Blog – Page 28 – Upper Room Media Blogs

Searching for Hope

Searching for Hope

by Fr Anthony Messeh

Reposted from http://www.franthony.com/blog/searching-for-hope

Fr Anthony Messeh is an American Coptic Orthodox Christian living in Arlington, VA. The aim of his blog is to spread the message of a real, relevant and rewarding God.

HOPE. What is it? Where do I find it? How do I get it? And if I do get it, how do I keep it? Why does THAT guy seem to have so much of it and I have so little of it? Is there really such a thing as hope in my situation?

Of course we all know the “right” answers to these questions. It’s easy to rattle off some Bible verses and spew out a few stories and then declare “so just hope in God.” But do we really believe that? Do you really believe that?

The honest answer for me? Yes and no. At times, yes. And at other times, no. There are those times when life seems to be going well – not perfect, but at least moving in the right direction. Economy is up, career is progressing, and relationships are stable. Life is good. At times like that, it’s easy to talk about hope and tell others about hope as well. Hope is ours.

But those “good” times seem to occur much less frequently than the “bad” times don’t they? The economy seems to be down more than it’s up. My career has more bumps than I expected. And my relationships (or lack thereof) seem to be a constant source of stress and anxiety in my life. Where’s hope then?

Please don’t give me (or yourself) the “right” answer that we learned back in Sunday school. Don’t just tell me that we have to trust and believe and everything will be ok. Do you even believe that? I will be honest and say that I struggle with that at times.

Where is hope when you are standing at a grave with a mother who just buried her son?

Where is hope when you see a family with no money in their account, bills are piled up to the ceiling and then you hear that the dad just got laid off?

Where is hope when you’re lonely and God knows you’re lonely but doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it?

In the past, I’ve written about some of more abstracts element of hope, so today I want to focus on the practical components. I don’t want to DEFINE hope; I want to DESCRIBE it. Hope is too big to be defined, but it can be described – in both words and pictures.

1. Hope is a choice

The level of hope you experience in life is totally and completely up to you. No one and no circumstances can affect that. Let me draw you a picture.

Imagine a parallel set of train tracks that extends as far as the eye can see. Those tracks represent the experiences that we all go through in life – one is the painful experiences and the other is the joyful experiences. Every day we experience some pain and some joy as we walk down the road of life.

Now imagine looking out toward the horizon – look out as far as your eye can see. What will happen? What will you see? Can you still see two separate tracks? NOPE. You’ll only be able to see one. The two tracks appear to become one track only.

That is hope. Hope is not looking down, but looking ahead. If you look down at either one of those two tracks, you’ll be in trouble. Focusing on the joyful track only will lead to denying reality. Focusing on the painful track only will lead to depression. We don’t need to look down; we need to look ahead. That is hope.

Hope says that no matter what happens today, God is working all things together for good to those who love Him. Hope says that even though today you may see “good” and “bad”, there will come a day where you will see that BOTH of those tracks were needed to get you to where God wants you to be.

That is hope – not that everything is ok, but that God is working all things in order to make it ok one day. That is why I say that hope is a choice. No one can force you to look up and by the same token, no one can stop you from doing so either.

2. Hope is a person

There’s a beautiful prayer we say in the Orthodox church and we use it just before we read from the gospel. The prayer says: “for You are the life of us all, the salvation of us all, the HOPE OF US ALL, the healing of us all and the resurrection of us all.”

God is our hope. We don’t hope in the miracles of God or the grace of God or the mercies of God. WE HOPE IN GOD HIMSELF.

Said another way, hope is not based on the presence of your circumstances; hope is based on the presence of your God. Don’t tell me how bad your situation is; tell me whether or not God is in it with you or not. If He is, there’s hope. If He’s not, there’s no hope. Simple.

Let me draw you another picture. Imagine sitting in a pit – with the mud and mire all around – and then seeing a hand reaching down from above. That hand of is the Hand of God reaching down to rescue you and lift you up.

Now what’s hope? Hope is how tightly you grasp that hand. Some choose to hold lightly and therefore have little hope. Some cling with all their might and therefore have a lot more hope. The force and desperation and urgency with which you cling to that Hand – that’s hope. And again, no one can affect that except you.

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:5

They say that hope is the oxygen of the soul. I couldn’t agree more. Even though we don’t necessarily know what it is, we all know we need it. And now we know that it’s in our control to go get it.

Hurt is inevitable, but despair is optional. We cannot avoid hurt, but we can avoid hope.

See more from Fr Anthony Messeh at http://www.franthony.com

Forgiving Yourself (Barriers to Repentance)

Barriers to Repentance 2/7

Forgiving Yourself

by Shery Abdelmalak

God instructed us to forgive one another, but the forgiveness we have to offer others is largely dependent on the forgiveness we have for ourselves. He told us to love our neighbours as ourselves (Mark 12:21). But what if we don’t love ourselves? What if we’re held back by shame and guilt for the sins of our past? If we approach sin with regret, guilt and shame, these are all we have to offer to those whom we love most.

