What to do if you have lost faith in God. Take things for granted

Hello Angelina.

Look, you became a church member when you got cancer. And the enemy is in illness, because the enemy gained access to you only when you changed the name of GOD whose name is LOVE JESUS ​​CHRIST in deed in word and in thought. You read the long-suffering Job, his business, his family and his health GOD LOVE protected, because Job did not betray the GOD of LOVE in any deed, word, or thought... That’s why Job fell ill with leprosy, only when GOD LOVE THE FATHER decided to test him, because and gave the opportunity to the enemy to approach Job with tests of his body. Today everything turns out differently, the law of measure works differently, FREE WILL is already taken into account, as soon as we ourselves begin to change the GOD OF LOVE with our own will, by deed and word by thought, we violate the laws and commandments of GOD, thereby we begin to move away from GOD and his protection, and we immediately become easy prey for the enemy with all sorts of diseases. You see, it turns out that the enemy begins to have access to us when it turns out that it is our will, well, we decided that it is not necessary to fulfill the commandments and laws of GOD. Therefore, you see, it’s not a test, it just turns out that you were once not a Christian, because you didn’t know the laws or commandments of GOD, and therefore you could violate GOD’s prohibitions out of ignorance, but all the same, you noticed something correctly, because your attitude is for salvation, you know the WORDS of GOD, what are you writing === I figured that God still wouldn’t give me more trials than I can bear === here you hit the nail on the head, with your thinking, you see you had the right attitude here, If you hadn’t lost your mind on this idea and put in the work to do it, then you wouldn’t be sick anymore. GOD whose name is LOVE JESUS ​​CHRIST he said TAKE UP YOUR CROSS. And this means what is given to be patient, AND FOLLOW ME, which is what you began to do, you began to lead a Christian saving lifestyle. And also what GOD LOVE said, THAT MORE THAN WHAT A PERSON CAN SUFFER, IT WILL NOT BE GIVEN TO HIM, and again, you made the right bet to find a path to recovery, so let’s look for what you haven’t understood yet, and where you were wrong, where it worked out you have a malfunction, you just didn’t see GOD LOVE accompanying you next to you. You see, it turns out, and GOD LOVE decided that each of us has a backpack for every day with a burden, and there is also a measure in the burden. Therefore, this is what you need to figure out, this is the reason why troubles are multiplying around you, it’s just what you voiced, about the fact that it won’t be possible anymore, you just weren’t able to do it, ENDURE YOUR FIRST SICK TO THE END. Look, for example, when we sit down at the table to eat, the measure of food turns out to be our stomach, and the capacity of the stomach. Then it’s already a table. It happens that there is only one food on the table, let’s say boiled potatoes, you sit down and fill yourself up with this food to capacity, this is the measure, and here it is a holiday, you see the table is already abundant, and there may already be a dozen dishes on the table, and already what to eat, There are a lot of dishes, then you need to somehow plan your appetite. After all, the capacity of the stomach is a measure, but you want to eat all the dishes, especially since best dishes they happen at the end of the holiday. Then you eat a little of each dish, as if you begin to control your desires, and so it turns out that IF YOU HAVE THE CORRECT TUNED INTO FOOD AND HAVE CONSTRAINED YOUR APPETITE, then you manage to eat all the dishes. It’s the same with the burden, although you write that you were guided, that moreover, that you endure, GOD LOVE will not give you, and this is the correct orientation, but you see YOU STILL got it, that’s what it says, and that says that you they could not bear one burden, one illness to the end, one hundred percent, as if they did not receive credit for their patience. That’s why the second sore appeared, and then it came out and I had to endure the fact that there was something wrong with my son. You see, your patience is your burden and measure, it turns out to be able to protect your son, if you know how it’s done, among Christians you TEND WHAT GOD GIVES, AND THIS PROTECTS THE WORST TROUBLES THAT MAY APPEAR IF YOU DO NOT STAND UP. As if this is your first sore, it protects the fact that other illnesses will not come to you, and no pleasures that you can bring, they will not come to you either, because one sore is your measure. If you had endured the first illness one hundred percent, then your cup would be full, and there is no place for other illnesses and unpleasantness with your son, YOU SEE HOW YOU AND YOUR SON CAN BE PROTECTED BY THE LAWS OF GOD, you see GOD would have forbidden the enemy with his law, and give you other illnesses, GOD LOVE, he would forbid the enemy to approach your son and make him sick, it turns out that that means you couldn’t stand the first illness, one hundred percent, somewhere the enemy twisted you into sin, and you already see that there is one law, and you were not able to endure the pain to the end, maybe you still could not bear it and disobeyed GOD in some way, then it turns out that there is a lack of patience and humility, then the cup seemed to become half empty, and there was no measure in it, then you see, the enemy always asks GOD for an attack. That’s why your second illness turned out to be manifested, and there was no pleasantness with your son, because