Our guest was the rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Leonovo, a teacher at the Department of Biblical Studies of the Moscow Theological Academy, Archpriest Andrei Rakhnovsky.

The conversation was about how to relate to sorrows and difficulties in life, how to learn to trust God both in joy and in difficulties, and also about how faith in God can become the basis of inner peace and spiritual peace.

T. Larsen

Hello, friends! You are listening to the “Sunday Evening” program in Tutta Larsen’s studio...

A. Pichugin

And Alexey Pichugin.

T. Larsen

And our guest, rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Leonovo, teacher of the Department of Biblical Studies of the Moscow Theological Academy, Archpriest Andrei Rakhnovsky.

A. Rakhnovsky

Good evening!

T. Larsen

But in fact, every believer, it seems to me, in any of his confessions necessarily repents of his lack of faith. And not even because he somehow doesn’t try, doesn’t try to get closer to God as much as possible, fulfill the commandments, pray, be merciful, and so on. But because every day throws him such challenges that, let’s say, cause such a powerful response in his psyche or emotions, which sooner or later is diagnosed as some kind of distrust, perhaps, of God. Well, that is, a lot of events happen every day and constantly, even some everyday things. Sometimes some money was lost, sometimes the children got sick, sometimes some illnesses were discovered, sometimes there were troubles at work, this and that, and there are even worse situations, when a person really suddenly faces a tragedy, with some terrible failure. And at this moment, instead of saying “Thank God for everything! I realized that this situation was sent to me by the Lord for some reason. I will pray to the Lord as I should and to the holy saints, and Mother of God, and I’ll understand everything, accept it, and move on!” - but no! We start to get hysterical, freak out, we start to suffer, cry, look for help, support, and I don’t know... Well, I’m just judging by myself! Every day I understand that I don’t trust God! Although I really want to! And I want to believe, and I want to trust! And I remember the Gospel “knock and it will be opened, seek and you will find”, and that “the Lord will take care of small birds for two assars - so won’t he take care of his children”, and that “every day has enough of its own care and does not need cares about tomorrow” - because this is what the Lord is for - I know all this! I understand all this on an intellectual level. But at some metaphysical, existential level, for some reason it’s hard for me to believe in this, so, probably, I’m a man of little faith. I would venture to guess that many of our listeners experience similar feelings.

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes. You know, in fact, you touched on such an important problem that a priest very often encounters in terms of spiritual care, and in his own life, of course, and this concerns the lives of other people. Because here, in fact, there is, in yours, let’s say...

T. Larsen

-...Long introduction...

A. Rakhnovsky

Your presentation of the situation makes a connection that every person tends to make. This means I trust God. Consequently, if something happened wrong in my life, a person, well, most people, definitely perceive it as some kind of sign of either Divine disapproval towards him, or interpret it in the sense that, probably, for some sins the Lord retreated from me. That is, in any case, the Lord turned away from me if something like that happened. And this, perhaps, begins to stem from this a certain distrust of God, various kinds of fears, and uncertainty in life. For some, this may ultimately cause some kind of rebellion against God. And distrust of God, in particular, is manifested in the fact that a person, even a believer, lives with some kind of thought that the Lord is obviously preparing some kind of trip for me!

T. Larsen

Yes Yes Yes! There's a catch!

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes, this even acquires a kind of unique “theology”, the essence of which roughly boils down to the following: that there are certain sorrows in life that the Lord sends to us, this is called the “life cross”. And a person, trying to maintain faith in such a situation, begins to explain it to himself this way: that through this I am saved, through such sorrows. Therefore, if I feel very bad, then it means, on the contrary, it’s probably good….

T. Larsen

Well, yes, to whom much is given, much is asked...

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes Yes! Therefore, let’s say, “let it get even worse, and then I will definitely be saved!” This is, let’s say, “theology” in quotation marks of fear and distrust of God...

A. Pichugin

People's!

A. Rakhnovsky

Again, there is a radical way out of this: someone leaves faith altogether, relying only on their own strength.

T. Larsen

Because living in fear is very difficult!

A. Rakhnovsky

Impossible! Someone, trying to maintain faith, builds such, let’s say, pseudo theology, which helps him somehow explain to himself what is inexplicable to him and what shakes his faith. Therefore, this problem really exists, and a person often has to solve it. And I, as a priest, very often encounter exactly this situation.

T. Larsen

Well, there is another side. When, it seems, everything is fine with a person, but he really wants something more. And so he longs for some kind of, I don’t know, career advancement, or maybe some kind of material improvements in his life. Well, or there, you want to get married, but it still doesn’t work out. And here, too, some kind of neurosis begins. Instead of saying to yourself: “If that’s the case, it means it’s not good for me now, or it’s not useful. The Lord does not send me any new blessings, well, everything is basically fine with me.” A person also begins to live in some kind of neurosis and also somehow tries to achieve something himself, but nothing works. And here, too, it is very difficult to rely on God's will and just say thank you for what you have and don’t demand more. That is, this is, in fact, such a huge complex problem on a scale, it seems to me, of the entire human life. Although we say that the result of the faith of every Christian should be maximum approach to Christ, deification, acquisition of the Holy Spirit, but these are all such high peaks, and elementary trust in God throughout one’s life may never be detected in oneself. It's very scary! Why then do we believe at all?!

A. Rakhnovsky

Well, let's do it this way. Even those quotations from the Gospel that you cited, they are accompanied by Christ with such words that “is this not what the pagans are looking for?”, right? That is, in fact, it seems to me that the essence of such a pagan, more broadly, folk religious worldview, - the essence of natural religiosity is, in fact, the expectation from contact with metaphysics of good luck in this life, the organization of earthly affairs and the favor of the gods towards you. In general, this is one of these intentions of the pagan worldview. Accordingly, there is a need to appease certain higher power and, of course, when a person accepts Christian faith, it is not enough to simply learn to go to mass and simply read the Gospel, but this, after all, requires a change in worldview. And if we look carefully at ourselves, we will see that in fact, having become Christians, somewhere deep down we did not abandon this pagan worldview. Obviously, the Gospel teaches us to look for something different from our relationship with God.

A. Pichugin

The Gospel teaches us to completely renounce the pagan worldview. But how possible is this?

A. Rakhnovsky

You see, often the inability to internally change this coordinate system from pagan to Christian becomes the cause of these stumbling blocks in faith. This is precisely the reason for the situation that Tatyana just described.

T. Larsen

Well then, maybe let’s determine, after all, how a Christian’s worldview should differ from this pagan approach, what’s wrong?

A. Pichugin

I can only ask one question, it’s just that we haven’t gone far from the first thought yet. A few days ago I came across a very dubious, in my opinion, maybe you won’t agree, saying of one hieromonk, which is actively spreading throughout the network as some kind of semi-patristic thought. “All tests are very important. They change a person more and more. The darker the darkness in your life, the better. You then distinguish light, you understand that it is light, you know how to appreciate it.”

A. Rakhnovsky. Yes. You know, I'll say this. Let's start with the basics. What is a Christian cross? What does it mean to “take up the cross and follow Christ”? Because this topic also gives rise to many different interpretations and even certain manipulations. Therefore, “taking up the cross and following Christ” means, no matter what in life, fearlessly confessing Christ and living according to Christian beliefs. Here. It is most important. But often the “cross of life” means some kind of misfortune.

A. Pichugin

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes. Of course, there is probably some truth here in the fact that, let’s say, living according to God’s commandments, according to Christian commandments, often creates problems for a person in this life in relationships with other people, at work, and somewhere else. Accordingly, if these sorrows were a consequence of living according to our worldview, we experience them as a continuation of bearing this cross. It is clear that certain sorrowful situations in life must be experienced by us in faith, therefore, conditionally, of course, life’s troubles can be attributed to bearing the cross, but in a very limited sense. Because why then did Christ heal the sick, the lame, the paralyzed, the demon-possessed...

T. Larsen

And he released the sinner in peace...

A. Rakhnovsky

Why did Christ perform such a miracle that he multiplied the wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. That is, obviously, these moments make us understand that, in fact, Christ, in fact, is not opposed to our life being joy. Here in our understanding of God’s providence there is the next point, very important, that two principles operate in human life. Excuse me, perhaps, for such complex formulations, but St. Maximus the Confessor called this “the logos of nature” and “the logos of grace,” or the principle of nature, certain natural phenomena and the principle of grace...

T. Larsen

Supernatural...

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! Which are constantly intertwined in our lives in a very bizarre way. This was also the case in the lives of the saints. That is, sometimes we seem to be left alone with life’s circumstances. Sometimes Divine grace acts in our lives, which either, I emphasize, strengthens us in these circumstances and allows us to remain a Christian and a person in these circumstances, which is most important, or by its action delivers us from certain sorrowful circumstances. And this first moment is the most important here. That is, to what extent can I remain human and Christian in this sorrow? If we look at the life of holy people, the same Apostle Paul, who incredibly, in general, four times in his life he suffered a shipwreck and actually drowned in the open sea. Once he was stoned to death. Once he even wrote that “I did not expect to survive.” That is, there were so many amazing, let’s say, events! Wherever he went, there was some kind of resistance to his preaching - on the one hand. But on the other hand, in his life there was an abundance of, let’s say, miracles, Divine help, grace, and the Lord did not even always fulfill his requests, but once told him that “My strength is made perfect in weakness,” that is, not wanting to take away from Paul some, let’s say, personal ones... To get rid of some personal sorrows. That is, in a person’s life all this exists. And this is not only some kind of Divine pedagogy, let’s say, as you have just outlined, if we slightly soften the statement that you cited...

