Willing What God Wills

From Freedom from Sinful Thoughts, this week’s featured book (ebook free for subscribers).

When, in the middle of a trying struggle, we feel a desire for God in the depth of our hearts, it is a sign that he is still there. (The fact that we are even struggling is a sign of this, too.) We may not have strength to follow him at that moment, but as long as we hear him through the voice of our conscience, we can hold on to that and know that he will lead us out of our struggle.

God is concealed deep within the heart of every human being, for each of us is made “in his image.” If we have childlike faith in this, it should not be hard to believe that it is he whose voice directs us out of the darkness to freedom and light. Yet how, against the clamor of other voices that vie for our attention, can we find the inner quiet we need in order to hear him?

In one of his poems, my father, Eberhard Arnold, touches on this question and speaks, in answer to it, of his longing to be “outpoured” for God so that he can await him “in stillness.” This stillness, which the thirteenth-century German mystic Meister Eckhart calls “detachment,” is a daily necessity for every Christian. Detachment means separating ourselves from all the tensions of the day – from worries about work, leisure, and personal life; from the news, from sports, from headaches over practical problems, from the distractions of tomorrow’s plans. It means standing before God in silence so that we can perceive his working in our hearts.

Ken Alexander, The Geometry of a Pilgrimage. Used by permission.

Even the “cramped will” I wrote of earlier must be yielded so that the deeper voice of the heart can speak without having to compete with anything else. This means detachment from mammon, impurity, and malice; from deceit, mistrust, and hatred; from all spirits foreign to God. Here I would like to emphasize once again the significance of the subconscious and remind the reader that the cause of an attack by an evil spirit is often found there. With this in mind, it should be obvious how important it is to find detachment every evening before falling asleep. Whatever we give room to in our heart may work on in us all night long.

We know we cannot achieve true detachment in our own strength, but that is no cause for self-doubt or worry. In fact, the best way to remain mired in struggle and to experience nothing good at all is to keep taking stock of our own weakness. I have counseled people who did this – they were so intent on watching themselves that they were always tense, and never able to listen to God. If we really desire God’s help, we should not look to ourselves, but to him….

For those whose severe temptations still confuse them and keep them from detachment, it may help to remember that the mind is never a blank void. Whatever we remove, we must replace. Therefore it is critical to not only drop everything that distracts us, but to focus our inward eye and ear on Jesus alone. The more we are able to look outward and forget ourselves, the more easily our mind can be freed and healed by God. As the writer of Philippians advises: “Whatever is true, noble, right, or pure; whatever is lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy – think on such things…. And the God of peace will be with you (Phil. 4:8–9).”

When the soul finds this peace and is no longer subject to the force of spirits warring within; when it is no longer subjected to any force – not even the pressure of its own tortured longing – then the voice of God, which is the Spirit, can speak.