one illness was not enough because you couldn’t stand something, somewhere you betrayed the GOD of LOVE in deed, word and thought. AND YOU FAILED TO RESTORE YOUR HEART THROUGH CONFESSION, REPENTANCE AND CHRISTIAN COMMUNION. How would you write that after all you are grumbling, it means you think that after all GOD whose name is LOVE JESUS ​​CHRIST has given you to endure more than you can endure. BUT GOD IS LOVE HE FULFILLS HIS LAWS. You just haven’t yet understood how the burden is carried. You see, everything turns out the same as when eating at the table, only everything is the other way around, as if it would be desirable to have one thing in your burden, and even something that does not upset you, and endure it to the end, then other dishes and ailments and troubles will not be added. Yes, you understood this at the beginning, how to act, when you went to church and received communion, but then you see it turned out, due to weakness, that you retreated even more from GOD. You asked a question, what to do if FAITH is lost. You know that there is FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE, but LOVE is more important. Therefore, you see, what is said about LOVE, that GOD IS LOVE AND WHOEVER IS IN LOVE IS IN GOD AND GOD IS IN HIM. You see, here it is LOVE and it is the main thing and this is GOD and here it is FAITH AND HOPE, then these are the helpers of LOVE. And GOD whose name is LOVE JESUS ​​CHRIST, what did he say, WHO DRINKS MY BLOOD AND EATS MY FLESH, IN HIM I ABIDE. And Christians have communion. You see at communion and you receive in your heart the GIFT OF LOVE, and together with the GIFT OF LOVE you receive in your heart the GIFT OF FAITH AND THE GIFT OF HOPE. Only after communion, when you receive a lot of GOD LOVE in your heart, it turns out that you have received strength for life, this is what you write === I am absolutely no longer Strong woman ... and tired, exhausted from chemistry, === you see, when you were strong, this is one state of your heart, and this means a lot of GOD LOVE in your heart, but when you are exhausted, tired, then you see this is already another state of the heart, then there was an enemy tormentor in the heart. All this confirms that there is a disorder in the heart, that you cannot change the state of your heart, but you need to change the state of your heart in a Christian way, at the beginning you cleansed your heart through confession and repentance and received the GRACE of GOD through communion, and so the strength came . and already for Christians, after communion, it turns out one hundred percent, when someone offends, it turns out to turn the other cheek, and endure, and humble yourself, and not give back, and forgive everything, forgive to the end, forgive endlessly. You see, when Christians receive the GIFT OF LOVE through communion, they become strong and can, with the help of GOD, resist the enemy. Look at what you write === I attended services almost every day, took communion, === you write about communion, but you don’t write anything about confession and repentance. After all, this is what communion is, what it means is that you receive in your heart the GIFT OF LOVE OF GOD Himself and the enemy in your heart becomes smaller, and GOD’S LOVE is added, and since there is less enemy in your heart, then the illnesses recede. Therefore, you see, you need to cleanse your heart even before communion; you must give the GOD of LOVE the territory of your heart. Therefore, you see, it happens that a Christian is one who does not watch his heart, and it happens that he gives everything correctly and goes to church and reads prayers, but you see, so that the GIFT OF LOVE GOD himself enters the heart with health, then for the GOD of LOVE it is necessary to make room in heart. If you don’t deal with your heart and don’t cleanse it from the enemy of sin, then you see you can go to church every day and take communion, but if you don’t make room for the GIFT OF LOVE in your heart, then it turns out with what state of heart you came to church and it seems like you did everything right, but if you didn’t cleanse your heart before communion, then you see that communion is an empty shot. GOD LOVE he cannot enter the heart because it is occupied by the enemy in sin. That’s why you should read the author BRYANCHANINOV, to help the penitent there is such a booklet, you can find it on the Internet, it describes what your behavior is, what your actions are. In deed, in word, in thought, in violation of the commandments, they disobeyed GOD, THE LOVE OF JESUS ​​CHRIST. Where they disobeyed GOD LOVE, they gave the enemy a place in their heart. After all, the enemy, in many ways, may be in the heart, if you read the book, you may find something else in yourself, dig up something, maybe you are doing something wrong, maybe you need to change some habits, etc. That’s why you need to shine a light on the enemy who may be in the heart and has not yet been recognized, and you are not an expert and may not find the order, so you need to, with the help of your confessor, a priest, delve into your heart and find what you have betrayed the GOD OF LOVE, and thereby They gave the enemy a place in the heart, and already the enemy, being in the heart, sent such a sore. As soon as you find out how you serve the enemy, THIS IS BLASTING AGAINST GOD. Either you want to get health, then you stop serving the enemy with passion or violation of the laws and commandments of GOD, then the LORD HAVE MERCY, and already the work of a priest mediator, you receive forgiveness from GOD whose name is LOVE OF JESUS ​​CHRIST and the heart is cleansed, he does not