was not that I loved them, but it was for the love that I bore to myself. A lady, an exile, came to my father’s house. He offered her an apartment which she accepted, and she stayed a long time. She was one of true piety and inward devotion. She had a great esteem for me, because I desired to love God. She remarked that I had the virtues of an active and bustling life; but I had not yet attained the simplicity of prayer which she experienced. Sometimes she dropped a word to me on that subject. As my time had not yet come, I did not understand her. Her example instructed me more than her words. I observed on her countenance something which marked a great enjoyment of the presence of God. By the exertion of studied reflection and thoughts I tried to attain it but to little purpose. I wanted to have, by my own efforts, what I could not acquire except by ceasing from all efforts. My father’s nephew, of whom I have made mention before, was returned from Cochin China, to take over some priests from Europe. I was exceedingly glad to see him, and remembered what good he had done me. The lady mentioned was no less rejoiced than I. They understood each other immediately and conversed in a spiritual language. The virtue of this excellent relation charmed me. I admired his continual prayer without being able to comprehend it. I endeavored to meditate, and to think on God without intermission, to utter prayers and ejaculations. I could not acquire, by all my toil, what God at length gave me Himself, and which is experienced only in simplicity. My cousin did all he could to attach me more strongly to God. He conceived great affection for me. The purity he observed in me from the corruptions of the age, the abhorrence of sin at a time of life when others are beginning to relish the pleasures of it (I was not yet eighteen), gave him a great tenderness for me. I complained to him of my faults ingenuously. These I saw clearly. He cheered and exhorted me to support myself, and to persevere in my good endeavors. He would gladly have introduced me into a more simple manner of prayer, but I was not yet ready for it. I believe his prayers were more effectual than his words. No sooner was he gone out of my father’s house, than You, O Divine Love, manifested Your favor. The desire I had to please You, the tears I shed, the manifold pains I underwent, the labors I sustained, and the little fruit I reaped from them, moved You with compassion. This was the state of my soul when Your goodness, surpassing all my vileness and infidelities, and abounding in proportion to my wretchedness, granted me in a moment, what all my own efforts could never procure. Beholding me rowing with laborious toil, the breath of Your divine operations turned in my favor, and carried me full sail over this sea of affliction. I had often spoken to my confessor about the great anxiety it gave me to find I could not meditate, nor exert my imagination in order to pray. Subjects of prayer which were too extensive were useless to me. Those which were short and pithy suited me better. At length, God permitted a very religious person, of the order of St. Francis, to pass by my father’s dwelling. He had intended going another way that was shorter, but a secret power changed his design. He saw there was something for him to do, and imagined that God had called him for the conversion of a man of some distinction in that country. His labors there proved fruitless. It was the conquest of my soul which was designed. As soon as he arrived he came to see my father who rejoiced at his coming. At this time I was about to be delivered of my second son, and my father was dangerously ill, expected to die. For some time they concealed his sickness from me. An indiscreet person abruptly told me. Instantly I arose, weak as I was, and went to see him. A dangerous illness came upon me. My father was recovered, but not entirely, enough to give me new marks of his affection. I told him of the strong desire I had to love God, and my great sorrow at not being able to do it fully. He thought he could not give me a more solid indication of his love than in procuring me an acquaintance
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