Madame Jeanne Guyon on Overcoming World

Madame Jeanne Guyon was, if nothing, a warrior against the world, especially and first, as it pertained to her walk with Jesus Christ, and secondly, in helping those under her influence to attain the same results.

Guyon said:

When the world saw that I had quitted it, it persecuted me, and turned me into ridicule. I became the subject of its conversation, fabulous stories, and amusement. Given up to its irreligion and pleasures, it could not bear that a woman, little more than 20 years of age, should thus make war against it, and overcome it.

What's interesting about Guyon's comment, is not only the content itself, which is admirable, but also the way she viewed and communicated concerning this particular issue; something she wouldn't have done later in her walk with the Lord.

While it's obvious for those that know and have studied and read Guyon, that she wouldn't have spoken this way outside of the work of Christ in her life, you can still tell she was naive at this point as to her communications on the subject.

Later, when she found out her writings were taken out of context, and part of that from the uproar over Molinos, she was much more careful in writing her outlook on various spiritual matters, especially in her "Justifications," where she commented on Molinos and the resultant need to communicate much more clearly and carefully on the inner walk with Christ. Much of what she said, even to our modern day, is still taken out of context, or simply not understood; although that hasn't stopped those reading her works from criticizing them.

It is a bold and amazing statement by Guyon in her battle against the world, specifically at the young age she was at. There is no doubt in her mind, and probably, her experience, that her assertion was not just what she hoped, but the reality she was living.

That's not to say she didn't have more of her self that needed to be crucified, as she had testified to that for many years throughout her writings. But as to her attitude and interaction with the world, there is no doubt what she stated was in fact the truth.

Of course, as she found out not too long afterwards, the religious world was just as good as persecuting her as the world itself, as she challenged the superficial and outward elements of that world, generating enormous persecution and hatred against her.

In that she also stood strong in the Lord, even though she retained a respectful and humble attitude towards those attacking her love of the Lord Jesus Christ within her, and spreading that message of a deep inner walk in the Lord around France, and to a smaller degree, Italy, when he was alive.

That message has continued to echo through the centuries since she died, being the major choice of Christians seeking someone that has walked that walk, and not just read or talked about it, as her writings have confirmed.

All of us need to embrace the attitude of Jeanne Guyon toward the world, recognizing it's the Lord within us alone that can give us the strength to overcome it.

As James 4:4-5 says, "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?"

We must cry out to the Lord to help us to be in the world but not of the world, asking that He will aid us in pursuing the Spirit of God within us, who continues to call us from an outer life to an inward one.