We Must Persevere
By Brenda Lenzen
Today we are going to press on in our book study of In the School of the Holy Spirit. in the second chapter called "How Can We Foster Inspirations.”
In this chapter the author gives us 10 ways to foster inspirations.
Last week Ann talked about five of Jacque Philippe’s strategies for fostering inspirations from the Holy Spirit that he discusses in Chapter Two. Just as a reminder, the ones she talked about are:
- Practice Praise and Thanksgiving
- Practice Filial and Trusting Obedience
- Practice Silence and Peace
- Examine the Movements of our Hearts
- Open our Heart to a Spiritual Director
This week I am going to talk about the remaining five, which are:
- Desire and Ask for Inspirations
- Resolve to Refuse God Nothing
- Practice Abandonment
- Practice Detachment
- Persevere Faithfully in Prayer
Before I get into too deep into these five strategies, I'm want to talk just for a second about the title of the chapter, “How Can We Foster Inspirations.” I've been thinking about this ever since I was assigned this chapter. Does this mean that I have a part to play in the working of the Holy Spirit? I always thought that if I just prayed "Come Holy Spirit" and he showed up -- great, and if he didn't -- he didn't, and that I wasn’t in control. For sure the working of the Holy Spirit is independent of each one of us; we do not control him. We do not know why sometimes in history the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is so obvious and at other times it seems that he is nowhere to be found. However, I think that the title of this chapter is suggesting that we can predispose ourselves to recognizing the Holy Spirit. Just like we sang tonight: "Let us become more aware of your presence," that is what this chapter is about. We can safely say that the Holy Spirit, because he is God, is always at work in every moment. This chapter talks about things that we can do to clue in on identifying his presence and his prompting.
Desire and Ask for Inspirations
This seems rather obvious. As a people of prayer we frequently pray "Come Holy Spirit,” but the author reminds us that we need to pray this unceasingly, not just in the critical times or in the times when we need to make a major decision. He reminds us in Luke 11:9 “Ask and it will be given to you.” The author also writes: "It would be strange if God were to refuse us his inspirations."
Resolve to Refuse God Nothing
The author tells us that the way to foster the Holy Spirit is to "Focus on being determined to obey the Lord in everything big or little without exception." I remember when I was a little girl I was taught that the first time you lie about something it's hard and your conscious might really bother you. But the second time you lie about it, it becomes a little bit easier and eventually if you ignore your conscious and you continue telling untruths, lying becomes easy and second nature and you are not bothered by it at all. Obeying God is a little bit the same, actually it's very much the same. When we respond to his prompting, we condition ourselves to recognize more readily when he is prompting us in the future. When we don't obey, gradually we lose the ability to recognize his promptings. The author says that "the more God sees our willingness to respond, the more he will favor us with his inspirations."
Now I know that God's inspirations have been witnessed in this very room. We've heard about some of them tonight. One story that I would like to share with you is a story by a young woman that I heard last year at the Steubenville Conference. This young woman was totally on fire with the Holy Spirit, you could just tell. She said that she was driving home from a very long trip and she was all alone in her car and she got hungry and she heard the Lord say, "Take this exit and go to this restaurant." Now in my mind I'm thinking, "Hmmm, okay, where is she going with this?" But she did. And the Lord told her that he had someone that he needed her to speak to in this particular restaurant. She got to the restaurant and she found the person readily identified who God wanted her to talk to, and she knew what she had to say, but she became afraid. So she went into the bathroom and she tried to psyche herself up and prayed, “Lord do you really want me to say this, is this really you or is this just in my mind?"
And he replied, "Yes, I really want you to say this."
So she went back out into the restaurant and she said her word to this person and this person started to cry and said, "I just prayed that prayer this morning and you have given me the answer to my prayer."
In this case the Lord was glorified in both the receiver of the word and the giver of the word. I love what Fr. Philippe said says next in his book though because I fall into this trap personally. He says that we have to be extremely dedicated to our prayer life in order to hear the Lord in these ways and obey. That we can be scrupulous and we can become paranoid and we can doubt. And here's how my mind works, "Was that you Lord? No, no, no that wasn't you. Wait, yes, maybe that was you, Lord. Of course, of course that was you. Wow, Lord, that's sure asking a lot. Surely you don't want me to say that." And I get confused and I make myself doubt.