The world teaches us to approach a problem with possible solutions. This is very simple when applied to sin. You do a sin. You know it was wrong. You try to fix it. This is not how God asked us to approach sin. You may be able to overcome a sin on your own a few times but eventually you’ll get worn down. You’ll soon realised that the higher you reach, the further you’ll fall.

As morbid as this sounds, God teaches us to approach sin in a way the world will never understand. When you are resigned to sin and you come to Him in prayer, you may fall again but there is a comfort in knowing He is always there to pick you up – a comfort in knowing that He is not just a fall back but the very core of your strength. St Paul says, “I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me”(2 Cor. 12:9). If we can truly give the glory to Him, we know that our flaws and mistakes will work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Even by worldly logic, fighting sin on your own doesn’t make sense. Saint Moses the Black was one of the strongest men on Earth. The devil tried to physically fight him and so naturally, he fought back. He fought back, and was knocked down. The devil is stronger than the elites of this world. We need to shift our logic and stop trying to fight sin unarmed. There needs to be an understanding of where we truly stand in this world. If the only One stronger than the devil is God and He is able to crush Satan under your feet, how could you try to fight without Him?

Elder Mattaous says, “If someone is described as ‘humble,’ this is not, in my opinion, a characteristic of human nature, for how can dust be humble?Dust was taken from the ground, so if someone looks at dust, would he consider it to be pearls or precious stones?”

If you truly see yourself as dust, there would be no shame or guilt for sin. A curse of the modern era is oversupply. We no longer need to pray for our daily bread- it’s a given. Our lack of need extends to our lack of ability to see our own sins and even more to overcome them. We are largely self-sufficient, and so for anything we lack, we turn to ourselves before we turn to Christ.

In repentance, we turn over our weakness to Christ to be moulded as the Potter moulds a clay vessel. A clay vessel need not worry about the lumps and bumps that take a little while longer to be smoothed out, for in the hands of the Potter, all will be perfected according to His Image in due time.

“But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” (Romans 9:20). He has made no mistake. Your sins are for your ultimate edification and renewal in His image. They are not for you to fix, but to recognise your need for a Saviour who will deliver from all evil and the death of sin.

Sometimes we like the idea of repentance because we think that is how God forgives us; that we need to apologise before He can forgive or that a great display of prayer and almsgiving is what sways God to forgive us. While it may help you feel better about sins of the past, a broken and a contrite heart is all He desires. Before you were even formed in your mother’s womb, God sent His Son to die on the Cross in anticipation of the sins of the world. The father of the prodigal son did not wait begrudgingly for his son’s return. No, he ran out to greet him for he who was dead was alive again, he who was lost was now found (Luke 15:32). We need to realise that after we sin, God is not angry at us, the guilt you feel comes from knowing that you should’ve done of better. God doesn’t care that you fell, He just wants to you to get back up and renew your love for Him once more.

After His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter three times if He loved him in remembrance of the three times Peter publicly denied Him. For every time that Peter denied Him, he renewed his love for Him. Peter was overly zealous and believed in his own self. Through his repentance his zeal was renewed into godly zeal and an unshakable faith that would go on to convert the nations. Christ was imploring Peter to renew his love for him – all was forgiven but reconciliation had to be made. Peter had to put aside his guilt and shame and remember the One whom he loved more than the entrapment of sins past.

Let us pray that with every fall, we recognise and learn from our mistakes through repentance, and we are transformed according to His Love. Glory be to God, forever. Amen.

I Will Give You Rest

I Will Give You Rest

By Fr David Shehata

“In You I will find rest”. Jesus says, “Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest”. And He continues and says “come to Me… I will teach you and you will learn from Me… My yoke is easy and my burden is light”. These words are very comforting from the Lord, and the reason for this is that it comes from Jesus Himself, one who has authority and the willingness to help. This provides us a lot of comfort and rest. St Apollinaris, one of the early Church Fathers, posed a very profound question saying, “How is it that Jesus sometimes will say ‘my burden is light and my yoke is very easy’, but at other times, He’ll say ‘the path that leads to righteousness is very narrow and very difficult’?” Fortunately, St Apollinaris also answers this dilemma… those people who may be careless in their spiritual life… people who do not prioritise the Lord, or a Christian way of living, walk a very narrow path, one that seems very burdensome and difficult. And yet, for those of us who are zealous and do want to prioritise the Lord and live a Christian life, the task’s and instructions given to us by the Lord become easy and a pleasure to follow… become very light with Him.

