All consolation that does not come from God is but desolation; when the soul has learned to receive no comfort but in God only, it has passed beyond the reach of desolation. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon More Quotes by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon More Quotes From Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon If knowing answers to life's questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget the journey. You will never make it, for this is a journey of unknowables - of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and, most of all, things unfair. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon knowing journey faith It is only by a total death to self we can be lost in God. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon christian god death He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray; and he who will be constant in prayer, shall know what it is to have a pure heart. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon religious prayer spiritual Prayer is the key of perfection and of sovereign happiness; it is the efficacious means of getting rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues; for the way to become perfect is to live in the presence of God. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon keys prayer mean The soul seeks God by faith, not by the reasonings of the mind and labored efforts, but by the drawings of love; to which inclinations God responds, and instructs the soul, which co-operates actively. God then puts the soul in a passive state where He accomplishes all, causing great progress, first by way of enjoyment, then by privation, and finally by pure love. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon effort drawing soul Self-seeking is the gate by which a soul departs from peace; and total abandonment to the will of God, that by which it returns. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon return soul self It is a great truth, wonderful as it is undeniable, that all our happiness - temporal, spiritual, and eternal - consists in one thing; namely, in resigning ourselves to God, and in leaving ourselves with Him, to do with us and in us just as He pleases. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon leaving spiritual happiness Oh, that we fully understood how very opposite our self-righteousness is to the designs of God! Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon humility self opposites I have never found any who prayed so well as those who had never been taught how. They who have no master in man, have one in the Holy Spirit. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon taught prayer men God's designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon design god wise We never know how strongly we cling to objects until they are taken away, and he who thinks htat he is attached to nothing, is frequently grandly mistaken, being bound to a thousand things, unknown to himself. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon thousand taken thinking The more wants we have, the further we are from God, and the nearer we approach him, the better can we dispense with everything that is not Himself. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon approach want It is the fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of godliness. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon gold suffering fire In your occupations, try to possess your soul in peace. It is not a good plan to be in haste to perform any action that it may be sooner over. On the contrary, you should accustom yourself to do whatever you have to do with tranquility, in order that you may retain the possession of yourself and of settled peace. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon soul peace order Surrender yourselves then to be led and disposed of just as God pleases, with respect both to your outward and inward state. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon inward surrender states Let no one ask a stronger mark of an excellent love to God, than that we are insensible to our own reputation. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon reputation stronger excellent As one sees a river pass into the ocean, lose itself in it, its water for a time distinguished from that of the sea, till it gradually becomes transformed into the same sea, and possesses all its qualities; so was my soul lost in God, who communicated to it His qualities, having drawn it out of all that it had of its own. Its life is an inconceivable innocence, not known or comprehended of those who are still shut up in themselves or only live for themselves. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon ocean god sea We must forget ourselves and all self-interest, and listen, and be attentive to God. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon interest self forget The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of, and not of reasonings which are the fruits of study, or exercise of the imagination, which, in filling the mind with wandering objects, rarely settle it; instead of warming the heart with love to God, they leave it cold and languishing. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon prayer exercise heart My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providence. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and silence. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon silence soul exercise
