You are not forgotten, my dear E. God has engraven you on my heart. If you have not consented to the thoughts that have crossed your mind, do not be afflicted on account of them. The examination and dwelling upon these thoughts, brings them again to life.
Be on your guard against everything that entangles you in self. God is a Father who bears with the innocent faults of His children, and wipes away the stains they have contracted. The greatest wrong you can do to God is to doubt His love.
He regards the simplicity and purity of the intention. It is right to cherish great self-distrust, to realise your weakness and helplessness — but do not stop here. Confide as much more in God, as you hope less from yourself.
✦ The Autopsy That Becomes a Resurrection
Guyon writes to a real person — someone struggling, someone afflicted by thoughts that crossed their mind, someone tangled in self-examination. And she says: stop. The examination and dwelling upon these thoughts brings them again to life. The sin came as a thought. The thought was not consented to — but the soul begins examining it, turning it over, asking did I consent? was I tempted? was I guilty? And in the examining, the thought is given life again. The autopsy becomes a resurrection.
This is pastorally devastating in its precision. How many souls have been trapped in exactly this cycle — not by the sin itself but by the self-examination that gives the sin a second life? Guyon sees it clearly: be on your guard against everything that entangles you in self. Not against sin in the abstract — against self. Self-examination, self-accusation, self-distrust that never arrives at its proper destination.
Because self-distrust is right — Guyon says so plainly. It is right to realize your weakness and helplessness. But do not stop here. Self-distrust without God-confidence is just despair with a religious vocabulary. The see-saw must complete its motion: as one side goes down, the other rises. Confide as much more in God, as you hope less from yourself. The emptying and the filling happen simultaneously. 🙏
"The greatest wrong you can do to God is to doubt His love."
Madame Guyon · Not your sin. Not your failure. Your doubt of His love.Do not afflict yourself, because you do not at all times realise a sensible confidence in God, and other consoling, happy states. Walk by faith, and not by sight, or positive perception of the good you crave.
Let us, my dear E., be closely united, and walk together — not according to the way we might choose, but according to the way God chooses for us.
✦ Faith Is Not the Feeling of Faith
Guyon takes Paul's words from 2 Corinthians 5:7 and sharpens them into something almost surgical. It is not enough to say walk by faith, not by sight. She adds: not by positive perception of the good you crave. This is the deeper cut. Many souls can accept that they should not walk by what is visible — by circumstances, by evidence, by the state of things as they appear. But they still want to feel the faith. They want the sensible confidence. The consoling, happy states. The warm spiritual glow that confirms they are on the right path.
And Guyon says: let that go too. Faith is not the feeling of faith. Faith is the walk itself — the foot placed in front of the other foot, on a road you did not choose, in a direction God chose for you, without requiring the comfort of feeling good about it. Not according to the way we might choose, but according to the way God chooses for us. The motorhome does not set its own route. The Pilgrim follows. 🙏
This afternoon, as we walked through the market, I understood it — surrounded by so many distractions. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Faith as positive perception of the good you crave — never by sight.
The Lord always connects us with good people. 🙏
✦ Eyes on Jesus — In the Eymet Market
Guyon lived out in real time — in the Wednesday market in Eymet. The stalls, the colours, the noise, the crowds in the bastide square. A hundred distractions. And in the middle of it all — the understanding arrived. Not in the closet before dawn. Not in the quiet of the motorhome. In the market. Eyes on Jesus, surrounded by everything that is not Jesus.
This is what walk by faith and not by sight actually looks like when it steps outside. Not in a monastery. Not in a prayer room. In the Eymet Wednesday market with Roger and Jolie and a hundred French strangers. The sensible confidence Guyon described — the warm feeling, the consoling state — was not the point. The walk was the point. And the understanding came in the walking, not before it.
The Lord always connects us with good people. That sentence is faith in motion. Not hoping for good people. Not praying for good connections eventually. Knowing — from a lifetime of walking this road — that He connects. He places. He arranges. The pilgrim walks by faith through the market, and the good people appear. Not by accident. By design. 🙏
The See-Saw
As you hope less from yourself, confide more in God. Self-distrust is right — but it is not the destination. The emptying and the filling happen simultaneously. Do not stop at helplessness. Move through it into confidence in Him.
Not by Sight
Faith is not the feeling of faith. Not the sensible confidence. Not the consoling states. Faith is the walk itself — the foot placed in front of the other foot, in a direction God chose, without requiring the comfort of feeling good about it.
The Eymet Market
Eyes on Jesus — surrounded by a hundred distractions. The understanding came in the walking, not before it. The Lord always connects us with good people. Not by accident. By design. Faith in motion, in the Wednesday market.
Guyon's second day in the journal — and she is drawing threads together that span the entire journey.
James Smith said it in the "Only Believe" entry from Caldas da Rainha: unbelief calls God a liar. Guyon says it even more intimately: the greatest wrong you can do to God is to doubt His love. The same truth, spoken from different ends of the same road. Smith addresses the will — believe. Guyon addresses the heart — do not doubt that you are loved. Both arrive at the same place: the soul that takes God at His Word, not because it feels confident but because He is trustworthy.
George Bowen on the Costa de la Luz: "Seek purity of heart, and you shall find Me." And Guyon today: "He regards the simplicity and purity of the intention." Bowen and Guyon see the same thing — God looks at the direction of the heart, not the perfection of the performance. The pure in heart shall see God. The simple in intention shall find Him regarding them with love. Not after they have cleaned up sufficiently. Now.
Selwyn Hughes from Caldas da Rainha: "The love of God is not the fruit of our labor, but the response of our hearts to being loved." And Guyon's see-saw: confide as much more in God, as you hope less from yourself. The same motion. Stop manufacturing. Start receiving. The machinery turns when it is properly supplied — and the supply is not self-effort but God-confidence.
The youthful atheist testimony from the Canal du Midi: "Our freedom has proved false, our pleasures have lost their zest — for we lost all hope in ourselves." Guyon would say: that was the right place to arrive. The losing of all hope in self was not the defeat — it was the beginning. Because only then could the see-saw complete its motion: as hope in self went down, confidence in God could rise. The 500 denari soul did not find God by hoping more from herself. She found Him by hoping less from herself — and confiding everything in Him.
Calvin and Keller on prayer without ceasing — the Holy Spirit as timekeeper on the road. And today, in the Eymet market, the Spirit kept the hour again. Not in the closet. Not before dawn. In the crowd, in the noise, in the distractions. Walk by faith. The understanding came in the walking. The good people appeared by design. The road that God chooses does not always look like a road — sometimes it looks like a Wednesday market in the Dordogne. 🙏