Everyone carries a burden, whether it be work or family related. Make no mistake, despite the exclusively happy facades of people we may see on social media, we all have problems that burden us. Yet how is it, that some people walk through these problems, through life, being perfectly ok, while other people are destroyed by these difficulties? Truly, the common thread that runs through the people who get through their problems, and move from success to success, is this element of hope and faith in the Lord. The element of faith in this particular verse. When Jesus says to us, “Come to Me ALL..”, there’s no prerequisites. It’s not only come to Me if you think your worthy, or pray this many hours a day, or only if you come to Church for this amount of time… not at all. “Come to Me ALL, you who are burdened”.There’s a few stories that this reminds me of. One time Fr Thomas Hopko, a really beautiful man, said a story once, of a little girl with her father. Her father had given her a present… a necklace. And she loved it. It was a diamond necklace, fake of course, just made of plastic, but it looked gold… and so she loved this necklace. She thought it was so pretty and beautiful. And her dad used to put her to sleep. One time, as he was putting her to sleep he said to her, “Please give me this necklace” and she refused. So he said, “that’s ok, no worries”. Then the next night he was putting her to bed, and he asked again “can you give me that necklace?”, but she still replied, “no dad, I really love it… I don’t want to part ways with it”. So he said again, “that’s ok”. The third day he asked her and she started crying, she said “you know that I love this necklace, why are you asking me to get rid of it? Why you asking me to give it away? I really love it”. And so he said to her, “Don’t cry, I don’t want you to cry. Just give it to me when your ready, and I have something better for you”. She said, “but there’s nothing that could possibly be better that this”. He replied, “that’s ok, when you’re ready”. This kept going on for days and days and weeks. Until one day, as he was putting her to sleep, he asked, “can I have the necklace?” With tears in her she gave it to him. He said, “why are you crying”, and she responded, “you know why I’m crying, I really love it”. He said, “well maybe you won’t be crying anymore after you see what I have prepared for you”. She still said, “there could be nothing better than this necklace”. So out of his pocket, it was there the whole time, he pulled a jewerelly box. Inside, there was a real gold necklace, the real deal. And he gave it to her and said, “I had this ready for you all along”. In a way, it makes us realise that many times we’re going through burdens and problems, and it feels like we are the ones who need to fix the problem… we are the ones that need to solve it. And I feel, that these are the times we have to let go and tell the Lord, “You are the one who is going to fix this problem, it’s Your burden, not mine”. Fr Thomas Hopko once said that when we’re praying to God, we tell Him, “Lord we are weak, we’re rubbish… but we are Your rubbish. We are weak, but You are the one Who can draw out the strength in our weakness”.

Forgiving Others (Barriers to Repentance)

Barriers to Repentance 1/7

Forgiving Others

by Shery Abdelmalak

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us

How easy it is for us to pray this daily while being detached from our brothers and sisters. By praying this, God has lowered Himself to our level so that He may elevate us to His.

He won’t forgive until I forgive? The thought of this question once distressed me. I know that my ability to forgive is flawed by my human nature, but My Lord, in His perfection, does not struggle to forgive the way I do. It’s not a matter of CAN He forgive. He can forgive, and He does. Even before you come to Him, He has forgiven you. What is not possible is to be united with God while we are not united with one another. Just as the father of the prodigal son waited earnestly for his son’s return, God waits earnestly for us to accept His forgiveness and to be reconciled and renewed in Him once more through repentance.

If forgiveness equates to love, then a lack of forgiveness equates to hate. Where there is hate, God could never co-exist.

A truly repentant heart does not struggle to forgive others. A repentant heart knows its own sin and knows that although they are not the true imitation of Christ, they strive to be more like Him daily. When you are just a work in progress yourself, you can forgive and pray for the faults you find in others, no matter how hurtful the sin may be. God is working in them, just as He works in you, even if it may seem like some require more work than others.

Often, we can see a fault in a person and this may drive us away from them. But to truly love with the spirit of repentance is to pray for them, to pray that God reveals the riches of His glory to them. To pray that they are strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. To pray that Christ dwells in their hearts so they may comprehend the width, the length, the height, the depths of the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge (Ephesians 3:16-19). That level of love. Not trust, not a return to what your relationship once was, just Love.

We can love with worldly love but what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them (Luke 6:32). This kind of love is limited to worldly understanding. Anyone can love someone that has given them enough reason to love them. But we strive for Limitless Love that comes only from above. The type of love that suffers long and is kind. That does not envy nor parade itself nor is it puffed up. Does not behave rudely or seek its own. Does not envy. Is not provoked. Does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth (1 Cor. 13:4-6) – A Love that would lay down its life for its brethren. A Love like this does not concur with human understanding, but neither does the gift of grace in our salvation through Christ. This is the love that forgives unconditionally. Without it, there is no place for forgiveness.

Our lack of forgiveness generally comes from a good place. You were wronged. You were hurt. You didn’t deserve it. You are a good person and a bad thing happened to you that you couldn’t prevent. But Jesus was a good person, too. Jesus was wronged. Jesus was betrayed. Those that anticipated His coming for their salvation betrayed Jesus. More still, His own friends betrayed Him. Jesus was sacrificed, for a sin you and I committed. Now you want to go to God and tell Him that what was done to you was too much? God, being the kind and compassionate God that He is, surely He would understand that there is no way forgiveness is plausible. After everything Jesus did for you, you can forgive. Not for the sake of the one who harmed you, but for His.

