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On Being Christian - Faith Does Not Need the Senses to Know That There is Hope
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| "When various troubles assail you, establish in yourself the assurance that it is for your good and for the sake of your salvation, that the loving wisdom and just will of God has graciously ruled that you should suffer what you now suffer and in the measure that you suffer." Have you prayed with doubt? Which is to say, you have gone through the motions to pray yet have resolved yourself to the feeling that your prayer goes unheard and unanswered. What an absolute load of bull is this. Any fool who believes this is just that - a fool. Being tricked by the devil into believing that God has limits. Do you see how unbelievably stupid a though it is to think that God does not hear your prayers. He who not only created the very tiniest of hairs on the tiniest mite on earth - but also knows the exact numbers of hairs on each mite. You would suppose for one moment that He does not hear your prayer. Of course in the face of this simplistic fact, you back-pedal and say, "Well, maybe He hears my prayers, but He does not act on them." Again, pure stupidity. Why would Jesus devote so much of His ministry into directing all of us to pray to God for literally anything and everything - only to ignore them. That would be like going to the store and buying food, allowing the food to sit in the kitchen uneaten, while we starve in the sight of this rotting food. It is insanity thinking. Indeed it is not thinking at all, but malicious whispers echoing through your mind brought on by the anger and hatred the Enemy has for us. And so, when you pray with doubt, it is though you are bowing down to the power and might of Satan. For prayer with doubt, is faithless lip-service. You place the power of doubt over the Glory of God.
If you believe in God, then you must accept the very basic foundations of God - which is to say omnipotent - meaning all powerful. He can neither be explained, contained or even attained by reason. In fact, the very use of the word "He" does a serious injustice to the beyond-our-understanding of God. For He is "He", She", "It", "All". The Gospel according to St. John says it so clear (regardless of the Biblical translation used) "All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made."(a). There, very simply put. Absolutely nothing that exists, or ever existed, did so without God Doubt is not real, it is nothing more than a dirty window. For how can you enjoy the sunlight of a beautiful day or take in the majesty of the breath-taking landscape when you view it behind a dirty window. You can't. Nor can a friend, passing by your house, see you or communicate with you through this dirty window. You must clean the windows for the light of God's love to come shining through. So this so called ash-heap called dirt has smudged your window - so what. Clean it and move on. By the way, doubt is not natural, it is artificial. Allow me to explain. Pride is, at our core, our worst enemy. For in pride are all other sins born from. Pride is the most powerful of them all as it brought down an angel of light called Sataniel (Satan). Pride is a very natural extension of our human existence. It is natural for us to feel accomplishment, to take pride in our work. It is a since of self-importance that just comes naturally to us. So knowing this, how could we doubt that God would here our prayers and act on our prayers - for are we not important? You see how doubt become transparent? It is a trick by the devil. As you begin to ween yourself off the development of prideful thoughts, the devil (knowing you are at a tender moment of transition) blows in the smog of doubt and you are momentarily lost. Having let go of the footing of self-reliance, you are without tangible ground, meaning you can not feel the ground you are used to feeling. Why? Because you are ascending my beautiful child of Christ's love. You are no longer dependent on the ground for firm support. So when doubt enters your prayers, see them for what they are cobwebs that have no strength to stop you at all. No power over you. When comes to you, stop and face it head and say, "I do believe God hears me. I do believe God answers my prayers. I do believe that I will see His majesty in this struggle and all struggles. I do believe that He will not only redeem me in my struggles, but grant me greater that I could ever ask for." And, most of all, remind yourself that you are ascending. And having never been here before, there is new feeling. But one thing has not changed - the presence of God. There is another aspect for you to consider. I am sure I am not alone when I point this aspect out. My niece loves sports. She plays pretty much every sport she can. And she's good at all of them. When you go upstairs, you walk through this hall of awards. Starting from when she was very little, all the way up to present day. The wall is covered with these awards. And she has a story for each one of them. The icons found in an Orthodox Church are exactly the same thing. Each icon is an award given by God to us. Icons tell the story of a (now) saint who fought the same fight you fight now. Against the same enemy, against the same tricks. These saints are young, old, female, male, sinner and righteous combined. There is no criteria to being a saint, only the true belief that absolutely nothing else on earth can sustain us except Christ. Do not bow down to Saints. Do not worship them. Look upon them. Gaze at them. Know their stories and see how they too, fought the same fight you now fight. Gather a group of strangers together and lock them in an area, so that they can only mingle with each other and no one else. In a short while, groups will be formed, gathered together in like-minded ways. Seeking commonalities among themselves. A new comer comes into their midst. Some greet him, others shun him. But this new comer is new and is unknowing as to what he must do, where he must go. So he seeks advice. Those who shunned him, will provide no answers or worse, malicious advice. While the greeters will provide sound advice, good advice. We are this new comer, and the saints before us are the greeters. And you can imagine who is the one who shunned us, then later tried to provide us with malicious advice. Doubt is not real. Hope is. Hope never changes. It is the same as it was 2000 years ago when Christ died for all our sins, as it is today. Hope is constant. Ever-present. And, as it comes from God, is too, all-powerful. So when doubt whispers in your ear that God will not answer your prayer. Simply smile and say - He already has - 2000 years ago when He hung on the cross for the sins I committed yesterday, and the sins I will commit today and tomorrow. __________________________________________ |
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Based on the writings of Saint Nicodemus in Unseen Warfare.
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