A. Pichugin

This quote was verbatim!

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes, quote. But on the other hand, it is a certain natural state of our life. This is important to understand. That is, something bad is happening to me not because I didn’t go to church yesterday - well, I’m putting it this way somewhat primitively. That, in principle, our life here on earth involves getting into certain situations. Otherwise, why did Christ have to come and save us? If our reality is not fallen and sorrowful for us, then what did Christ come to deliver us from? But the most amazing thing is that even the Son of God, who came to earth, found himself under the power of these sorrowful circumstances!

T. Larsen

You are listening to the “Sunday Evening” program, our guest is Archpriest Andrei Rakhnovsky. We are talking about how to learn to trust God, even if you are in sorrowful circumstances. But right now everything just sounds mega-pessimistic. Everything is bad. Everything is bad in the world.

A. Rakhnovsky

But why?!

T. Larsen

And even when Christ came to us, He turned out to be a victim of sorrowful circumstances... There is no hope!

A. Rakhnovsky

He is! He in no way removed Himself from this chain of any troubles and suffering.

T. Larsen

And, in fact, even at some point He lost confidence for a second when he said “Why did you leave Me!” - No?

A. Rakhnovsky

This, you know, is what it’s all about...

A. Pichugin

Human nature…

A. Rakhnovsky

Since Christ himself was God, accordingly, to say “God has forsaken me” is some kind of internal contradiction, but the fact that these words “God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” - was a manifestation of extreme sorrow and extreme suffering according to Him human nature- this is beyond any doubt. For some reason, Christ, in this sense, chose the path not of ridding Himself and others as much as possible from all troubles, but, on the contrary, of including Himself in the area of ​​human grief. This is amazing! So He came not so much to save everyone from everything, but for some reason chose the path of communion with human grief. Of course, in this sense the word “Savior” sounds somehow different. This is the “Savior” - not so much even a “Savior” as a “Compassionate One”. But, for some reason, this is exactly the way...

T. Larsen

The only possible...

A. Rakhnovsky

The only possible one, yes! That is, the path of compassion. And, in fact, if, after all, God right now, in our earthly reality, is a way of getting rid of some, let’s say, troubles, yes, then it loses its tension, the true meaning of such an eschatological perspective of Christianity. Why then do we pray “Thy kingdom come,” in fact, praying for a speedy second coming. Why are we so waiting for the second coming of Christ, if, in principle, with God's help, this life can be made quite bearable for yourself. Then this tragedy human history loses its meaning and this expectation of the second coming of Christ, which the apostles literally lived by, the Christians of the 1st century lived, it, in general, comes down to, loses its meaning. Although, in general, the meaning of human history, the history of the church now, is the path to the coming of Christ, which will be our final deliverance from the power of death, sin and our entry into the state for which we were originally created.

T. Larsen

Well, someone will say: “Well, we expected it, yes. The apostles were waiting. And the first Christians waited earnestly. But it didn't happen. And it doesn't happen now. It remains to be seen when this second coming will occur.”

A. Rakhnovsky

Well, perhaps in their expectation the first Christians were mistaken in this chronological sense.

A. Pichugin But they were sure that they would survive. Although the Lord said that...

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! Absolutely right!

T. Larsen

That's right! "Some more of you will see before..."

A. Rakhnovsky

But in terms of experience it is Christian teaching, theology, they were absolutely right that they lived in constant anticipation of this second coming. And how can you expect it, just as we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead,” I believe that Christ “will again come with glory to judge the living and the dead.” Where then is this tension? Where is there really a genuine expectation of the second coming, if this is how, in principle, everything can be arranged and it will be normal?

T. Larsen

But it was easier for them! They saw miracles, they saw Christ Himself in the flesh! Of course, it was easy for them to believe when they saw Lazarus raised from the dead!

A. Rakhnovsky

But why? In general, let's say, a certain generation of Christians of the 1st century were people who did not know Christ.

A. Pichugin

The Apostle Paul most likely did not know Christ.

A. Rakhnovsky

Among the evangelists and even the apostles there were people who did not know Christ during his lifetime!

T. Larsen

Yes! But they witnessed miracles!

A. Rakhnovsky

What miracles?

T. Larsen

Performed in the name of Christ.

A. Rakhnovsky

You know, many people witnessed Christ’s miracles, including the Pharisees...

A. Pichugin

Those shouting: “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”

A. Rakhnovsky

But not everyone believed in Christ. Therefore, here the element of miracle was not decisive in people’s acceptance of faith in Christ. This still presupposed a meeting with Christ. But so that, as you said, everything does not look so pessimistic, I just want to say that there is no pessimism here. It seems to me that if you see that some kind of sorrow in life has come to you simply because you are included in this life, and let’s say, without bypassing sharp corners that we live in a fallen world, we live in a world that has not been transformed, not regenerated, therefore these are some natural conditions. This especially applies to diseases. That’s why a person always sees: “If I’m sick, it means the Lord turned away from me and punished me.” But we have flesh, which should cease to exist approximately a hundred years later, die. And illnesses are just manifestations, reflections of this coming end of the life of our flesh. And again, excuse me, Alexey, if it is possible to arrange the existence of your flesh here on earth, your, let’s say, physical, material component, more or less normally with the help of, I don’t know, different technologies or daily prayers for health, again , then what is this intense expectation and hope for the resurrection of the dead? How will I believe and wait for the second coming of Christ, so that my flesh will be resurrected? How will I “tea the resurrection of the dead”, this word “tea” is very important here, not just “expecting”, it still implies some tense expectation, with some hope. How can I feel the need for resurrection for me, if, in general, it is possible to live here enough without sorrows? Therefore, the Lord is sometimes forced to reduce our sorrow by direct intervention in our lives, and yet we understand that God’s final deliverance will only be in the Eschaton, it will only be in the manifestation of His second coming. If we really lived by this and understood this, we would never have had various schisms and heresies related to the theme of the INN, the coming of the Antichrist, because these problems arise precisely because of the loss of this eschatological dimension of church life.

A. Pichugin

Or maybe we are just asking the question of trust or distrust in God precisely because we consider it on a completely different plane, not in the one that you just talked about, but we forget about this, and we have very strongly introduced the concept “ God" into our everyday life. Remember, Brodsky had a poem “In the village, God does not live in corners.” There “He sanctifies the roof and the dishes, and honestly divides the doors in half. In the village He is in abundance. He cooks lentils in cast iron on Saturdays."

A. Rakhnovsky

Wonderful!

A. Pichugin

He has entered into our life so much that any disorder in this life is seen by us, believing people, as some kind of direct intervention of God and our own violation of His some established order. Well, what we talked about before is a pagan idea.

A. Rakhnovsky Look. Here, let's take the lives of the saints. It would seem that the life of a saint should end with some kind of peaceful, shameless, blissful death, preferably in a state of prayer, having received the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Let's take the righteous youth Artemy Verkolsky. The boy went into the forest - he was killed by lightning. Venerable Athanasius of Athos. I was inspecting the painting of the temple on the scaffolding, could not resist, fell from the scaffolding in the temple and died. Someone will say: “What an absurd death! Could it end suddenly like this for a saint? And as if where is the Lord, who ruled the saint’s entire life?” Now, unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of how one of the holy confessors of Christianity during the period of the Arian disputes, a bishop, died because when he entered the city, one of the Arian women threw a pot of flowers on his head, and from the received he died from injuries. It would seem that these are holy people! And what a, in general, strange, some would say, absurd, death in their life. And where are some of our leafy popular ideas about how a saint should come to the end of his life? So what do we say? Did God abandon the saint at that moment? No! But very often the Lord destroys our stereotyped ideas about the improvement of life as such.

A. Pichugin

It seems to me that there are situations when a person wants something. He asks God, he prays. Just what Tanya remembered at the beginning of the program “knock and it will open.” So he knocks and knocks, probably, somehow they open the door for him, indeed, but at the same time, probably, when a person is seriously ill, he dies of cancer, for example, his relatives also ask, although the end is known. But they ask, they hope for some kind of direct intervention from God during the course of the disease. They find articles that someone prayed and was healed right there. But there are no linear situations!

A. Rakhnovsky

It happens sometimes!

A. Pichugin

Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

A. Rakhnovsky

Sometimes we see God's direct intervention in life. Sometimes for some reason the Lord holds back His hand. It is amazing. As if, without leaving us, but allowing certain natural events to develop the way they develop. Because if we don't have the right view on this issue, then really. Let's remember the war. AND modern warfare. The innocent, painful death of many people, children, absolutely innocent. After all, we know very well that very often for a person it is the issue of suffering in this world and misfortune, especially the suffering of innocent people and children, that is the issue that prevents him from believing in the existence of God, shakes his idea that this world was created by God. Therefore, on the one hand, without reducing the tragedy of the existence of our world, we simultaneously live with faith in God. And in order to combine one with the other, it is precisely the correct Christian understanding that is needed.

T. Larsen

We will continue our conversation in a minute.

A. Pichugin

We return to the studio of “Svetly Radio”, let me remind you that today Archpriest Andrei Rakhnovsky is with us. Father Andrey is the rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Leonovo, a teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy. Here we also...