The author beautifully addresses this. He says that we should pray for the resolve to not neglect a single one of God's wishes, no matter how small. But we must remember that God prompts us with love and not with fear. If we are confused about something the Lord is asking of us, or even if it is the Lord at all, we have to remember that he loves us and that we can ask him for clarification. We always must be generous with our response to him and we must realize that inevitably we will fail, but that through prayer, our Lord will continue to teach us his ways as they relate to this very topic.
Practicing Abandonment
Of the 10 strategies in this chapter, this was my favorite. Fr. Philippe says that we should practice obedience or abandonment to events. This is a very complex area. The chapter states that many things happen that God does not will, but that he allows.
I am reminded of a situation where a friend of mine, she was a brand new convert to the faith, observed a priest who was obviously doing something very, very far outside of God's will. The new convert, being bold and brazen, went to someone in authority over this priest, it was another priest, and that authority turned a blind eye to the circumstances and refused to confront the priest for his very egregious ways. This was a scandal to my friend's budding faith, but the Lord allowed this to happen.
For all of us, when we see evil in the world, when bad things happen to good people, when injustice goes unanswered, we must realize that, while God doesn't will evil, he allows it. We must then abandon ourselves to these events and say, "I trust you, Lord. I don't understand, but I trust that you have a plan and that all things work together for the good." In doing this, however, we have to be very careful. A very wise person recently told me this, there is a fine line between detachment and not giving a hoot. Think about that. That there is a fine line between holy detachment and a passive, apathetic, as my teenagers would say: "Oh, whatever"-type abandonment to situations, things, problems with children, health issues, world issues, relationship issues, issues with a spouse, employment issues, etc. Not giving a hoot connotes an apathy that ultimately is rooted in despair or fatalism or laziness or some other form of unhealthy resignation. Whereas true abandonment places yourself at the foot of God's throne and you adoringly lay the event at his feet with great hope.
Practicing Detachment
Just a few quick thoughts on this one because it's very similar to abandonment. Whether we see it coming a long way off or we are surprised that the Lord is asking us to detach from a material thing, an idea, or a point of view, the author tells us not to tense up. Whether we see it coming and we know the Lord is going to ask us to detach from something or we are just blindly hit upside the head with having to detach from something, we're not to tense up or become defiant. When we tense up we make it hard to recognize the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Corrie ten Boom prays on this topic a very famous prayer. She says, "Lord please help me never to hold onto something so tightly that it hurts when you pry my fingers loose." Fr. Philippe says that material detachment is difficult and a challenge, but often it is the detachment from a point of view or from our own wisdom that it is most difficult to let go of. He ends with this quote, "Our wisdom and God's practicality never coincide perfectly and this lack of congruence means that at any stage of our spiritual journey we shall never be dispensed from practicing detachment from our own personal ideas, however well-intentioned they may be." I would ask that you ask what personal idea you are attached to today. Is there a deep-seated thought that you've clung to too tightly that the Lord is asking you to consider laying at the foot of his throne?
Persevere Faithfully in Prayer
The last book that we studied, Time for God, was all about this topic and it seems that persevering in prayer is the answer to everything, doesn't it? We must persevere in prayer if we are having trouble fitting prayer into our schedule. We must persevere in prayer if we are experiencing a lack of faith. We must persevere in prayer if we are experiencing a dry time. We must persevere in prayer if we doubt that God is even with us. We must persevere if we find ourselves unable to pay attention. We must persevere in prayer if we find ourselves tending to always fall asleep when we pray. We must persevere in prayer if we are bored with our prayer time. We must persevere in prayer if we are discouraged because it seems like things that we are praying about or those around us or our situations never change even though we pray for change. If you have tried to persevere and keep failing, persevere.
We must keep on, my friends, we must persevere. There is always a sunrise tomorrow. God is calling us to round that next bend. Never give up, never give up, never give up. The Holy Spirit is speaking. Are your ears ready? Are you eyes ready? Is your heart ready?
Community Gathering, January 29, 2017