This idea was once expressed better by a simple-hearted man who was asked how he managed to live in such a state of constant tranquility even though surrounded by circumstances anything but pleasant. His answer was as profound as it was simple: "I have learned," he said, "to cooperate with the inevitable."

The idea here set forth is so wise and practical that it is hard to see how we Christians have managed to overlook it so completely in our everyday living. That we do overlook it is shown by our conduct and conversation. Some of us "kick against the pricks" for a lifetime, all the while believing that we are surrendered to the will of God.

Some of the Stoic moral philosophers appear to have known more about this secret than many Christians do. Epictetus, for instance, would never dream of resenting circumstances or complaining about his lot in life. To do so would be to rebel against God. According to his teaching, men are placed in a world over which they have no control and are therefore not accountable to God for the direction the world takes. What wicked men do should not disturb the good man's tranquility. These things belong to the world outside. It is the inner world that matters, because that is the only world over which we have control and the only one for which we shall be held responsible. The inner world consists of our thoughts and emotions, presided over by our will. While we cannot determine circumstances we can determine our reaction to them. And there is where the battle is to be fought and the victory won.

This is not to teach fatalism or to deny the freedom of the human will. Quite the contrary, it is to assert that freedom unequivocally. Though we cannot control the universe, we can determine our attitude toward it. We can accept God's will wherever it is expressed and take toward it an attitude of worshipful resignation, if my will is to do God's will, then there will be no controversy with anything that comes in the course of my daily walk. Inclement weather, unpleasant neighbors, physical handicaps, adverse political conditions - all these will be accepted as God's will for the time and surrendered to provisionally, subject to such alterations as God may see fit to make, either by His own sovereign providence or in answer to believing prayer.

To "accept the universe" does not mean that we are to accept evil conditions as inevitable and make no effort to improve them. So to teach would be to cancel the plain teachings of the Scriptures on that point. Where a situation is contrary to the will of God, and there are clear promises concerning it in the Scriptures, it is our privilege and obligation to pray and labor to bring about a change. Should we become ill, for instance, we should not surrender to the illness as being inevitable and do nothing about it. Rather we should accept it provisionally as the will of God for the time and seek His will about recovering our health. The big thing, however, is that we do not chafe against our illness and resist it as something that has visited us outside the will of God. Or if a fair examination of the facts proves that our illness was caused by some disobedience to the plain commandments of the Scriptures, we have but to confess it and make whatever amendments are indicated in the Word. This will bring us back into the center of God's will and put our lives on course. But to fret and complain against our afflictions like an animal caught in a trap is to miss the whole disciplinary purpose of God in our lives. God will heal and alter conditions but He will not do so for fretful souls who chew at the trap of circumstances and pity themselves for their sufferings.

While the prayer of faith enables us to lay hold of the omnipotence of God and bring about many wonderful changes here below, there are some things that not even prayer can change. These lie outside the field of prayer and must be accepted with thanksgiving as the wise will of God for us.

We should, for instance, accept the wisdom of God in nature, in the course of a lifetime there may be a thousand things we could wish had been different, but the word wish is not in the Christian's vocabulary. The very word connotes a fretful rebellion against the ways of God in His universe. Let's accept that universe.

Again, accept yourself. Apart from sin, which you have forsaken and which you mean to practice no more, there is nothing about yourself of which you need be ashamed. That you are who you are and what you are; that you were born of your particular hereditary line; that you are of your particular sex, race, color, size; that you were born into these times and not into some other period in history - for these things thank God sincerely and accept your divinely appointed status. Cease to vex yourself about anything over which you have no control. Keep your heart with all diligence and God will look after the universe. It's remarkable what peace this simple spiritual philosophy will bring to the soul.