There is a hurt however, that is far beyond my own understanding. I by no means think that you should just get over it because Jesus went through worse. Jesus did go through worse, not so you could feel ashamed when you struggle to forgive, but so you know that no one can offer you empathy and compassion quite like Him. The very fact that you come to Him when you cannot forgive is credited to you. Some wrongs may take weeks or months or years of prayer but do not be disheartened, but rather, put on the whole armour of God that you may stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11). Fight to forgive. Don’t pretend like everything is okay, don’t pretend that you were not hurt, don’t pretend that you don’t remember the hurt because you cannot handle coming to terms with what it means to you.

Robert Dean Enright says, “When unjustly hurt by another, we forgive when we overcome the resentment toward the offender, not by denying our right to the resentment, but by trying to offer the wrongdoer compassion, benevolence and love (2).” Fr David Milad (2015) explains this as forgiveness through an acknowledgement of what was done to you and the conscious decision to positively work through the situation in order to grow spiritually. Compassion, benevolence and love is the goal of repentance. This really is all He ever wanted from us – to spread His love through forgiveness to His children. “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.“ (Luke 6: 35)

When struggling to forgive another, it is important not to lose sight of what you can control – your own sins and your own repentance. To repent, in its most basic form of the word, is to say you’re sorry. Even when you are stuck in the hurt of sins committed against you. If so, start by saying you’re sorry. Say you’re sorry for your blind ignorance that is yet to see its own sin. Start small and ask Him to reveal your sin to you. That small step you take toward repentance, is one small step that you have taken toward Him. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). You will feel His peace the closer you draw to Him, so for that reason, repent.

May we repent so that we can pray in all sincerity, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Glory be to God forever, Amen.

Confidence in Humility

Confidence in Humility

by Bethany Kaldas

‘He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.’

~Micah 6:8

I always used to think that humility and confidence contradicted each other. After all, confidence seemed far more like a characteristic of pride—it’s the proud who are so confident in their own knowledge that they can’t admit that they’re wrong, it’s the proud who are so sure of their own importance that they butt into things they shouldn’t.

In my mind, the humble were the reverse—they doubted their own wisdom to the point that they never enforced their opinion on anything, they lacked so much confidence in their abilities that they never admitted to doing anything well and will vehemently deny any such suggestion. We’ve all met those people who will fight you to the death over a compliment.

For the longest time, that was what I thought humility looked like, and I suspect I’m not alone in that belief.

But let me ask you, this image of a humble man—does it look like Christ? Is this how Christ behaved around people? There’s an upturned table in a temple and a mob of offended Pharisees who would suggest otherwise. And you can’t argue that Christ, because He is God, had no need to be humble—He said so Himself: ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’ (Matthew 11:25).

So if the person described above is not indeed truly humble, then what is real humility?

I think that question is answered most eloquently by the Christian writer C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity:

‘Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.’

Lewis puts it even more concisely: ‘Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.’

And this, I feel, is where most people—myself first—mess up when it comes to the distinction between pride and humility. You are not humble for your self-deprecation, nor are you prideful for your confidence. Pride or humility is decided by where you are looking: are you looking to God and to His creation, or is your attention drawn mainly to yourself? When faced with a difficult situation, are you searching for God’s will, or are you so engrossed in your own infirmity that you can’t imagine that God would ever use you for His purposes?Believe it or not, whether you are focusing on your many talents or many faults—both are pride. Whether you’re puffing yourself up to make yourself look good in front of others, or tearing yourself down to appear meek, so long as youare your biggest concern, you have fallen as far from real humility as possible.

In this way, it might still be hard to see how you can reconcile humility with confidence. If you’re confident in yourself, you’re still thinking about you, right? What if we’ve misunderstood what real confidence is too?

Let’s take a look at a man who, in my opinion, is one of the best examples of what real confidence looks like: John the Baptist.

John was a confident guy from the very beginning. Even from the womb you could tell he was about as far from that quiet, apologetic person we once mistook for a humble man as possible. He preached wherever he went and was bold enough to tell even powerful rulers like Herod when they were in the wrong (Matthew 14:3-5), knowing full well what the consequences might be. Not to mention the fact that he was eating bugs long before anyone else thought it was cool, though his fashion sense never quite caught on. He feared no man and held no secrets—John the Baptist was an open book and he was never afraid to tell the truth.

However, as much as he talks and as confident as he behaves, there’s not a single trace of pride in his actions. He speaks more of the Christ than himself, and when he does speak of himself, he does so with complete honesty and openness. He never claims to be more than he is, although he is given plenty of opportunities to declare himself a god. He is confident in who he is because he knows himself in relation to Christ (John 1:23, Luke 3:15-17). He is humble not simply because he has realised that ‘He must increase and I must decrease’, but because Christ has made his joy full (John 3:29-30). He has realised that his very purpose is in Christ and Christ, unlike himself, is unfailing. His confidence was never in himself—it was always in the God he served. That is what true confidence looks like, and it is inseparable from his humility.

