Faith Adores the Divine Will (de Caussade)

The reign of faith is death to the senses; it is their spoliation, their destruction. The senses worship creatures; faith adores the divine will. Destroy the idols of the senses and they will rebel and lament, but faith must triumph because the will of God is indestructible. When the senses are terrified, or famished, despoiled, or crushed, then it is that faith is nourished, enriched and enlivened. Faith laughs at these calamities as a governor of an impregnable fortress laughs at the useless attacks of an impotent foe. When a soul recognises the will of God and shows a readiness to submit to it entirely, then God gives Himself to such a soul and renders it most powerful succour under all circumstances. Thus it experiences a great happiness in this coming of God, and enjoys it the more, the more it has learnt to abandon itself at every moment to His adorable will.

I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work." John 4:34

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Romans 1:25

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I spent many years in the sensuous idolatry of worshiping the female form. In my own heart I erected shrines to Aphrodite, a modern-day Asherah pole in the high places of my thoughts and affections.

This morning I found a journal on Journalspace where the owner, a very beautiful and intelligent woman, a lawyer, posted several pictures of herself in short skirts and high heels. I looked for a few moments, feeling an old ache in my soul, a flooding desire to possess her. I hit Alt+F4 and asked God to help me, and I remembered a sentence from Abandonment to Divine Providence that struck me when I read it a few days ago: “The senses worship creatures; faith adores the divine will.”

When that old lust rises up, that strong desire to possess and indulge, I try to remember that in the end it possesses me. The old gods are always clamoring to take me away in chains, seeking their pound of flesh. The siren’s song is always very near. But the grace of God is closer.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies... Psalm 23:5