love the enemy light, because you see, at confession and repentance you can already receive relief. You see, if you do this work, you see if you go through confession, repentance and communion more often, you will accept the GRACE OF GOD INTO YOUR HEART, AND THIS IS A PILL OF GOD, WHICH YOU ARE NOT NOW RECEIVING, AND THIS PILL, PLUS THE MEDICINES OF EARTHLY DOCTORS, WILL GIVE YOU HEALTH, then gradually you will cleanse your heart, and gradually, WITH YOUR OWN WAYS, you will give a lot of territory to the GOD of LOVE. As you can see, long-suffering Job was when he was safe, when he did not betray the GOD of LOVE in deed, word or thought. Job was on trial, then GOD decided when to let the enemy approach with trials, and the time came when Job passed the trials, then you see the enemy forbade illness, which means the enemy was in Job’s body. As if you see what you wrote. You see, if you take this as a test of GOD, then you see that you couldn’t stand it, so you write === Now I feel like I’ve been knocked out... I DON’T WANT to read prayers. I grumble against God. I don’t understand why he gave me so many tests that would have been enough for 4. === you see, you are not on a test, there are simply sins, somewhere you are sinning, and you will not understand through what the enemy has access to you, and the enemy has access to us through sin, therefore we must get out of this state precisely in the way that you succeeded at the beginning, but you see at the beginning that you did something wrong, because you were not able to change the state of your heart one hundred percent through Christian works, THAT’S WHY SICK AND TROUBLE INCREASED, and this means that you don’t have it was possible to cleanse my heart, and this is weak link , but it was possible to receive communion, and since the disease is blazing, it means that the enemy in the heart has not decreased, but has increased, because there has been an increase in illnesses and troubles, and GOD whose name is LOVE OF JESUS ​​CHRIST has become less, therefore this can be seen in your mood. You yourself understand that you have left. Therefore, keep your intentions to lead a Christian saving way of life, and do not surrender your free will to the enemy in this, by this you will allow the GOD of LOVE to take you by the hand and lead you to church to change the state of your heart, the fact that you are here is already you GOD LOVE wants to enlighten and guide you are on GOD'S path, SEE GOD'S LOVE HE ACCOMPANIES YOU, YOU HAVE COME TO A WHERE CHRISTIANS CAN TELL YOU SOMETHING HOW YOU CAN RECEIVE GOD'S HELP, BECAUSE THIS IS THE HOPE SENT TO YOU BY GOD FOR RECOVERY. You need confession, you need repentance, and you need communion, you need to figure this out, you need to stop betraying the GOD of LOVE in word and thought, now you see your sins, you clearly described them, ===I murmur against God. === maybe even then, when you went to church and took communion, it was there, but it’s no longer visible, a thought flashed through and that’s it, and the enemy was not recognized by you, and you didn’t understand what you were sinning, you see it today the place is clearly visible, as if a disease is blazing, THINKING THAT GOD HAS SHOWED YOU YOUR MAIN SIN through which the enemy takes up a lot of space in your heart, and you have identified your sin, and with the naked eye understood what you are sinful about, this is where you begin your confession in this and repent of what you sin against GOD. What you wrote at the end suggests that you kind of stopped and stopped leading a Christian saving lifestyle, but stopped when there was a lot of enemy in your heart, a lot of sin and little GOD LOVE. Therefore, REPENTANCE IS NECESSARY AND GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS NECESSARY. Therefore, you see, you urgently need to change the state of your heart, and if there is a lot of GOD LOVE in your heart, then your health will improve. This is what you write === I don’t understand why he gave me so many tests that would have been enough for 4. === you still see that you have to endure a lot of illnesses and plus your son’s illness, then you see that this is your measure, you know that. It just turns out that you eat a lot of dishes, and for everything you are given to be patient, there is one measure. GOD LOVE is nearby, and always tries to give a lot of meaningless patience. Therefore, begin to endure everything that GOD gives you. Fill your cup of patience with other food. The one that does not upset you, but is given by GOD to endure a lot through this, and thus fills your measure, and what you do not want to endure, and this is your illness and the health of your son, this will no longer have a place in your cup in your measure, in your backpack. You will see that the law of GOD is to be patient to the extent it works, you just need to follow CHRIST with your burden, endure everything in a row that doesn’t mean anything, but endure what was sent to you by GOD with LOVE, in this you will also receive GOD’s help and do not forget that you must work with your heart as Christians do. You see, we talked about what you yourself wrote about, GOD LOVE leads you, we can tell you GOD puts everything right on your heart, all these thoughts of yours about the measure of the burden, all this is the path to GOD, you need understand how GOD can help you, but you haven’t understood it yet, because you see something has been chewed with you. GOD whose name is LOVE, he is next to you, you need to stop worrying. GOD whose name is LOVE JESUS ​​CHRIST wants you to place him in your heart with great strength, and everything will be fine with you.

