About sorrows
Some people think how much more willingly and zealously I would serve my Lord if my life's path were easier, if my life's path weren't so thickly strewn with sharp stones. When you say that, you obviously don't yet know who you are and what you are, what is good for you and what is bad, what you need and what you don't.It is rightly said that man endures his own well-being worst of all. Days of happiness, days of success, when everything happens as desired—oh, how many times have these days become a deadly snare for the human soul. How much depravity grows on the human heart, like rust on a blade when it lies unused, or like a garden overgrown without the care of a gardener's knife.
All the noble powers of the Christian soul and Christian character can best be revealed and developed precisely during times of grief, misfortune, and suffering. All the wonders of God's grace are most clearly revealed in life precisely when the waters of sorrow and adversity reach our souls and we are forced to acknowledge our own insignificance and weakness and attribute all strength and meaning to the power of God.
“I must go through the school of the cross, I must suffer with Christ, so that I may be resurrected with Him.”
Or will you say, "When the Lord sends you to the school of the cross, I have no need of its instruction?" Say it this way: I need it; I must undergo the school of the cross; I must suffer with Christ in order to be resurrected with Him. During the Lord's visitations, I must think and feel like a child chastened by a father's loving hand, like a vine under the gardener's pruning knife, like iron under the hammer that shapes it, like gold in the fire that purifies it, like a bunch of grapes under the sun's blazing rays. This "I must" is Divine, and I cannot deviate from it.
The submission of one's will to this Divine "I must," the unquestioning following of the decision of God's will, was called wisdom by the wise, courage by the heroes, and holiness by the pious.
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Joy and sorrow come to us independently of us, but both can be a step towards the elevation of our spirit.
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The human eye does not see where deliverance will come from, but the Omniscient Lord knows it.
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In every offended person, if he is not offended and does not want to offend, there is the answer of Christ’s sufferings.
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The more difficult the test, the greater, therefore, God’s trust in man, the greater should be the expectation of man’s trust in God.
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Eternal life can be created in this sinful world because there is a cross.
God's providence
Surrender yourself entirely to Christ. Give Him complete control over you: let Him alone reign in your soul. Even in the midst of your labors in Christ's name, give yourself time to rest, to gather your wits, and to await His visitation in silence, so that not you, but He Himself may act in you and through you.
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Nothing is accidental. There is not a single drop of dew in the world that is accidental. Everything is providential, everything is miraculous. The vision of the world in God inspires, the Spirit of God places us face to face with the mystery of the Age to Come.
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Our "elders." If we pay attention, the circumstances surrounding us will serve as "elders" for us, teaching us obedience to God, helping us navigate our life's journey with patience and love, and finding salvation.
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When you succeed in doing something good, it is a gift sent to you: the Lord has forbidden the winds to hinder you. He has prepared this sweet food for you so that you may partake of it... and be strengthened ( Acts 9:19 ).
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The Lord is always with us. With this thought, our earthly life becomes something solemn and sacred.
About love
If you want to find selfless love, understand its joy, take up the cross.
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The power of love is equal to the ability to bear the cross.
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We would not be able to bear it; we would die from love for every person if we saw him as he can be in Christ.
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Living without the Gospel makes people callous and closed off in their experiences.
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There is little in the world of a simple, evangelical approach of people to each other - without suspicion, without idealization, without demands, without “keeping score” for love.
Sin. The fight against sin.
“Have you renounced Satan?” And we answered three times: “I have renounced him.”
When we entered the Church of Christ through the gates of holy baptism, we were required to confess more than just our faith in God, in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Church. Three times we were asked, "Have you renounced Satan?" And three times we answered, "I have renounced." When the matter of confessing faith arises in later life, this part of the confession is usually forgotten. This is always wrong, but during a time of intense struggle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, such forgetfulness is unacceptable. While we actively love the Kingdom of God, we must treat the kingdom of the devil with active loathing. At baptism, having renounced the kingdom of the devil, we expressed our loathing for it by fulfilling the command: "Blow and spit on him." After baptism, this loathing must be expressed in a merciless struggle against this kingdom with all our might and by all means.
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The sweetness of sin passes, but the poison of sin penetrates deeply into a person's spiritual and physical being. The pain of overcoming sinful sweetness passes, but the blessing of this overcoming remains for eternity.