John the Baptist contrasts rather sharply with the image of the ‘humble’ man we started out with. For far too long, I feel the concept of humility has been twisted into something almost masochistic, and I’ve both seen and experienced the damage a misconception of this beautiful virtue can do to a person. It can generate a sense of worthlessness and self-pity that can only drive a person further away from true humility—from having real confidence in Christ and an honest view of themselves. It is a shroud of lies that prevents one from seeing the Truth—of themselves, of the world, of God. The Truth that is Christ Himself.

The life of John the Baptist also demonstrates another beautiful aspect to this true, outward-looking humility. John, being so confident in his Creator, never felt the need to try and glorify himself. His joy had already been filled by ‘the Bridegroom’s voice’(John 3:29), he needed nothing more. And yet, it was Jesus who came to John to be baptised—one of the greatest honours a human could have. John spent his entire life glorifying the Lord, and in the end, it turned out that the Lord was always preparing to glorify him. And this isn’t just a special case for John. Very clearly in James 4:10, we see that this applies to all of us: ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.’

True Prayer

True Prayer

A reflection of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom’s “Living Prayer” by St Athanasius’ Book Fellowship

Who are you praying to?

Do you pray to God, or do you pray for your will to be done through God? While we’d all love to say that we pray to God and for His will to be done, there is a more accurate answer. Your life and the person you are becoming reflects your prayer life more truly. You are an image of the one whom you worship.

We know that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If we are worshipping God in false humility then we know that He is far from us. If we are proud then we make God the object of our own will. We make Him the means to an end, and not the end that we should be striving for. There is a fine line between heaven and hell and that line is drawn in the hearts of each of us.

How then, do we discover this purifying judgement?

When we stand in the presence of God, He reveals Himself to us personally. Jesus teaches us in the final days, the hearts of man will be opened when He says:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” (Matt. 25:31-33).

An early Church Father once contemplated on this parable regarding church worship. The church is adorned on feast days. The congregation comes dressed in their finest apparel, but only God can distinguish the sheep from the goats. Our hearts are exposed before God. The goats are those subject to pride – that is, the god of their own will. The sheep are the ones that come to God in the confidence of humility. We could be doing all the right things – going to church, praying the Agbia, reading the Bible – yet infinitely far from God.

To worship God in truth is to recognise that my only security is in You, the Creator of heaven and earth. My confidence is in the One who cannot be shaken.

When thousands came to see Jesus in the Flesh, He took notice of one woman. Not because of any grand entrances, but through the greatness of her faith. The woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years touched His garments and believed she would be healed. At this touch, He says, “somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.”

There is power in prayer, every time we come before the throne of grace. The woman’s response is the same response we should have toward prayer, for in her response lies the humility of prayers heard.

“Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately”(Matt 8:47).

The revelation of true prayer

There can sometimes be an overemphasis of our true human states – “I am dirt.” This was never meant to demoralise. It is truth, and it is a truth that switches our sense of security from our imperfect self to the perfect Creator of the universe.

If we stand in front of anything great, what reaction do you expect? If we compare ourselves to the size of the earth, to the size of the galaxy, to the size of universe, the realisation that follows is how small we really are in comparison. The earth becomes likes a drop in the ocean. There is no comparison. The reality of our lives is that despite how small we are compared to our Creator, it is His love that makes us aware of His presence and our shortcomings at the same time.

In prayer, we don’t start with our sinfulness, we start with who God is, followed by our weaknesses. If you are standing in a dark room and you stumble, the first thing you do is turn on the light to prevent yourself from falling again. When the lights are on, you see that damage you caused and how to avoid it. It is a common misconception that we should come to God when we are good, when we have overcome sin. God is the light of our lives. Through Him, we overcome our sins. Our sins are not revealed on their own. God is first revealed, followed by our sins so that we are supported and guided toward life with Him. When God’s glory was revealed to Isaiah, his first reaction was, “I am a man of unclean lips.” This isn’t even necessarily the result of a sin he committed, it was simply the realisation of the Almighty.

Practically speaking, there are three measures to the efficacy of true prayer;

A sense of security and reliance on God
Recognition of my sins
The way I perceive and deal with my neighbours

The true question we need to be asking ourselves to achieve these, is when I fall, how do I react?

If you have thoughts of disappointments – “I don’t do this anymore, I’m better than that. I can’t believe I’ve fallen again.” This is reliance on self. The biggest danger is the nagging voice that says you can make yourself better independent of God. “You’re better than that.” When those self-reliant thoughts are exhausted, turn to God.

The old Adam hides, blames others and ‘clothes’ himself in an attempt to cover up his insecurities. God is like a parachute that we hope we don’t need to use. We don’t want to pull the parachute to keep us alive. God is a nice add on to how you want to appear, an image that will not last. We need to shift Him from our last resort to our One and only hope that we run to at all times.

