Then, I doubt whether anyone ever received that divine afflatus with which we are here concerned who did not first experience a period of deep anxiety and inward agitation. Religious contentment is the enemy of the spiritual life always. The biographies of the saints teach that the way to spiritual greatness has always been through much suffering and inward pain. The phrase, “the way of the cross,” though it has come in certain circles to denote something very beautiful, even enjoyable, still means to the real Christian what it has always meant, the way of rejection and loss. No one ever enjoyed a cross, just as no one ever enjoyed a gallows.
Verse
Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:38
Thought
Religious contentment is the enemy of the spiritual life always.
Prayer
Help us, Lord, to take up our crosses and follow You with our whole hearts.