T. Larsen

Tutta Larsen...

A. Pichugin

And Alexey Pichugin.

T. Larsen

We talk about how to learn to trust God. And so Lesha read Brodsky’s poem about the village, it seems to me that there is just... I see some other meaning in this work, not that God is reduced to lentils in a pot, but precisely that in the village there are people , some grandmothers, live so much in God that He is for them an absolutely real daily interlocutor, a co-worker, an accomplice in all their affairs. Not from the point of view that “here I blow, spit, light a candle, and my harvest will begin to sprout.” But in the sense that simply all life is checked according to the commandments. By some kind of God's presence in her. As one of our guests once spoke about marital marriage. That for a Christian, marriage is a union not of two, but of three: a man, a woman and Christ between them. And when you live with this feeling all the time, you don’t even quarrel with your husband anymore, because in the presence of Christ it is indecent to swear. And these people, some granny in the village, she also lives with this, that Christ is with her all the time, so even in her thoughts she will no longer envy, will not quarrel, because she will always be there. This is the highest degree of trust in God, but it seems to me that it is generally unattainable for modern man with his intellectual load, with the amount of information that is around. With this pressure cooker in your head, which cooks and cooks and cooks all the time, you doubt and get distracted. This is some kind of trust that only children and grandmothers have access to!

A. Rakhnovsky

You are absolutely right! But this trust, it should extend not only to cooking, lentil stews, "help me, Mother of God, wash all the laundry!” and so on, but also when death comes to the house, illness comes to the house. That's right. This should also be included here, because God is also in this death, in this illness. Not in the sense that He brought her, but that by His nature He is always with us. After all, the Apostle Paul did not try to somehow smooth out the severity of this issue. He said: “Whether we live or whether we die, we are Christ’s.” You understand, right? That is, he saw perfectly well and, in general, if we think about it more theoretically, he could tell it in truth, right? Because he, indeed, himself almost died more than once. He said this from the depths of his heart, he was responsible for his words. But this is very difficult to come to terms with, yes. This is really... If we are talking about some kind of labor of the soul, this is what it consists of. It is very difficult in this situation not to fall into sadness, not to become despondent. But in part, perhaps, we are involved in this situation, including us, priests, because: “Well, order a prayer service for health,” “Well, order a prayer service for study,” “Well, order a prayer service for something else.” ... And in fact, for me this is a very important, optimistic point. After all, the Lord, through various kinds of situations that are unpleasant for us, He gives us the opportunity to express ourselves. Here I will give such a mild example. So I pick up a note in my hands that lists names about health and read the title of this note. The man wrote: “About the health of the servant of God such and such, about the successful completion of the exam!”

A. Pichugin

This is touching!

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! This is touching, but I have the following question: if a person cannot even write a note about the Lord’s help in his studies correctly, how much can the Lord help him in this situation? But this is a mild example. It, of course, does not concern the issue of human life and death, but it can be extended further. That is, the Lord expects something from us. Yes, it is difficult, it is unpleasant, it requires very often a review of your entire life. Sometimes it can break a person. But something needs to be done about this. And we are not talking about what you said, Tatyana, that there is some kind of pessimism in this. No. Just the opposite! If God is not the cause of our misfortunes and sorrows, then, on the contrary, space opens up here - for what? For God's intervention! And if even the Lord does not stop the sorrow moving towards us, it means that He is not the reason for this!

A. Pichugin

But, as Leskov wrote, “only the Russian priest, going to a prayer service for rain in the field, took an umbrella with him.” This is also what we talked about, the popular belief of this priest that it will definitely rain now.

A. Rakhnovsky

You know, the relationship between God’s action in life and natural circumstances is extremely complex. If we take some fundamental theoretical principles, everything is clear here. There are natural circumstances, there is God’s help. But when we take each specific life situation, here it is much more difficult to say about this - what happens here naturally, and what is the direct intervention of God. To what extent can we count on this intervention? This is precisely what requires a person to be somehow constantly involved in spiritual life, constant reasoning. We cannot calm ourselves down once and for all with some formula and, trusting it, continue to live without being tormented in our soul by these questions. And someday, in general, you may not need an umbrella. Sometimes the Lord is silent in response to our prayer. And sometimes you just thought that it would be nice for the Lord to help, and you haven’t even prayed yet, but this help comes. Therefore, the Lord, including us in this complexity of life, teaches us a lot. It teaches, first of all, it seems to me, to see in other people, suffering people, those who need our help. Without suffering ourselves, how can we empathize with others?! Therefore, it seems to me that in this very difficult path God has many tasks for us that He sets before us. And, of course, reduce everything to such a pagan perception, when we expect good luck from the gods of Fortune, this notorious Tyukhe. Of course, this paganism must be left somewhere far behind.

T. Larsen

It still turns out to be some kind of difficult task for a person - to trust God despite the fact that He will not always answer you, will not always interact with you, will not always support you, and sometimes will support you in such a way that you did not even expect and did not even understand that it was He who supported you. That is, you have to very much take everything on faith, and it’s not a fact that there will be some kind of result (laughs), and it’s not a fact that in general you will feel God’s presence in it throughout your entire life.

A. Rakhnovsky

You know, if we talk about some personal experience, then I have more experience that the Lord always supports. It is amazing. But someone can explain this as a natural combination of life circumstances, but I see more of this. Of course, in my life there have been and will be, of course, there are definitely some moments where you remain visibly with sorrow, as if one on one, but still, for example, I am pleased to realize that the Lord, for the most part, He helps, He delivers. Therefore, perhaps, having presented the picture in a somewhat pessimistic way, I simply tried to tilt this boat a little in the other direction, to get away from this, perhaps, some kind of consumer spirit. To move away from understanding God as the one who solves your problems, this seems to be the essence of faith...

T. Larsen

Applied God.

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! Applied God, convenient God. Although, in fact, we can come across just such an understanding in a number of, let’s say, religious movements. It's about not just about some popular perception. I had to watch, for example, services of different Christian denominations on television. I saw the preacher say: “Demon of poverty, I cast you out! Demon of disease, I cast you out!” (laughs)

T. Larsen

Wow!

A. Rakhnovsky

See how! There are religious concepts that clearly perceive certain difficulties as direct influence demonic power, but this is not so. Everything is more complicated here, and wealth certainly cannot be considered a clear sign the absence of certain demons and the presence of the right hand of God with you.

A. Pichugin

What you are talking about are some completely poor countries.

A. Rakhnovsky

A. Pichugin

Aren't the children of Africa starving?

A. Rakhnovsky

Of course not! No. Quite European countries. But, nevertheless, since our topic today has back side, which I think should also be mentioned. Perceive luck in this life - having property, money, good prospects career- as a sign of God’s obvious favor towards you - is also wrong. Just as behind every sorrow there is not a desire of God to punish you for your sins - this is not true.

A. Pichugin

A respectable Lord for respectable gentlemen.

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! In the same way, the opposite situation is not evidence that you...

T. Larsen

Some kind of special...

A. Rakhnovsky

That the Lord favors you. But it seems to me that sometimes a person is inclined to reason this way.

T. Larsen

It's good that I'm not like this publican, right?

A. Rakhnovsky

Well, in general, in this parable, rather, such a moral moment was meant, such moral life publican, but to some extent - yes. It seems to me that, in general, the Pharisaic worldview, based on a number of indirect, let’s say, signs that we read about in the Gospel, presupposed an understanding that your success in life is a sign that the Lord loves you, that He blessed. It is not for nothing that, in general, in the Middle Ages there were such trends when a person’s beggary, his, let’s say, homelessness and deprivation of certain means were perceived as a sign of a person’s obvious sins, for which he was punished and, in general, persecuted in Europe at a certain period in the history of beggars - it had such a partly theological background.

T. Larsen

But here there is also such a moment that a person who has everything, who is doing well, also lives in fear. In fear of losing everything, in fear that it will someday end, in fear that he is unworthy of what he has, perhaps. But somehow this is also not... a situation that does not make it possible to trust God somehow unconditionally.

A. Rakhnovsky

You know, you touched on a very important point, which we have not yet talked about, that indeed nature, since you started talking about well-being in life, the nature of such a phenomenon as the love of money, as a certain craving for wealth, for material things, in its depths contains precisely fear . That is, of course, first of all, a money-loving person is not one who has a lot of money, but one who is afraid.

T. Larsen

Afraid of poverty?

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! And accordingly, the presence of wealth creates a certain inner peace for a person that the future is predictable. Accordingly, a person thus tries to get rid of fear. Yes, it happens, of course, that a person increases his wealth, since wealth makes it possible to get more pleasures from life, that is, it opens the way to the maximum range of pleasures on the one hand, but still it seems to me that the deep reason is precisely this inner fear . Why, for example, do people in families often quarrel because... The cause of family discord is material insecurity. Because fear settles in the soul. Especially often in the soul of a woman who wants everything to be good for her and her children. This fear gives rise to a kind of panic. From this panic, a certain unstable state appears, and, in general, fear is the underlying cause of the craving for material wealth, for wealth. It seems to me that you noticed this correctly.

T. Larsen

Well, yes, and even in psychotherapy this term is defined as “does not feel safe.” That is, such increased anxiety is a very common state for humans, especially those who live in big city, listens to a lot of radio, television, sees what is happening in the world and, of course, he is very, very afraid that some of these monstrous events may affect him. And indeed, it seems to us that if we are in more or less some kind of material well-being, then we somehow manage our lives a little better and somehow our tomorrow is more predictable. But then it turns out that this fear is the antonym of trust?

