trusting god – Upper Room Media Blogs

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.

My Perfect Self

by Senote Keriakes

I am writing this to share something which I have personally experienced, in the hope that someone might benefit from it. I aim to keep this reflective, and hopefully not in any way didactic.

For a very long time I thought that my barrier to living a fulfilling, God fearing life was sin. I have come to realize that perhaps this might not be the case.

In reality, at least for me, the wall that stands between me and repentance is erected long before I have committed a sin. It is erected in the moments right after I do something I perceive to be ‘good.’ As soon as I know I have committed a ‘good deed,’ I get that warm, fuzzy feeling and start to imagine the ideal version of myself that I will hopefully soon transform into, thanks to the deed which I have just committed.

My perfect self, let’s call him Senote 2.0 is the perfect Christian. He never misses the mass, never misses Sunday school service, is polite, never gets angry, is patient, doesn’t road rage and always remembers to pray his agpeya before going to bed.

Whilst it’s great to strive to be a better person, I’ve personally found that this train of thought can be quite toxic when it comes to my spiritual life.

The reason I describe this as being the point at which the wall between me and repentance is erected, is because this mentality keeps me in fantasy land. It makes me think that I really am perfect, when I am quite the opposite. The next time I fall into sin, I am struck with the realization that I am nowhere near the person I want to be. This realization is, quite understandably, deflating and demoralizing, and can then lead to a cycle of sin and lack of spiritual motivation. In my mind, I’m thinking ‘What’s the point in trying? I’ll never be Senote 2.0 L’.

I’m honestly not sure if other people do experience this, but in case you do, I’ll share with you what I have personally found to be helpful in dealing with this.

Firstly, I have found that its best to take it step by step when it comes to the spiritual stuff. I have tried to avoid thinking of Senote 2.0 for now, instead just focusing on the next step in my spiritual journey. That way when I do fall into sin, it only feels like I am falling from the small step which I took yesterday, rather than falling from the chimerically elevated Senote 2.0 which I’ve constructed in my mind. This makes the recovery back to God through repentance a much less daunting task.

Secondly, I have found that getting angry at myself when I do fall into sin is very counterproductive. Brother Lawrence in ‘The practice of the presence of God’ explains that he was someone who was in constant conversation with God. When something nice happens, he thanks God, when something inconvenient happens, he asks God for help. When he sinned, he asked God for forgiveness and moved on with his life. This, of course, does not negate the need for repentance and confession, as these things are essential for our forgiveness. It just means that there’s no need to dwell on that sin for too long. In one of his sermons, Fr Anthony Messeh says to “pray, but not too much,” in the sense that we should mention our concerns and petitions to God in prayer, but that we shouldn’t do it obsessively and to the point where this issue or sin becomes amplified in our minds.

It’s important to understand that we aren’t perfect, and that, as humans, we have a propensity to sin. A priest once explained this to me by comparing Christians facing the spiritual struggle to soldiers facing battle. A soldier doesn’t enter battle thinking he will come out unscathed. He knows that there is a great chance he will be injured. Similarly, we should understand that during the spiritual struggle it is quite possible that we will fall into sin. However, our response to sin should be asking for forgiveness rather than lambasting ourselves for the spiritual weakness which is part of our nature.

I will leave you with an excerpt from ‘The Practice of the presence of God’; “I can do no better without You, [Lord]. Please keep me from falling and correct the mistakes I make.”