Another question we ask is, do I pray more fervently in church than I do when I am alone?

We may appear good before others but what about God? I want to be recognised for doing good before God. While there is nothing wrong with praying among others, make sure that after every day, it is in the hidden place that you complete your search for the Almighty.

Let us stop asking “How are you” but imitate the monks who say to one another, “How is your prayer life?” For there is no life that is separated from prayer.

Entrusting Our Lives To The Lord

Entrusting Our Lives To The Lord

By Fr Mark Basily

You’ll always find that the church is opposite to the world. In everything. The world says fear, the Church says don’t fear. The world says death is sad, the Church says death is happy. The world says suffering is bad, the Church will say suffering is glorious. You’ll always find this beautiful contrast taking place. One of those things is fear. The world always makes things fear, fear, fear. And Christ comes and says don’t fear, don’t fear, don’t fear… just trust Me. In fact the most repeated commandment in the Bible… is “do not fear”. The most repeated commandment from the mouth of Christ, is “do not fear”, “do not worry”, “why you worrying”, “it ok”. 125 times in the Gospels we are commanded not to worry or not to fear, or something along the lines of trust Me.

It’s the most repeated commandment, and it’s actually a commandment. A lot of the time we think “don’t worry” is like advice. You know, “Just don’t fear, don’t worry, it’s ok… got your back”. And we may say, “oh that’s good advice God… yeah great advice…. I may take it on board in my life”. It’s actually not a piece of advice, nor is it a way of life… it’s a commandment. It’s like “do not steal”, “do not murder”…. “do not fear”. It’s a commandment. God is commanding us to trust Him. And so when we don’t, I have to confess… I have to go tell Abouna in confession and say “I was worried”, “I was scared”, “I was fearful”, “I didn’t trust” … because it is a commandment of God from us not to fear and not to worry.

The question for us then is how? How can I get to this level in my life where I’m not worried, I’m relaxed, you know…. It’s all good, I trust God? I really believe that this is the key to happiness. If you want to be happy in your life, you have to be able to trust God. There is a place you can be in life, where you’re permanently happy. No matter what. And I think that’s where we need to be in our Christian walk, our Christian life. We need to be in a state where, “you know what, I’m sweet, I’m happy… and nothing can take that away from me”. So how? How do I get to that point in my life? No matter what happens… let’s say I failed my HSC, I lose my job, I’ve lost a loved one. How can I get to that place in my life, where nothing can shake me? Ill offer three ways, and its all about trusting God.

The first one is to place your treasures in heaven. And I’m giving you words from Christ. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves, treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves will break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

This is usually the root cause, of our loss of peace, or our loss of happiness. That my treasures are on earth. If my treasures are on earth, then as Christ said, we can lose them. Therefore you will lose your peace… because where your treasure is, there your heart will be. So if I’ve lost my treasure, I’ve lost my heart. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

The second way to increase our trust in God and to live happy, is to trust God in the small things in my life. Our Lord says this, “Look at the small things in my life, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? Now if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, of little faith”.

And so here Christ is challenging us to increase our faith by looking at the small things. Even the things like birds. And that’s a lovely exercise to actually do in our spiritual life, whenever you see a bird around, remember of this verse. You know that Abouna Augustinos always says that you never see a depressed bird. There always annoyingly happy. Always happy. They wake up in the morning happy and whistling. You never see a sad bird like “uuggghhh”. They’re always happy. And Christ says look at the birds… they’re okay… and aren’t you more precious than a bird. Of course you are. And if God looks after the bird, he’ll look after you. So trust God even in the small things in our lives.

God looks after our little needs. Its very easy for Him to solve a problem. Its very easy for Him to look after Him in our daily lives, in our day to day needs. I just have to trust Him.

And when I learn to trust Him in the smaller things, then ill learn to trust Him in the bigger things in my life.

The last way to live happy and entrust my life to God, is to live for the present moment. Our problem sometimes is that we live regretting the past, and worrying about the future. And so my mind is always in the past or in the future. And that’s always where there’s darkness. The past is darkness. The future is unknown, its dark as well. The only time that is real, the only time that has light… is now. Is my present moment.

Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap

by Anthony Zaccariotto

When I look back on my own spiritual health, the practice of inventory is one that I cannot emphasize the importance of enough. Through inventory, we examine our lives, our weakness and in turn, our source of strength in Christ becomes pivotal. I write this blog from personal experience in an attempt to help everyone discover the source of their spiritual lax and to bridge the gap that is between us and the Grace of God. If you throw a frog into a basin filled with boiling water, immediately it will jump out. If you put the frog into a basin filled with cold water and heat it up slowly to the point of boiling then it will stay in there until it dies. This is exactly how the devil works – slowly at first, making us comfortable and guilt-free and before we know it, we’re trapped. When I was a personal trainer, I realised that everything I ate and drank was essential to my progress in achieving my goals. When I realised that I could train until I was blue in the face yet ruin it by some cake and chocolate after dinner I knew that in order to progress I had to cut out the sweets altogether. This is exactly the same concept with our spiritual life. C.S Lewis once said that “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.” Our phones are one of the biggest problem we face. We may start by checking out our Facebook or looking at a YouTube clip and before we know it, we are on the road to a whole avenue of time wasting. We hop from one thing to another and neglect our spiritual duties. It’s no big deal. Just a few more minutes. A few more minutes then turns into maybe I can just skip prayer for tonight. We forget verses from the Bible that once kept us on track like, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off & if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out”(Matthew 5:29-30) Have you ever noticed that you can stay up until 2am watching ridiculous TV shows and yet when it comes time to stay up and read your Bible you fall asleep very quickly? What has happened here? Habits are formed very quickly and we can become immune and oblivious to them once they have found a home in our subconscious. We are reminded as Christians that the devil is going to make every attempt to distract us from serving God and worshiping Him. In this day and age, I cannot imagine how many methods he is using to lock each of us into his traps. There are so many habits that have us trapped, just like the frogs in the increasing heat of water. What happened to thanking God when we get home from work? What happened to the time we spent with Him, instead of all kinds of technology? In order to break this terrible cycle we need to form new and better habits. When someone starts a new diet, they are not going to see immediate changes. They need to be consistent for a few weeks and then they see the weight loss and increased strength. The same applies to our spiritual life. When we are feeding on spiritual nourishment and are committed to spending time with the Lord we will yield these moments of Grace. Our Lord emphasised this clearly in the parable of the sower. It’s time to sow the good seed and yield our crop. How do we do this? St Ambrose of Optina gives us the answer, “If you don’t feel like praying, you have to force yourself. The holy fathers say that prayer with force is higher than prayer unforced. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force (Matt 11:12).” We need to make the effort to draw closer to God so that He can draw near to us. He is ever-present, but we don’t realise it when our lives are consumed in this world. While we are living in this world let us prepare for the next and start forcing ourselves into action. Nothing here is going to satisfy us except Him, and it took me a while to figure that out. Our lives are too short and we cannot afford to waste any time. “For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and vanishes away” (James 4:14)

Use It Before You Lose It

Use It Before You Lose It

By Fr Thomas Hanna

We need to learn how to be patient… when do we need to be patient? We learn this from James 5:7?

“Therefore be patient brethren until the coming of the Lord see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”

When do we need to be patient? We need to be patient when circumstances are uncontrollable! We’ve got to learn from farmers… farmers do certain things that are in their control and certain things that are not in their control. They don’t control when it rains or when the sun comes out… they don’t control these things and these things are necessities for seeds to yield a crop! Uncontrollable. Uncontrollable things! See how the farmer waits for the “precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives its early and its latter rain”? So God knows what is needed for this crop, He knows that an early rain is needed, that there needs to be sun in between, then rain again afterwards… God knows this.

We need to learn that there are certain circumstances that we need, that are often uncontrollable. For instance, how about reconciling with someone, is that always in your control? It’s not always in your control because sometimes, a person may want to reconcile with someone and sometimes that other person just doesn’t want to reconcile or is just not ready for it… uncontrollable circumstances. We have to realise that there will be certain situations in our life that will be uncontrollable. We need patience there. When else do we need patience? My brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. What did the prophets do? What’s the job description of a prophet? To prophesise, to help people repent, to spread the good news, to be the voice of God. Name a famous prophet? Jonah. Jonah was a prophet. Jonah was a prophet that was sent to a city that needed repentance. Were those people, in his mind, changeable or unchangeable? Unchangeable! And that’s why he decided not to go in the beginning! We have to understand we need patience when people seem to be unchangeable! Show patience and there will be peace.

A lot of times when we’re arguing with someone and they seem that they don’t get me, they don’t understand my situation, what I tend to do is… I tend to speak louder! Because maybe they’ll understand if I speak louder, or if I speak slower and louder they’ll get it, or if I use simpler words, they’ll get it. But seriously… if I show patience in my household, there will be peace in my household. But if I don’t show patience, what’s going to happen? Things will blow up! That’s not because of others… thats because of me! So patience needs to be there when people are unchangeable.

You’ve heard of the perseverance of Job. We need patience when problems are unexplainable. Job didn’t have an explanation about what happened to him. He was the wealthiest person and then within 48 hours, he had nothing. He lost his family, his friends, his business, his health… he lost everything. It was unexplainable why things happened like that. Why did things like this happen to Job? Why did God have to put him through this? Or why did God allow it? No one can observe this and say “yeh that was a good idea God”… no one is going to say that. There’s certain things in our life, problems in our life that we won’t be able to ever explain.

When we went to Bolivia, we took a group to a disabled home, which was the last thing we were doing in Bolivia. It was very hard on us to go… we didn’t know what to expect. When we got there, the first thing we saw was disabled children that were in cages and distant… images that are really hard to forget and very hard to see. And the first question that we had was… why? Why God are you allowing this to happen? Why do they still exist? Like why don’t you cut their lives short and let them live in heaven with you where there’s no grief and no sorrow and no groaning, why wouldn’t You let that happen?

