Absolute Trust the Shortest Road to God.
Trusting God completely is the shortest road to perfection and a key to spiritual growth.
Francois Fenelon emphasizes the importance of absolute trust in God as the shortest path to drawing closer to Him. He highlights that God uses crosses, sufferings, and humiliations to lead souls to Himself more effectively than human efforts, as they uproot self-love. Fenelon encourages complete surrender to God, trusting Him wholeheartedly and following His lead without the need to know every detail, which would expedite the journey to spiritual perfection.
Text
LETTER XXVI.
Absolute trust the shortest road to God.
I have no doubt but that God constantly treats you as one of his friends, that is, with crosses, sufferings, and humiliations. The ways and means of God to draw souls to Himself, accomplish his design much more rapidly and effectually than all the efforts of the creature; for they destroy self-love at its very root, where, with all our pains, we could scarce discover it. God knows all its windings, and attacks it in its strongest holds.
If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God, and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection. But as we are so weak in faith, as to require to know all the way without trusting in God, our road is lengthened and our spiritual affairs get behind. Abandon yourself as absolutely as possible to God, and continue to do so to your latest breath, and He will never desert you.
Sermon Outline
- God's Ways are Shortest to Perfection
- Trust in God is the Key to Perfection
- Consequences of Not Trusting in God
- God's ways destroy self-love at its root
- God knows all our weaknesses and attacks them
- Abandon yourself to God for a shorter road
- Faith in God is the strength we need
- Lengthened road to perfection
- Spiritual affairs get behind
Key Quotes
“Abandon yourself as absolutely as possible to God, and continue to do so to your latest breath, and He will never desert you.” — Francois Fenelon
“If we had strength and faith enough to trust ourselves entirely to God, and follow Him simply wherever He should lead us, we should have no need of any great effort of mind to reach perfection.” — Francois Fenelon
Application Points
- Abandon yourself to God completely for a shorter road to perfection.
- Faith in God is the strength we need to reach perfection.
- Trusting God destroys self-love at its root, leading to spiritual growth.