Preventive restraint

SUMMARY: The key to a secure and protected spiritual life is an attitude of complete surrender to God's will. This involves recognizing our limitations and humbling ourselves before Him, like a child trusting their mother. Willful disobedience can lead to painful consequences, but obedience to God's principles can prevent such outcomes. The cost of disobedience is high, but preventive medicine is available through obedience. Solomon's advice to trust in the Lord and acknowledge Him in all our ways is like medicine and food for our bodies and bones.

God's purpose throughout our entire spiritual career is to produce in us an attitude of complete surrender, of absolute yield to His will; breaking down and training ourselves until only the ingrained instinct to submit to the least pressure of the divine Spirit remains in us.

I call this "preventive restraint." It is a fundamental attitude that governs all aspects and actions of our life, an unconscious disposition to obey God in any situation, no matter how strong the temptation to go in another direction. In that pliable and humble posture of the believer there is infinite security and inviolable protection.