This is a quote from a 17th century French preacher, Jean Baptiste Saint Jure. His writings have transformed my life over the last 7 months and I hope you find this of comfort.
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With submission and conformity to the will of God we should bear the evil consequences of which falling into sin is often the cause. It may be some indisposition or some more serious effect on our health brought about by overindulgence; some sacrifice we have to make because of money spent foolishly for selfish ends; some bad turn in our affairs owing to impatient or imprudent conduct on our part; difficulty in resisting temptation and leading a good life because of a long habit of sin we have contracted - the situation fills us with worry and anxiety and we feel unable to cope with it. God certainly did not wish you to sin, but the sin having been committed, He wishes for your good that it should be followed by this punishment. Accept in then from his hand in the belief that there is nothing more suited to regaining his favor than your humble acceptance of it. Then, far from being prejudicial to you, your failures, insofar as they give you the opportunity of submitting to His Will, will be as it were a monument to your perseverance in God's service, and the more numerous they have been, the more glorious will be their witness to your perseverance.
Let us take a practical example. A man has to make a journey on foot. He must go across rough country, he is without food and almost exhausted, so he falls repeatedly. But he gets to his again each time, determined not to give in and, come what may, arrive at his destination. When he finally arrives, is it not true to say that his perseverance has been all the greater and more heroic in proportion to the number of obstacles he has had to overcome and the falls from which he has recovered?
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With submission and conformity to the will of God we should bear the evil consequences of which falling into sin is often the cause. It may be some indisposition or some more serious effect on our health brought about by overindulgence; some sacrifice we have to make because of money spent foolishly for selfish ends; some bad turn in our affairs owing to impatient or imprudent conduct on our part; difficulty in resisting temptation and leading a good life because of a long habit of sin we have contracted - the situation fills us with worry and anxiety and we feel unable to cope with it. God certainly did not wish you to sin, but the sin having been committed, He wishes for your good that it should be followed by this punishment. Accept in then from his hand in the belief that there is nothing more suited to regaining his favor than your humble acceptance of it. Then, far from being prejudicial to you, your failures, insofar as they give you the opportunity of submitting to His Will, will be as it were a monument to your perseverance in God's service, and the more numerous they have been, the more glorious will be their witness to your perseverance.
Let us take a practical example. A man has to make a journey on foot. He must go across rough country, he is without food and almost exhausted, so he falls repeatedly. But he gets to his again each time, determined not to give in and, come what may, arrive at his destination. When he finally arrives, is it not true to say that his perseverance has been all the greater and more heroic in proportion to the number of obstacles he has had to overcome and the falls from which he has recovered?
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