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Human fear is a weed in the spiritual field that must be eradicated.
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A small blade of iniquity is as damned before God as a great tree of crime. There are no trifles. The Lord does not tolerate a small lie, a single murderous word, or a single adulterous glance. A small blade of iniquity is as damned before God as a great tree of crime. A multitude of minor sins are undoubtedly heavier on the soul than a few great ones, always remembered and always able to be forgiven through repentance. And a saint, of course, is not one who performs great deeds, but one who refrains from even the smallest transgressions.
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By following the path of moral compromises in his life, a person gradually becomes empty of soul and ceases to feel when he is being unfair to another person, while acutely feeling, however, any injustice of others towards himself.
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The sea of life. Life in this world is like sailing on the sea. Interest in this world is like swallowing salt water.
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What distances us from God? Carelessness and over-preoccupation are the two wings on which humanity flies as it distances itself from God.
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A remedy for irritability. One of the signs of love is not being irritated. At the root of irascibility and irritability lie malice, hatred, pride, cruelty, and injustice. What self-control, what sobriety and caution are needed. There is a great remedy in the human soul for overcoming pride, irascibility, and irritability. This is reverent faith in the nearness of God. "The Lord is near . "
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Avoid bad impressions. Discussing the issue of combating the sinful expression of the human soul, the Holy Fathers—experienced psychologists—advise avoiding bad impressions, guarding one's imagination, feelings, and memory, replacing the bad with the bright, and the impure with the pure in one's inner life.
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How rarely do we think and feel correctly! How often, contrary to the promptings of our conscience, contrary to the Word of God, do we settle for only approximate honesty in our actions; how often do we distort and conceal the truth with our words. Truth must underlie our every thought, guiding us at every step of life's journey.
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The Lord desires our perfection. And in Him we will find not only deliverance from temptations but also an inexhaustible source of spiritual strength.
Prayer
Only in daily communication with God, directly receiving the power of eternal life from His hands, can we overcome our weaknesses, so as not to weaken, fall, and perish on our earthly path.
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The Kingdom of God "is taken with effort." One must "earn" a higher life, begging, standing in the heat and cold of this world, stretching one's hands to Heaven.
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The Lord replaces unfulfilled human requests with His gifts.
Great is the power of every humble prayer. It never fails to be fulfilled, though not always in the way people desire, yet in an even better way. The Lord replaces an unfulfilled human request with His gifts, which are the most important and most necessary blessing for man. For only the Lord knows what is important and what each person needs. In their petitions, man is sometimes like a child asking for a candle flame.
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To call upon, to turn to God means first of all to submit to His will and, having already submitted, to pray to Him.
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Man is given the power to transform the water of earthly life into the wine of prayer and thanksgiving to God.
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The name of Christ gives eternal value to all things and actions, no matter how small the actions may be.
Thoughts
Telling the truth isn't enough! We need it to speak within us, to flow from within us. Truth flows from a person miraculously, like water from a stone in the desert. A person's awareness of their own poverty is the first drop of this truth.
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Humility is remarkable because it compensates for all weaknesses—weak faith, weak love, and weak fidelity to love. Humility fills the abyss between God and man.
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We only run to the Lord. We must walk with Him.
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Who needs us? It's time for everyone to understand their essential uselessness to anyone but God.
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Man was created not only to work, but also to love and pray.
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Those who marvel at the temporary power of lawlessness must stop being amazed and accept Christ's words that He will be the final conqueror of all. The spirit of "Babylon" is attempting to conquer all humanity. Only in the name of Christ can one defend oneself from this evil. Only in the truth of Christ can one discern one's own falsehood and the falsehood of the life around them.
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Extracting precious things. One of the main features of religious life and human education is "extracting precious things" from the small circumstances and facts of life that surround us. Much of earthly life consists precisely of what people consider "unimportant." And religious thought is called upon to find the meaning of eternity in everything, starting with the smallest.
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It's good to be with God. There's not a single true Christian who wouldn't give glory to the Lord for how good it is to live with Him. So good that it's better to endure everything than to be separated from Him.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ioann_Pommer/gospod-vsegda-s-nami-nastavlenija-i-mysli-o-duhovnoj-zhizni/