Success comes from an excellent Spirit
What type of Spirit do you have?
Most people point to education, talent, work ethic, relationships, or privilege as the secret to their success. Though these can play a role, they are not what produce promotion.
Rather, promotion comes from God
(Ps. 75:6-7)
6 For promotion comes neither from the east, Nor from the west, nor from the south.
7 But God is the judge:
He puts down one and sets up another.
While God desires to promote you as His child, you determine whether or not you’re promoted. It is your choice alone, GOd does not force His Will upon anyone!
You must choose to have an excellent spirit.
St. John tells us, that all in the world (that is, all the tempers of a worldly life) is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Let us, therefore, consider, what wisdom or excellency of mind there is required to qualify a man for these delights.
Let us suppose a man has given up to the pleasures of the body; surely this can be not a sign of a fine mind or an excellent spirit: for if he has but the temperament of an animal, he places great enjoyment in these pursuits.
From:
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. {Chap. XXIV}
A devout man with an excellent Spirit makes a true use of his reason: he sees through the vanity of the world, discovers the corruption of his nature, and the blindness of his passion. He lives by a law which is not visible to vulgar eyes; he enters into the world of spirits; he compares the greatest things, sets eternity against time; and chooses rather to be forever great in the presence of God, when he dies, than to have the greatest share of worldly pleasure whilst he lives.
He that is devout, is full of these great thoughts; he lives upon these noble reflections and conducts himself by rules and principles, which can only be apprehended, admired, and loved by reason.
There is nothing therefore that shows so great a genius, nothing that so raises us above vulgar spirits, nothing that so plainly declares a heroic greatness of mind, as great devotion.
When you suppose a man to be a saint or all devotion, you have raised him as much above all other conditions of life, as a philosopher is above an animal.
Lastly; courage and bravery are words of a great sound, and seem to signify a heroic spirit; but yet humility, which seems to be the lowest, meanest part of devotion, is a more certain argument of a noble and courageous mind.
For humility contends with greater enemies, is more constantly engaged, more violently assaulted, bears more, suffers more, and requires greater courage to support itself, than any instances of worldly bravery.
When a person dares be poor and contemptible in the eyes of the world, to approve himself to God; that resists and rejects all human glory, that opposes the clamour of his passions, that meekly puts up with all injuries and wrongs, and dares stay for his reward till the invisible hand of God gives to every one their proper places, endures a much greater trial, and exerts a nobler fortitude, than he that is bold and daring in the fire of battle...
He has an Excellent Spirit!
From:
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.
You must choose to have an excellent spirit.
What type of Spirit do you have?
Most people point to education, talent, work ethic, relationships, or privilege as the secret to their success. Though these can play a role, they are not what produce promotion.
Rather, promotion comes from God
(Ps. 75:6-7)
6 For promotion comes neither from the east, Nor from the west, nor from the south.
7 But God is the judge:
He puts down one and sets up another.
While God desires to promote you as His child, you determine whether or not you’re promoted. It is your choice alone, GOd does not force His Will upon anyone!
You must choose to have an excellent spirit.
St. John tells us, that all in the world (that is, all the tempers of a worldly life) is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Let us, therefore, consider, what wisdom or excellency of mind there is required to qualify a man for these delights.
Let us suppose a man has given up to the pleasures of the body; surely this can be not a sign of a fine mind or an excellent spirit: for if he has but the temperament of an animal, he places great enjoyment in these pursuits.
From:
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. {Chap. XXIV}
A devout man with an excellent Spirit makes a true use of his reason: he sees through the vanity of the world, discovers the corruption of his nature, and the blindness of his passion. He lives by a law which is not visible to vulgar eyes; he enters into the world of spirits; he compares the greatest things, sets eternity against time; and chooses rather to be forever great in the presence of God, when he dies, than to have the greatest share of worldly pleasure whilst he lives.
He that is devout, is full of these great thoughts; he lives upon these noble reflections and conducts himself by rules and principles, which can only be apprehended, admired, and loved by reason.
There is nothing therefore that shows so great a genius, nothing that so raises us above vulgar spirits, nothing that so plainly declares a heroic greatness of mind, as great devotion.
When you suppose a man to be a saint or all devotion, you have raised him as much above all other conditions of life, as a philosopher is above an animal.
Lastly; courage and bravery are words of a great sound, and seem to signify a heroic spirit; but yet humility, which seems to be the lowest, meanest part of devotion, is a more certain argument of a noble and courageous mind.
For humility contends with greater enemies, is more constantly engaged, more violently assaulted, bears more, suffers more, and requires greater courage to support itself, than any instances of worldly bravery.
When a person dares be poor and contemptible in the eyes of the world, to approve himself to God; that resists and rejects all human glory, that opposes the clamour of his passions, that meekly puts up with all injuries and wrongs, and dares stay for his reward till the invisible hand of God gives to every one their proper places, endures a much greater trial, and exerts a nobler fortitude, than he that is bold and daring in the fire of battle...
He has an Excellent Spirit!
From:
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.
You must choose to have an excellent spirit.
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