A. Rakhnovsky

Well, here, it seems to me, everything is a little more complicated. Because, one way or another, some of our phenomena, both positive and negative phenomena of the life of our soul, our psyche - they somehow archetypally go back to our heavenly state. Because the Lord subjugated the entire universe to Adam. We even read about this on the feast of the Archangel Michael in the Epistle to the Hebrews. And therefore, for a person, this possession and control in a good sense over this world is something that goes back to the very origins of his existence as a person. But the person found himself in a fallen reality and he, perhaps, somewhere in the depths of his subconscious, realizing that he was once the ruler of everything, he lost it, the person is trying to restore it in a new situation, but in the wrong way, trying to subjugate it, absorb as much as possible. This makes you want to have a lot, to control not only your life, but also the lives of other people, sitting in this web, absorbing more and more. Yes, this is a perverted, incorrect echo of our heavenly state, when Adam really possessed everything. Therefore, yes, turn this passion of love of money over to its opposite side, and we will see some special command of God that man had dominion, as it is said in the first book of Genesis, over the beasts, over the birds, over the fish of the sea. But it is clear that in our condition the path to this restoration of this power of man over this world lies through the restoration of relations with God, and therefore this fear can only be overcome by the fact that you try to entrust your life to God. “Lord, I believe that my well-being - even if it is so - depends on Your help, on You. I want faith in You to be the basis of my tranquility, my spiritual peace.” But, like everything in spiritual life, this is a very difficult feat. Why? Money, property - it's all tangible. Even if I don’t have it (laughs) - in principle, you can see it, you can touch it, this is what solves your problems here and now!

T. Larsen

Yes! This is what I was talking about! This is a visible result!

A. Rakhnovsky

And to trust God is to step into some unknown, into a door behind which it is not clear what!

T. Larsen

Nobody guaranteed anything!

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! Well, it’s not for nothing that we call faith a feat. It’s really you, closing your eyes, entering the area, and it’s still unknown what will happen there.

T. Larsen

You are listening to the “Sunday Evening” program on radio “Vera”, Archpriest Andrei Rakhnovsky is in our studio, and we are talking about how to learn to trust God. And you said this phrase - “restoring relationships with God.” And this is probably the main problem of this lack of faith, which I admitted at the beginning of the program and, I think, which is not only my illness...

A. Pichugin

Which is a universal disease, of course!

T. Larsen

Yes Yes! Because a relationship with God is, of course, not reading the rules, not keeping a fast, not wearing handkerchiefs. This is again some very difficult work, because you don’t really understand with whom you are building a relationship. With Someone very big, very important, Who knows everything about you even before you were born, and knows everything after you die. And, in general, this is an unbalanced relationship. How to build them is generally unclear, because in these relationships a person feels not like a subject, but an object. Because I am a grain of sand. I was created. Everything has already been decided for me. And how can I build relationships here? I don’t understand?

A. Rakhnovsky

But how much of this kind of view on the relationship between man and God - how much of it is really theology and Christianity, and how much of ours is simply, let’s say, probably learned, perhaps from childhood, about the forms of relationships with someone who is higher than us? After all, I never leave the feeling that we transfer to our relationship with God in terms of distrust, that He is so big, somewhere He is far, high, I am a grain of sand, and so on...

T. Larsen

-...Indifferent, probably cold, He doesn’t care about me...

A. Rakhnovsky But this is just some kind of... This is a transposition of our relationships with certain people, with parents, with relatives, with bosses into the area of ​​spiritual life! But this is not so! Let’s even think about this sensibly. God became man to feel our pain. He went to the cross, well, did He really do this in order to punish us even more in this life or in that life?! This is clearly not the case! That is, without a doubt, God is a loving father. Without a doubt, God - let's see how the saints communicated with God. The Lord addressed one of the apostles with a vision - this is told in the Holy Scriptures - with a certain instruction: “Here, baptize such and such, named Saul.” Well, it would seem that if we accept this concept “I am a grain of sand, and God is something immeasurable and great,” what would have to be said? “I listen and obey!” - and ran. And the apostle asks Him: “Well, how can I baptize him when I know that he used to persecute Christians?” Is he entering into some kind of dispute with God? That is, he has his own opinion here? But for some reason the Lord does not punish him for this. Let's remember the book of Job. That's exactly what it is - a direct relationship. It’s a pity that we didn’t remember about it at the beginning, it is directly related to our topic. Let us remember his questions to God, his protest, his bewilderment. Let’s remember his friends: “Since this happened to you, you must be somewhere...”

T. Larsen

-...I messed up somewhere!

A. Rakhnovsky

Absolutely right! How many questions he has for God! What a riot! “It would have been better if I had never been born! Why didn’t I die in my mother’s womb?!” And what kind of catharsis Job experiences at the end, although God seems to answer almost none of his questions, and generally begins to tell him something else in response. Therefore, here, nevertheless, without any doubt, we must remember that the Lord has a heart that loves us. We are children for Him. He did everything for us and for us. But for some reason - this damned question, but here it is - for some reason the Lord allows us to experience what He experienced.

A. Pichugin

And we can't explain why anyone would live a long time. happy life without much sorrow, and someone will die in the war at the age of twenty-eight. And some will have grieving relatives and, in general, no one. And lonely old age.

A. Rakhnovsky

Can not. We accept it. We see it. But here too. Why do we always shift everything to God exactly where it is convenient for us? But lonely old age, excuse me, on whom does it depend, not on the people around you? Why lonely old age? It’s amazing that... Sometimes I get the feeling that the Lord has given a lot to man. Here we are given complete freedom. We want this freedom, but for some reason, when this freedom does not turn out very well for us, we say: “Lord, we should have been insured at that moment!” (laughs) Where is freedom then?

T. Larsen

Why didn’t he leave us instructions on how to use life?

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes. And the surprising thing is that everything that happens in the world is very often a consequence human actions, for which we will be held accountable. Very often, behind every grief in life there is a solution. specific person, not very correct, not very fair. That's why the Lord gave us freedom. This freedom is not a toy. It’s not like, you know, we can be so liberal to children: “Well, are we going to school today?” Otherwise he won’t go, right?! That is, our question does not imply, in general, (laughs) on the part of the child the answer “No, I won’t go.” And here you are - yes, you are the parents in the family: “Of course he will go!” But sometimes we have this kind of game of freedom with our children, but God doesn’t play with us in freedom, He gave it to us. But where there is freedom, there full responsibility, to end. And this freedom of ours also unfolds to the end, both in good and bad consequences and manifestations.

T. Larsen

But it seems to me that there is more, you are talking about freedom, and I had the idea that trust in God is probably impossible without some kind of trust in yourself. Somehow these things are connected. Because if I have the freedom to choose, then I must make the choice that is best for me. And then there is no doubt, and then I must trust myself in this choice.

A. Rakhnovsky

Well, maybe I don't quite understand what you mean.

T. Larsen

Well, it just seems to me that trust is... For me, in general, trust is some kind of basic modality, basic... it is the basis of all my relationships: with the world, with my own children, with my spouse and, of course, with God. You started talking about children. We often say: “Our children are stupid! They can’t be trusted with this, they don’t understand.” Or there: “They won’t do this, they won’t cope with this.” But in fact - yes! And they will cope, and they will do it, and they often surprise us with this. And here, you probably need to give yourself the opportunity...

A. Rakhnovsky

I understood you. That is, under self-confidence you are in in this case You understand that a person must make his own decision...

T. Larsen

Yes! Take responsibility!

A. Rakhnovsky

Responsibility for oneself, being as confident as one can be that one is doing the right thing.

T. Larsen

A. Rakhnovsky

Without a doubt, it is precisely this gift of divine freedom that he presupposes. But you know that a person often tries to shift...

T. Larsen

Delegate authority…

A. Rakhnovsky

-...The burden of freedom is on someone else...

A. Pichugin

The same thing happens in relationships with God...

A. Rakhnovsky

-...Yes, often a priest, for example.

A. Pichugin

By the way, this is another important topic!

A. Rakhnovsky

Yes! In this sense, a person must make a decision and be prepared to answer for it to the end. But here it may be a little bit in the relationship with God, here it’s just much simpler. Because, in principle, any human decision that does not contradict the commandments of God is correct in its essence. We don’t know what consequences this will lead to, but it seems to me that when a person has a question: “But what I’m trying to choose, is it pleasing to God, how can I find out? So I want to move the bedside table to another place.” If this does not conflict with the Divine commandments, then, in principle, we are free to do what we want. Have you ever thought about what and why a person wanted and did? He even did atomic bomb. Why didn't God prevent this?

A. Pichugin

Freedom!

A. Rakhnovsky

Do we feel what is the extent of this freedom? It is somehow boundless, limitless. God entrusted this to us and therefore He understands and sees, probably, how we manage...

T. Larsen

And God trusts us more than we trust Him!

A. Pichugin

And He still knows how it will all end! For Him, we exist on some such segment. He is wonderful... For Him at this same time there exists both the beginning, and the times of Tertullian, and, whatever, the end of the next century.

