Submission is better than fretting
Cover of Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim’s Way
Today's Devotional
The foolishness of man ruins his way, and his heart rages against the LORD. Proverbs 19: 3.
I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Psalm 119: 75.
Impatience and fretting under trial does but increase our suffering, whereas meek submission sanctifies all suffering, and fills the tortured heart with peace amid its anguish. Worship Him in every sorrow; worship Him in deed and word, but still more in humble and loving acceptance of each pang and heart-ache. Be sure that your mere silent willing endurance is a true act of adoration; and thus, come what may, weariness, pain, desolation, destitution, loneliness, all will carry on His gracious work in you, and, amid the sharpest pressure of suffering, you will be sending up to His eternal throne the precious incense of submission and trust.
About the author and the source
Abbé Guilloré (17th/18th centuries) was a French Jesuit who wrote, Self-Renunciation, a book in the Quietist tradition, about our need to die to self and live for Christ Jesus.
Abbé Guilloré. “January 31” in Joy and Strength for the Pilgrim’s Day, edited by Mary Wilder Tileston. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1901.