That was our first question. Unexplainable. These are things that are unexplainable, because there is nothing that God could tell me right now and say, I’ve done this, I’ve allowed this to happen to this child for this reason and I would go “wow, that is a great reason.” There’s nothing. Because we would always find a reason to say “that’s not a good reason” or “there’s a different way to do things” and a lot of us struggle with the idea of – God why are you doing it that way?

Recently, we’ve been speaking to some of the youth and their questions are going back to “Why did God even create the tree of knowledge?” Why did He put that tree there if He knew we were going to fall? Why did He put it there? Doesn’t He love us?”

And all these questions are coming, and sometimes we have to understand that there’s going to be problems in this world. We live in a broken world, and it’s not going to be explainable. We can try as much as we can to explain it, but at a certain point, we’ve got to just say “Okay God. I accept and I’m going to cooperate with You.” So why be patient? Why patience? Because God is in control.

Love (Ardent Series)

Love (Ardent Series)

By Fr Michael Sorial

Gifts are very prevalent in the new testament. In the new testament, you hear the word “gift” 50 times. However, there’s two different words for the word “gift” in the new testament.The first one is “charisma” and the second one is “doron,” and so, we’ve been talking about these gifts that God has been giving us over the Advent period. He’s given us the gift of peace, the gift of hope and the gift of love. In the new testament, these two Greek words for gift have important meanings – one of them is God giving to us, and one is us, responding to God. Charisma is from God, so this is God giving to us, and doron is us giving to God or others. Usually God will give us a charisma, he will pour out a spiritual gift on us and our response back to Him is to give a doron. The word “Theodorous” or “Tawadrous” for instance, means gift of God, Theo meaning God and doron is gift, so it’s a gift of God – he sees his life as a gift offered back to God. God gives us a gift, and we respond by giving gifts to Him, or giving gifts back to others.

Usually, when we say charisma, it specifically signifies a divine gift and a doron is usually something that’s given to God or others in order to honour them, or to say thank you. So what makes Christmas the greatest story ever, I believe, has to do with the fact that Christ gave us the greatest gift of all! The first Christmas gift He gave was God Himself, giving His Son to us. It’s not just the first, most expensive gift… it’s also the greatest, it’s the most needed, it was a gift that we didn’t know that we needed… this is what makes it the greatest gift of all. You may have been to football games where you see John 3:16 on posters, what does it say?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whomever should believe in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life”

God so LOVED, so that he GAVE – because of God’s love for us, He gave His Son. In Romans 8:32, we’re told that St Paul says that He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him, freely give us all things? The key word is “with Him,” so what St Paul is saying is that He didn’t spare His own Son, because He loved us, He gave us His only begotten Son, so that with Him, He would freely give us all things. In other words, the gifts of peace and hope and joy and love and glory – and all the different spiritual gifts like the fruit of the spirit – those are the things that come along with the greatest gift, Jesus himself. If you’ve ever seen those gifts where there’s a box within a box, within a box, within a box – that’s kind of what it is. The big gift is Jesus and inside of that big gift, there’s a bunch of other small gifts. Jesus is the greatest gift, He is the gift that is most precious, He’s the most expensive gift that there is.

But… within that gift, there are other small gifts!

“Seek first the kingdom of God and all righteousness and all these things will be added onto you”

So the great gift is Jesus Christ. We are often told that the spirit of Christmas, is all about gift-giving. From a Christian perspective, I would argue that it’s not all about giving, it’s also about receiving – but not just receiving any ordinary gift, it’s about receiving God’s gift of Jesus Christ. The spirit of Christmas is about receiving the greatest gift, which is Jesus Christ Himself. We tend to think that the Spirit of Christmas is all about giving gifts to others which they’ll really like, but what the spirit of Christmas is actually about, is receiving the great gift, because He so loved the world that He “gave” – and what do we do? – We “receive” that gift, we say this is for me, this is mine. We do this as part of the church’s liturgical annual cycle, to remind us that this is an ongoing reality, that Jesus came to earth to share the gift of His love with each of us.

There’s a poem that was written in 1885 by Christina Rossetti and she was attempting to express what Christmas meant to her:

“Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and angels gave the sign.Worship we the Godhead,

Love incarnate, Love divine;

Worship we our Jesus:

But wherewith for sacred sign?Love shall be our token,

Love be yours and love be mine,

Love to God and all men,

Love for plea and gift and sign.”

What an absolutely beautiful image of Christmas! That Christmas, is love incarnate, it’s Jesus who we worship, He offers Himself as a gift and token to alll humanity. The reason why we give gifts on Christmas, is because God began the tradition by giving His Son to us, and so we respond back. We respond as the wise man responded, coming immediately to give a gift back, to honour the King who was incarnate. He comes to give us Himself – God with us, and they respond with a doron, and we follow this ever since.