A. Rakhnovsky

Maybe yes. But it is still difficult to understand, let’s say, the evil consequences of human freedom. Even if we understand that the Lord still knows everything, understands everything, we know how it will all end. But the thought that has just been voiced, it seems to me, is very important. Indeed, we somehow didn’t find it right away, but now it somehow opened up. It turns out that God trusts us more than we trust Him.

T. Larsen

Although he knows us with all our sins and cockroaches. It seems to me that you should write this down somewhere in your subcortex and remember it more often.

A. Rakhnovsky

Say it in prayer. “Lord, as You trust me, let me trust You in the same way!”

T. Larsen

Thank you very much for this very interesting and, for me personally, super useful conversation. Our guest was the rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Leonovo, a teacher at the Department of Biblical Studies of the Moscow Theological Academy, Archpriest Andrei Rakhnovsky.

A. Pichugin

Good bye all the best!

A. Rakhnovsky

Goodbye, all the best!

We often repeat the words: “Everything is in God’s hands,” but haven’t they just become a common phrase? Are we ready to accept God's Providence for us and give up the sometimes titanic but fruitless efforts to build our life as we see it and understand it? How can we learn to entrust ourselves to God and trust God, to accept with gratitude what He gives us, be it joy or sorrow? The pastors of the Russian Orthodox Church answer.

We have no one to trust except God

The best image of trust in God is shown by the Apostle Peter when he decides, according to the word of the Savior, to walk on water

I think that the best image of trust in God is shown by the Apostle Peter when, frightened by a storm and seeing the Savior walking on the waters, he decides, according to His word, to enter this rough water on the rough sea and walk along it. This is how a person should decide to trust God - to believe that you will take a step and not drown, because the Lord will support you.

There is a way of thinking that, of course, helps to strengthen our faith in God: in fact, we have absolutely no one to trust except God. To trust people? But they are fickle creatures, imperfect, they fail all the time. Sometimes by one's own will, sometimes against one's own will. Trust ourselves? But no one knows better than us how unfaithful and fickle we ourselves are. There is no one to trust but God. The Lord loves us, no matter what we are, He always preserves, saves and protects us.

You need to trust Him. And the more a person thinks about this, the more trust he has in God. Although, of course, at first trust in God requires a certain feat, a certain determination from a person. But later, when it turns into a habit, it becomes a kind of, as the Venerable Elder Paisios of Athos said, a thread that is constantly stretched between us and God, a kind of unceasing prayer addressed to God. Because you don’t have to say any words, but live in this feeling of trust. This is what connects us with God.

As soon as you forget how to trust yourself and others like you, you will have no choice but to trust the One God and His Holy Church!

Feel God while serving others

According to the words of St. Mark the Ascetic, “those who have been baptized into Christ have already been mysteriously granted grace; it acts as the commandments are fulfilled and does not cease to help us secretly. But it is in our power to do or not to do good according to our strength.” And according to the word of the Savior, “the pure in heart will see God” (cf. Matthew 5:8). Thus, the path to God is a path that runs through oneself. It is we who change along this path. And we are aware of these changes. And we gain new vision. And the reality of the Kingdom is revealed to us.

In order not to take the wrong door on this path, not to fall into self-delusion, not to break your soul, there is asceticism, accumulating the experience of those who reached the Heavenly Jerusalem, leaving us with indicating signs and travel notes.

However, when consulting with ascetics, let us not forget about the main thing - the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, in which, in verses 31 to 46, everything is said about the distance between us and God. It turns out that this is the distance between us and the nearest person in need of us. And everything that we do for this person, the Lord accepts as done for Him.

So in Christianity there are no complex horoscopes, Talmuds or theosophies of salvation. Everything is extremely simple and understandable even to a three-year-old child. The Gospel speaks of active love for those near and far, friends and enemies. When we begin to actually fulfill this covenant of love, then, according to the thoughts of Mark the Ascetic, our conscience will awaken and tell us what to do next.

Trust in God is a gift of God, which is given as the fruit of prayer

We must constantly pray to the Lord to strengthen our faith

You need to understand that virtues (and faith is a virtue) are gifts of God. We must constantly pray to the Lord to strengthen our faith. But it is relatively easy to believe; now there are practically no non-believers. Atheists exist, but those who consciously consider themselves an atheist are only a few percent. There are a lot of believers. But believing in God and trusting God are fundamentally different states. Now, if you understand - but, again, understanding is something superficial, and we are talking about something deeper - so, if you understand that the Lord is an all-perfect loving omnipotent Person, that the Lord cares about you sinner, although you are so insignificant, small, that the Lord cares about each of us, that the Lord, the Lord wishes good for each of us, and even if the path that leads to this good does not coincide with our ideas - this simply says that our ideas are distorted - but you are ready to follow this path - this means trusting the Lord.

You need to pray to the Lord for such trust. King David has wonderful words: “Tell me, Lord, the way, I will go, for I have taken my soul to You” - “Show me, Lord, the path along which I should go, because I have entrusted my soul to You” (Ps. 142: 8). So, entrust your soul to the Lord - this is complete trust, like King David: where you lead, I will go, I absolutely believe in You, without doubt, without hesitation. But at the same time, you need to have a pure soul to feel: the Lord is leading you, and not your “troubles”! This is extremely difficult, and it is a gift from God, which is the fruit of prayer. And the prayer is: “Help, Lord, let me trust in You with all my soul!”; “Lord, give me the strength to trust You.” And it must be a constant cry of prayer. Constant prayer work! And then, in response to your sincere request - and it must, of course, be sincere - the Lord will give it to you.

Be attentive to your life

The question is very well formulated. This is exactly what you need to learn. This is not given to us immediately, but it is comprehended as we live in faith.

How does one come to the realization that everything happens according to the will of God? How can we learn to trust Him in everything?

To do this, you need to be attentive to your life and notice how wisely and carefully God arranges all its circumstances. There is an old French proverb: “Chance is the god of fools.” And that's right! Nothing is accidental. Just as mushrooms in the forest are connected by the threads of the mycelium, stretching under the top layer of soil from mushroom to mushroom, so all situations, all so-called “accidents”, everything is actually connected by invisible, grace-filled threads of Providence and God’s care for us.

And you need to learn to notice it.

I came to this realization only after several years of being in the faith and the Church. And since then I have become stronger in this awareness every day.

Sometimes life will be shaken up quite noticeably, and for a while you can even become confused and not see God in these circumstances. It is important to still find the strength to stay with Him. Without even understanding, without even comprehending what is happening. Like His Mother at the Cross, like the disciples... And the meaning will be revealed. In my time. You just need to remain faithful to Him and wait.

Trust in God is strengthened by spiritual life

To learn to believe and trust God, you must learn to sincerely address Him as Father. "Lord, You know that O better for me. I commend my life into Your hands.” Openness to God with a willingness to accept His will leads to trust. A person stops trusting God when he relies only on himself, when he thinks that he can best arrange his life himself.

Trust in God strengthens as . This is facilitated by the experience of answered prayers, when you earnestly asked and the Lord answered you, really gave you what you were looking for and asking for. But often we make the mistake of stubbornly demanding that God fulfill one or another of our wishes. We don't always understand what O useful for us. Only the Lord God knows exactly what O we need at one time or another in our lives.

We should not tell God how to save us. In prayer, it is important not to demand, but to ask God to help if He pleases

And this means that we should not tell God how to save us. In prayer, it is important not to demand recklessly: “give this and that, do this and that,” but it is important, with each prayer request, to entrust yourself into the hands of God, ask Him to help, if it pleases His holy will, ask to resolve a difficult situation in the ways that useful and saving for us.

Time passes, and a person begins to understand that God providentially did not fulfill some of his wishes, that the Lord led him along a more useful path for him, led him through difficulties to the spiritual and led him away from disastrous temptations and enticements. Such life experience with a clear comprehension of God's Providence in the best possible way strengthens one's trust in God.

Learn to humble your mind

Any more or less attentive and honest person, observing himself, the events of his own life, and life in general, must inevitably come to the conclusion that the diversity and complexity of this world does not fit into any “smart” schemes. That the secrets of the structure of the world infinitely exceed the possibilities of human understanding of it. Came to this simple conclusion long before us greatest thinker - ancient philosopher Socrates. Summing up his inquisitive and persistent search for truth, he said: “I know that I know nothing.” And this is the most honest answer of the “natural” mind before the greatness of God’s world. In a certain sense, this is a guarantee of humility, which is the first and necessary step to gaining faith.

But why, exactly, do you want to know something, what is this aspiration, these searches, these doubts and mental anguish for? What does a person want to find, what is he so painfully missing? As a rule, there is only one answer: a person thirsts for Truth. This is what a person lacks, this is what his life becomes incomplete without, this is what he strives for with all his soul, because it is in the truth, in its knowledge that he finds meaning and justification for his own life.

And the next and very important step towards gaining faith is a sincere search for the truth. Looking ahead, let's say that truth is not some kind of abstraction, idea or quintessence of knowledge - all this is not capable of satisfying the highest demands of the human spirit, because these requests, even if unconsciously, must certainly be directed towards Supreme Personality. And it is precisely in a deeply personal relationship with God that one can human soul find the highest meaning of your life.

