All to His Glory!

"I ask no more, in good or ill, but union with Thy perfect will."- Madame Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717)

I'm sitting here reading an incredible story about the human heart. I would love to have a bigger capacity for loving God. Just being in his presence so much here has caused me to cry out, GOD LET ME LOVE YOU MORE! I don't know what that looks like! Let me love you more!

Guyon was a french woman who lived a full life in God. When she was only 15 she married a man 20 years older than her (I guess that was acceptable back then). Her mother-in-law was abusive to her as she grew in the Lord...she didn't really care, she saw her afflictions as God making her inwardly holy and full of life. After her husband died she grew more and more into the inner life. She increasingly believed that the Christian life consisted not of rules, regulations, and rituals, but of the life of Christ in the soul of a human being.

When she was 34 she began her ministry, traveling throughout France and Switzerland teaching wherever God would lead her. During this time she also wrote to many people, counseling them and leading them gently in the way of the inner life. As Guyon's teachings became more popular and widespread, church leaders began to charge her with heresy because some of her teachings were different than church doctrine.The Roman church taught that any relationship with God and Christ had to be through the rituals and sacraments of the church, but she taught that each person could directly communicate with God in her inner being, and that was best done by laying aside the rituals and religious activities of the church and living the contemplative life.

In the end, the church found her and put her in prison where she spent up to 14 years in prison and even survived the Bastille (which was primarily used to house political prisoners).

Her testimony is just amazing. It was said that she was persecuted by her church "because she loved Jesus too much."

What a way to live your life! She truly decreased more and more in a time when she could have increased. Because of her beauty she was married to a rich man. But that wasn't enough for her. She had a cry in her heart that could not be satisfied by this world. I want a faith like this. Willing to lay aside the "perfect" future for the sake of "loving Jesus too much", I feel like Jesus already put this in me, a beautiful desire to fully know him, he placed a map in my heart that points exactly to his heart. I'm excited to see what God will do in this season of my life. I'm excited to know there's women out there like Guyon, I hope I become more and more like her.