If a person really seeks the truth, and not confirmation of his own conclusions and constructions, then the Lord will certainly respond to such a sincere search, to such a sincere aspiration of the soul and give good news, a good sign of His presence. And then... if a person is attentive and sensitive, if he is ready to accept “notifications” from the Lord, then he will certainly learn that Revelation about spiritual life, about ways of communion with God can be not only personal, but, so to speak, also general and even universal. And this Revelation is contained in the Holy Scriptures, in the Tradition of the Church, in the Church Itself, which is the “pillar and foundation of the truth” in its entirety.

This awareness - that the truth resides in the Church and it is in the Church that a person learns the truth - is very, very important. Especially in our time, when many, alas, do not understand that the Church is not some purely human organization, but is the Body of Christ. It is this awareness of the importance of the Church that can serve, if not the beginning, then the continuation of strengthening and growth in faith.

It is necessary to accept the entirety of Revelation, preserved by the Church, unconditionally - even contrary to the voice of “common reason”

But how can one accept the entirety of Revelation, preserved by the Church, if the mind resists many facts of church history, many events and circumstances of Revelation? This dilemma, I think, must inevitably arise before every honest person. Who to trust: your own mind and experience or what Revelation says and which does not fit into the framework of everyday human experience and usual ideas about life? And here there is only one, but fundamentally important way out. Before you begin to study and cognize Revelation with your mind and intellect, before subjecting it to logical analysis, you need to take an important step on the path to God, an important step on the path of climbing the ladder of faith. It is necessary to accept the entirety of Revelation, preserved by the Church, unconditionally and unconditionally. Accept even despite the indignant voice of “common reason” and “natural logic”. We must accept Revelation with all our soul and from the heart, completely trusting God. This is the most important decision and the most important spiritual step, testifying to true humility before God in His Church. Without this humility, spiritual life is simply impossible, no matter how smart and educated a person is.

The Gospel talks a lot about this “madness”. That the acceptance of the entirety of Revelation is contrary to “normal” human reason, because it surpasses it as much as “the ways of God are separated from the ways of men” (Is. 55: 9). This complete and sincere self-denial is absolutely necessary, and it is on it that the right faith is based.

Another thing is that a person should unconditionally accept not some private opinions and judgments, which are also present in the Church and sometimes belong to authoritative and even saints, but still prone to mistakes and errors, but only what belongs to the entire doctrinal completeness Orthodox Apostolic Church.

It can be said that this unconditional trust in God is inevitably associated with sacrifice. We sacrifice our mind to God, which, however, does not perish, but is transformed miraculously and by the grace of God he becomes different - enlightened by grace. But this does not mean that it becomes like this “automatically” and forever. Throughout life, the mind will try to get out of “Divine obedience” and take a dominant place over the soul. This is how the spirit of resistance acts on the soul (and continues to act throughout life) through the mind. But our task is to follow his attempts and again and again confess our unconditional trust in God, even at the expense of everyday logic and rational thinking.

Consistency in good deeds, patience, no matter what, and often even despite circumstances - this is the path to trust

When a person begins to consciously, “without grumbling or reflection” (see Phil. 2:14) fulfill everything written in the Gospel, he, albeit not immediately, begins to see the good fruits of such obedience, the good fruits of faith. He gains a different, truly enlightened mind. This inevitably happens, but here’s what is important for us to understand and remember: our “everyday” dimension of life is different from the spiritual. And changes in life associated with fulfilling the commandments and the desire to live according to the Gospel often do not appear immediately, as we would like, but gradually, over the course of months and even years. This is very important to understand, because we are all impatient, and when, in response to our “good intention,” our lives do not immediately begin to change for the better, we often become irritated, despair, lose faith, and, as they say, “give up” on church life . But such behavior means only one thing - we did not pass the necessary test, we were not decisive and constant enough in doing good. In doing good, not for the sake of obvious or hidden self-interest, but for the sake of good itself, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of God. This is constancy, patience in doing good, patience, no matter what, and often even despite circumstances - this is one more thing after trusting God exclusively important condition gaining faith.

This may sound strange, but the path to gaining faith is not a theoretical path, but an experimental one. Only when a person begins to fulfill God’s commandments, tries to act like a Christian, trusts God and His Church completely... when he shows patience in doing good, constantly humbly asks God for help, then faith, as God’s response to trust in Him, patience and humility, - grows and multiplies in a person and introduces him to an amazing and incomprehensibly joyful world, which is called in Christian language the Kingdom of God.

Affirm in your consciousness that God is loving

Rational trust arises from the study of Scripture, from an in-depth study of the truths of faith, from the affirmation in one’s consciousness that God is loving, good and wise. He leads everything to the better. He does not allow testing beyond one's strength.

Experienced trust is formed, like in children, by trial and error. Mom forbade me to touch the hot iron, but I’m curious, so I took it and touched it. The result is a finger burn. Dad demanded to keep up in the supermarket, but I didn’t take it seriously and got lost in the crowd. And so on. Gradually we understand that it is better to obey God rather than ourselves.

But deep, unshakable trust is a gift that needs to be prayed for.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate one of our fathers and teachers in Christ - St. Theodosius the Great, general hagiography boss He was one of the wisest people of his time. He is the compiler of the first cenobitic monastery charter. The Monk Theodosius showed a worthy example of trust in God. Therefore, today I would like to talk about why you and I should trust God throughout our lives.

Faith, first of all, is a Christian virtue; it is a person’s inner conviction in the existence of God. However, true faith is not only knowledge about God, but knowledge that influences a person’s life. This is not only recognizing the existence of God with your mind and not only trusting Him with your heart, but also coordinating your will with the will of God.

It is this kind of faith that can become faith that works by love, because true love unthinkable without fidelity. Faith becomes the basis for all human thoughts and actions, and only such faith is saving. But this also presupposes internal work on oneself, victory over one’s passions and the acquisition of gospel virtues.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you(1 Pet. 5:6–7). With these words, the Apostle Peter says that it is common for a Christian, who completely humbles himself under the hand of God, to put aside all unnecessary concern for worldly goods and place all hope in the providential care of God, according to the promise of Christ the Savior that the hairs on your head are all numbered(Matt. 10:30).

Saint John Chrysostom wrote that if God knows everything and “that even your hairs are numbered by Him, then you should not be afraid.” The Lord said this in order to show comprehensive knowledge and providence about people.

The work of salvation requires a synthesis of faith and good works

A true example trust in God in one’s life is served by the life of St. Theodosius the Great, whose memory we commemorate. One day before the holiday Christ's Resurrection The saint’s disciples grieved that they had nothing to eat for the holiday - no bread, no butter and nothing edible, and most of all they were saddened by the fact that on such a bright holiday they could not perform Divine Liturgy, since there was neither prosphora nor wine for the service. They began to murmur against the monk. The holy elder, having undoubted trust in God, commanded the brethren to decorate the divine altar and not to mourn. He taught that “He who fed Israel in ancient times in the wilderness and after that fed many thousands of people with small loaves will also provide for us: for He neither became weaker in strength than He was before, nor did His zeal in His providence for the world diminish, but He is the same God forever.”

Here we see an example of true trust in God. The Lord immediately visited the righteous man who completely trusted Him. Towards the end of the day, a certain man came to the cave in which the saint and his disciples labored, bringing various food for the desert fasters, and among the supplies were prosphora and wine for performing the Divine Mysteries. At the sight of such a miracle, the disciples of the blessed one rejoiced and knew what grace their elder had been vouchsafed by God. They celebrated Easter with joy, and the food they brought was enough for the entire Pentecost.

Thus, the Monk Theodosius fulfilled the words written by King Solomon: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths(Prov. 3:5–6)

However, we must remember that in the matter of salvation a synthesis of faith and good works is necessary. Saint John Chrysostom said: “I beg you, let us make great efforts to remain firm in true faith and lead a virtuous life,” remembering the words of the Apostle James that Faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself(James 2:17). For if we do not combine a worthy and virtuous life with faith, then our faith will be in vain.

Beloved brothers and sisters! How can you and I learn to trust God in our daily lives? We often say: “everything is in the hands of God,” but are we ready to completely surrender our lives into the hands of God?

Every day we say the prayer several times that our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us. This is the Lord's Prayer. In one of her petitions we say: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven(Matt. 6:10). This petition confronts us with a real test: to trust God or to reject Him and rely only on our own strength. And if we decide to fully trust in God, then we must take advantage of the invaluable patristic experience that will help us achieve such virtue.

The Monk Paisius the Svyatogorets instructed his spiritual children with these words: “A person who, having abandoned his plans, completely entrusts himself to the Lord, lives according to God’s plan. To the extent that a person clings to his self, he is thrown back. He does not advance spiritually because he interferes with Divine mercy. To succeed, you need to completely trust God.” Thus it turns out: if you want to live according to the will of God, then you need to trust your Creator.

If we devoted at least five minutes a day detailed review our life, then we would notice how wisely and carefully God arranges all its circumstances

When entrusting ourselves into the hands of God, we need to understand that if something does not happen the way you want and desire, accept it with gratitude. But it's not as easy as you might think. Paisiy Svyatogorets speaks about many temptations that will be encountered on the path of everyone who decides to live, trusting God. “But let him not be afraid, for if he overcomes the temptations that befall him, with much effort, and keeps his mind, not allowing it to be weakened by the thoughts born in his heart, then he will conquer all passions at once,” Saint Paisius consoles us.

Our life must stand on the solid rock of trust in the will of God. “When we are confirmed in God by hope,” writes Archimandrite Ephraim (Moraitis), “then the foundation is laid on stone, and if the winds blow and the rivers surge, they will not overthrow us.”

Everything seems so easy and simple when we talk about it, but as soon as we start practicing, everything becomes incredibly difficult. It is at this moment that we must realize: trust in the will of God is a gift from God, which is given to everyone as the fruit of prayer. Therefore, we need to begin to pray to the Lord to strengthen our faith.

Also, observing the events of our lives can help us in increasing our hope in God’s Providence. In the transience of our world, in the hovering in social networks and on the Internet we lose sight of a lot, we don’t notice a lot in our lives. But if we were to devote at least five minutes a day to a detailed review of our life, we would notice how wisely and carefully God arranges all its circumstances.

This is how, dear brothers and sisters, we can learn to trust in the will of God at every moment of our earthly life, especially during periods of “forsakenness by God.” Let us firmly remember that the Lord is always there, we just need to trust Him with all our heart and soul.

Let us try to make the words of Christ: O faithless and corrupt generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you?(Matt. 17:14–23) were never addressed in our direction. Amen.

Nikolay Alexandrov
3rd year student
S. 100 there.

Ephraim Svyatogorets, archimandrite. Fatherly advice. Publishing house of the Saratov diocese, 2006. P. 157.

The merciful Lord never allows anything bad to happen unless he knows that some good will come from it and we will receive benefit for our soul. Therefore, we must always be sure that God turns even our ugliness into good. Trust God completely, put everything in His hands and don’t worry about anything.
People always strive to find support and support in life. And if they are not supported by faith, if they have not surrendered themselves to God to such an extent as to trust in Him in absolutely everything, then they will not escape sorrow. This is a great thing - trust in God.
Anyone who, not having trust in God, plans his life in his own way, and then claims that this is the will of God, arranges his affairs in a demonic way and always suffers for it. We do not understand to what extent the Lord is powerful and merciful. We do not allow Him to be master over us, to do all our affairs, and that is why we suffer.
Most often, people first seek sympathy and help from other people, and only when they do not receive what they expected, do they turn to God. But suffering can be avoided only when we resort to Divine help, for only it is true. It is not enough to believe in God, you must trust Him. We receive God's help through trusting Him. A believer, devoting himself entirely to the Lord even to the point of death, feels the saving right hand of God upon himself.
We must continually pray and humbly ask the Lord for help and mercy. But we cannot persistently beg for the Lord and Mother of God to immediately fulfill our request, even if we wish well. Yes, we want good, and God is pleased to give us help, but the time may not be suitable for this, and perhaps the Lord knows that now it is more useful for us not to receive what we asked for. Therefore, we need to endure, blaming ourselves, and humbly ask God, and not demand, and be sure that He will cover us with His mercy when it is His will.
If we trust God completely, the merciful Lord watches over us and takes care of us. As a good steward, He provides all of us with everything we need. He pays attention even to our small material needs, and so that we can see His care for us, the action of His providence, He gives us exactly as much as we need. But you don’t have to wait for the Lord to send you anything first; first, completely surrender yourself into God’s hands. After all, if you constantly ask the Lord for something, but do not entrust all of yourself to Him, this means that your refuge is on earth, and you do not strive for the heavenly abodes. Those people who devote their entire lives and themselves entirely to God are under His great protection and protected by His providence. Trust in God is an unceasing mysterious prayer that, at the right time, imperceptibly calls upon the power of God where it is needed.
A person who pays attention to the manifestations of God's mercy towards himself learns to depend on God's providence, and then begins to feel like a child in a cradle, who, as soon as his mother leaves him, bursts into tears and does not calm down until she runs up again to him. Entrusting yourself to God is a great thing!
Those people who completely surrender everything that belongs to them and themselves into the hands of God are protected by the mighty protection of God and preserved by His all-wise providence. And then they are adopted by the Creator and with His help they can more effectively help with their prayers the world in distress, and also - enlightened from above - show people the right path so that they come closer to God and through Divine consolation find joy, peace and salvation for their souls, because the soul has peace only in God.
The Lord wants us to understand our sinfulness and show our disposition towards goodness through at least a small feat of self-denial. He will send everything else. Spiritual life does not require pumped up muscles. We must strive with humility, pray to God for mercy and always thank Him. A person who, having abandoned his plans, completely entrusts himself to the Lord, lives according to God’s plan. To the extent that a person clings to his self, he is thrown back. He does not advance spiritually because he interferes with Divine mercy. To succeed, you need to completely trust God.

Not long ago we discussed in our family what love is. And Evgeny, my son, said: “Love is trust.”
I thought about his words.
What is trust? Maybe it's the ability to rely on someone or something?
Ozhegov's dictionary says:“Trust is confidence in someone’s integrity and sincerity.”
A strong relationship between spouses is based on trust in each other. Trusting relationships between friends are the key strong friendship. Relationships between employees at work based on trust are the key to respectful relationships and a successful career.
What does a trusting relationship between God and man give? Trust in the Creator is the guarantee of our spiritual health, righteous life and joy in God.
Meanwhile, according to statistics, about 70% of people in Russia believe in God, and only 9% are such.
Trusting Christ is difficult for many. They interfere with: unbelief, sins, self-confidence, pride, life experience and much, much more.
But even among people converted to Christ, there are a sufficient number of those who are afraid to completely entrust their lives, their affairs, their projects to God; afraid to make responsible decisions because they are not sure that the Lord can help them. What if it doesn’t work out!
We trust God with some minor matters. But when the question concerns a very important matter, health, personal safety, or making any decision in life, then the percentage of trust in God drops significantly. As a rule, in such situations we begin to rely on ourselves or on other people, looking for our helpers, support and saviors in them.
A simple example with the Apostle Peter: Jesus was captured by the guards and kept in custody. Peter followed Christ in the praetorium early in the morning (Luke 22:56-57)“One maid saw him sitting by the fire and looked at him and said, “This one too was with Him.” But he denied Him, saying to the woman, “I don’t know Him.”
Peter, who told Jesus: “You are the Son of the living God, who saw Christ every day, walked with Him, saw miracles, suddenly denies!
Why? The reason is simple: distrust of God and fear of circumstances. Believing in the Son of God, Peter is afraid to entrust his salvation to God. He realizes that at this moment he needs to save his life, and this must be done as quickly as possible. How? Let's lie.
Could God take care of him? Undoubtedly! But Peter does not trust this moment Lord. The result is popular renunciation.
The issue of distrust in God is manifested in various fields our lives, even in simple things.
For example: in purchasing clothes. Matthew 6:28-30
28 What do you constantly think about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 But I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of these;
30 But if God clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, He will clothe it more than you, O you of little faith!
And in many gospel episodes we can find moments when Christ reproaches his disciples, telling them: “You have little faith!”
So, what prevents us from completely entrusting our lives to God?
Let's read the passage from Matthew 14:25-31
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
26 And the disciples, when they saw Him walking on the sea, were alarmed and said, “It is a ghost; and they cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer; It's me, don't be afraid.
28 Peter answered Him: Lord! If it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
29 And he said, Go. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water to come to Jesus,
30 But, seeing the strong wind, he was afraid and, beginning to drown, cried out: Lord! save me.
31 Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him, and said to him, “You of little faith!” why did you doubt?
So we see that Jesus Christ said to Peter:“You have little faith, why did you doubt!”
Why did Peter begin to drown?
Because I began to doubt: I was afraid of the raging waves and strong wind, and Christ was still so far away...
The reason for lack of faith is hidden in doubt about the power and omnipotence of God, about His help in any difficult and dangerous situations.
God will not help us when our hope is based on our own strengths, on our own understanding of ongoing processes, when we rely on ourselves, doubting the omnipotence of the Creator of heaven and earth.
"And the doubter", - says the Apostle James -“not firm in its path, like a sea wave. Let such a person not think that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7)
Now let’s remember David, a man after God’s own heart. He spent a lot of time running from Saul through the mountains and hills, hiding, pretending to be crazy, and was afraid that the king would kill him.
That God couldn't save him? I could!
What stopped God from doing this?

Let's look at Psalm 114:1-9
1 I rejoice that the Lord has heard my voice and my prayer;
2 He has inclined His ear to me, and therefore I will call upon Him all my days.
3 Mortal diseases have seized me, the torments of hell have befallen me; I encountered cramped conditions and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: Lord! deliver my soul.
5 The Lord is gracious and just and our God is merciful.
6 The Lord protects the simple: I was weak, and He helped me.
7 Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has prospered you.
8 You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.
9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
Notice verse 1. “I rejoice that God has heard my voice, my prayer!” God always hears us, doesn't he? And then verse 6.“...I was exhausted and the Lord helped me.”
Those. Before this, David could: he ran away, hid, relied on his own strength, but now he is exhausted! And only when David’s hope in himself has completely melted, only then does God help him!
What can we take away from this passage?
1. God allows a person to go his own way and solve problems on his own. “God, we know better,” thereby preventing Him from acting.
2. What prevented David from getting help?
SELF-CONFIDENCE! What is self-confidence? This is FAITH and HOPE in yourself and your strengths, neglecting help and support from others.
3. When self-confidence disappears, the last thing a person can rely on is God. And only when David understands this, God begins to help him.
So, we have deduced two things that prevent us from trusting God 100%:
1. Doubt about the power and omnipotence of God.
2. Self-confidence.
How might these things manifest themselves in our daily lives?
Our everyday life full of small and big challenges.
- To lie or not to lie is the most common test that arises in moments of maintaining one’s image in society, for advancement in business or up the career ladder.
- Or “I already don’t have enough money to live, but in church they talk about donations.”
One person once told me: “When I earn enough money, then I will bring donations to the church.” What do we see here? Fear of not trusting financial matters to God.
- Not a receding illness, which they pray for in the church, which continues to advance, but faith in God’s help is melting with each passing hour. What are we trying to do at such moments? We run to professional doctors, buy expensive medicines and turn to modern technology. But where is the faith in God, our healer and heart-teller?
- Someone says: “Why pray and ask God for little things when I can do it myself.”
- Or at first we do something stubbornly - it doesn’t work out, we do it - it doesn’t work out, we continue to do it without praying - it doesn’t work out... And when we don’t succeed at all - then we say to ourselves: “We need to pray to God.”
There are many more examples that can be given.
How should we act in such moments? Give room for doubt and fear? Panic? Looking for your own ways out and solutions? No. You need to completely entrust the situation to the Almighty Creator. Really, the One who created the universe, the One who controls time and history, cannot help us? Maybe he wants...

But how can we learn to trust God?
1. You need to know about the power and love of the Lord our God, who saves in all kinds of circumstances. “...do not be afraid, for I am with you,” says the Lord, “do not be troubled, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, and help you, and uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10)
2. You need to stop relying on yourself, on your own strengths, on people, on accidents, and completely rely on Christ. those. do everything in cooperation with God and go not ahead of God, but after Him and with Him!
3. You need to stop being afraid of situations in people’s society, not be afraid to tell the truth, not be afraid of crises, illnesses, etc.
In conclusion, I would like to read the instructions of the Lord God:
“Behold, I command you: be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed; For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua1:9)
Amen.

Difficulty of Faith
(Matt. 17:14-21)

First, think and answer the question to yourself: what is faith? I have no doubt that many responded with the words of Paul: “Faith is confidence in the invisible God...” Yes, you are right, but faith in God is not only a firm conviction of His existence, but also trust in Him. Those who trust God are called believers.

Let's read two Bible stories showing the different faiths of the disciples of Jesus Christ:

14 When they came to the people, a man came to Him and, kneeling before Him,
15 said: Lord! have mercy on my son; He [goes berserk] during the new moon and suffers greatly, for he often throws himself into fire and often into water,
16 I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him.
17 Jesus answered and said, O generation that distrusts and distorts everything! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you? bring him here to Me.
18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him; and the boy was healed at that hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we cast him out?”
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief; for truly I say to you, if you have faith (trust, loyalty, conviction) as a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you;
21 This generation is driven out only by prayer and fasting.
(Matt. 17:14-21)

The same students a few years later:

1 Peter and John went together to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer.
2 And there was a man, lame from his mother’s womb, who was carried and seated every day at the door of the temple, which is called Red, to beg alms from those who entered the temple.
3 When he saw Peter and John before entering the temple, he asked them for alms.
4 Peter and John looked at him and said, “Look at us.”
5 And he gazed at them, hoping to get something from them.
6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold; But what I have, I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.
7 And taking him by the right hand, raised; and suddenly his feet and knees became stronger,
8 And he jumped up and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God;
(Acts 3:1-9)

What changed from the time Jesus healed the sick man in front of his disciples, until the time the disciples themselves began to heal? Did the disciples believe in Christ? Yes and no. Why? Yes, because in some cases they believed the words of Christ, in others they did not. Jesus himself called them a generation of unbelievers and a perverter of everything.
Why couldn't the Disciples perform miracles of healing? Because they were hesitant in trusting God, even though they followed Jesus.
Christ compares our faith to a mustard seed. A mustard seed is very small, but nevertheless, faith with such a grain can move mountains. This is quite a lot of faith to do such things!
Does faith have size? Yes, it has. Whoever trusts Jesus more has a larger or stronger life. Those who trust less have weak and small trust.
The illustration of the mountain moving is a projection onto our real world, showing that with the help of our faith, we can change the world by influencing it with our faith. So don't take this place literally.

Now let's look at the second event.
Peter and John came to the temple. They look - a lame man is sitting at the gate. They tell him: “Get up and walk!” He jumps up and starts walking!
What changed? The faith of Peter and John changed, their trust in God changed! The result of the change is a miracle of healing!
What special happened to their faith? Peter and John learned:
a) listen to God;
b) trust Him.

Why did Christ's disciples behave this way in this situation? Could they simply pray that God would give the sick person Good work or strong faith in healing? They could! They could have given him money, found a doctor, fed him, i.e. help him with something? They could too.
But pay attention to one very interesting point. Peter and John looked closely at the man’s face. And while they looked at him, they listened to what God would tell them at that time. This is a very important point. Why? Because when we encounter certain difficulties in our lives or are faced with some important decision, the question arises: what should we do in this situation.
And God said to Peter: “Tell this man: I have no silver or gold; But what I have, this I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.” Peter did as the Lord told him and gave his hand to the one sitting. As a result, the lame man stood up and began to walk.

Think: Do you consider yourself to be believers?
Now remember: how many times have you started to pray for something, and the thought immediately came to you that you wouldn’t succeed in such a difficult task anyway! Was? I think it was. And this has happened to me more than once.
How many of us have faith the size of a mustard seed? How are we, today's followers of Jesus Christ, different from those same Apostles? How is our faith different from their faith? We see the invisible and believe in the Lord Coming. But can we say right now, for example, to Hasan: get up and walk, or to sick Igor: be healthy, or to blind Maxim Bartholomew, who once sang psalms in our church: in the name of Jesus Christ, see, yes so that everything happens? Surely, some of those sitting in the hall doubted it, while others did not believe in such miracles at all.
The current church is weak because it trusts God little. Only in large groups somehow he moves in prayer. What if each of us had faith the size of a mustard seed?

Why do we often get nothing when we pray? Why do our prayers fail?
There are two reasons that are important to understand:
a) there is God’s providence (plan);
b) our faith or trust in God.

There is God's providence (plan), with which we often disagree:
There are things that the Lord wants to do through us. But we find many reasons not to do them and often do not act as we are told. inner voice- the voice of God. Often God speaks to us through people. “It’s none of my business,” we reassure ourselves, “I have no gifts and talents, no time, let someone else do it, what if it doesn’t work out…”
In such situations, we become like a slave to whom the owner entrusted 10 talents and left for another country. And the slave took them and buried them in the ground. What can such a slave get from his master?

We expect answers to our prayers, but we respond little or completely ignore God's requests when He needs something from us. Sometimes the Lord leads us to some person who now needs the Gospel or some kind of help, but we have reasons to leave him as quickly as possible.
But when God closes our way, we break in, but nothing happens. We get disappointed, we begin to rely on our minds, on other people, on the church - but all to no avail. We are offended by our brothers and sisters, we go to other churches, thinking that God is definitely present there. We weaken in our trust in the Lord and create difficulties for ourselves in our relationship with Him.
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask to waste your pleasures” (James 4:3)- says Jacob. And this is the truth.
Often in prayers we act as supplicants, and most of Our prayers are aimed at ourselves: our existence, health and well-being. And very often the Lord is simply silent. Why?
God is primarily interested in our spiritual growth, and then about everything else. Our physical health is important to him, but our spiritual health is more important. It is important for him to teach us to sacrifice rather than to drown us in monetary and material excess. It is more important for Him to teach us to love the people around us than our own well-being. The Lord has always warned His people that“When you have abundance, do not forget about Me!”It is more important for Him to teach us to trust Him more in order to change us spiritually.

Those who live a spiritual life are constantly accompanied by miracles.

Our Faith:
Sometimes our faith fails us when we pray for our loved ones, for our health, or for something else. At this very moment in time there is a war going on against us. The devil does not want to strengthen our faith, so he gives us all sorts of thoughts about not fulfilling what we ask. As soon as we ourselves or someone imposes a negative outcome of events on us, consider it all lost. Especially when we pray for the sick or for a difficult situation in life. Spiritual warfare is great! Often thoughts come to mind such as: “Oh, so many people prayed and nothing happened! God gave him to suffer in this world, and you want to heal him?” or “do you want to change this situation? May your boss not let you go!”, or many other situations that, at first glance, seem like just mountains that cannot be moved under any circumstances. Such thoughts defeat us. All our prayer becomes in vain. Even when praying for yourself, you feel the presence of thoughts like: “What if I pray and nothing will happen...” In these cases, we become like the disciples of Jesus Christ who could not do anything with the sick boy. Jesus called them unbelievers.
An admitted thought from outside, contrary to our faith, breaks everything. If you just have a little doubt, you don’t have to pray any longer! Or pray like this: “Lord, strengthen my faith and help me to completely trust You!”

So: to have answered prayers, necessary:
1) try to do the will of the Lord;
We need to learn to hear God and respond to His requests.
Faith works when you trust God completely.
Don't be afraid to take action under difficult circumstances.
2) have unshakable faith, where there is no room for doubt.
Banish the fear of “what if.”
Then our faith will strengthen us and make us more perfect.

I want to end with the words of Jacob.
6 ...let him ask in faith, without doubting in the least, for he who doubts is like sea ​​wave, lifted and blown by the wind.
7 Let such a man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord.
8 A double-minded person is not steadfast in all his ways.