Sorry.

GOD HELP YOU.

Good afternoon. I was interested in your answer “Hello Angelina. Look, you became a church member when you got cancer. And while you were ill…” to the question http://www.. Can I discuss this answer with you?

Discuss with an expert

Everyone has in their life hard times. Especially when you are at a crossroads and you need to do the most Difficult choice- continue to fight or succumb to external circumstances and the general mood. It’s quite difficult to insist on your own when things are not going well at all, and those around you are twirling their fingers at your temple behind your back. When no one but you believes in the success of the business, and it seems that the whole world is against you.

However, this is not at all a reason to give up and abandon what was created and grown with such diligence. A few tips from Anne-Sophie Reinhardt, a self-employed entrepreneur, blogger and podcaster, reminded me that if you miss the ball once, you'll know how to prevent it the second time.

I decided to touch on this topic because I think that each of us has had such moments in our lives. Some resisted, while others gave in and quit. And now, perhaps, he’s biting his elbows because he didn’t endure it, didn’t push through, didn’t prove it.

According to inexorable statistics, which do not take into account miracles, the percentage of successful startups is negligible compared to failures. So we will consider that this is a reminder to those who are desperate and ready to give up;)

Way of thinking

Even small children know this - if you think that everything around you is bad, then it will be so. If you want to feel like a failure and good for nothing, then so be it. Moreover, if you especially diligently get used to the role, then those around you will believe it. And who wants to have serious affairs with losers?

Positive thinking is one of the components of success. Or at least faith in him. You build your own attitude towards yourself and what you do. In your head you create the whole world, which is then reflected by your own actions in reality.

What kind of world do you want to see around you?

People

The people around you are also of great importance. And they are inextricably linked with your inner feeling yourself and your business. Try to surround yourself with optimistic and active people with a lively mind and wild imagination. Because sometimes even the craziest ideas eventually turn out to be quite tenacious and produce unexpected results.

Limited people, closed to dialogue with the world, put pressure on you, criticize you and do not let you go.

Look for mentors for yourself among those you would like to be like. Learn from them, collect the optimism you need bit by bit, and then, perhaps, you yourself will become an example for someone. And this charges you with optimism and energy even more!

Inspiration

Inspiration is another important and powerful factor. When we fade away, lose interest in the business, then the business fades away and those around you stop believing in it along with you. How can investors believe in the success of a business if you talk about it with a dull look? How can you believe in something that the creator himself does not believe in?!

Perhaps you need a little break. Read books, watch movies, attend conferences and interact with people who inspire you.

You never know where a new brilliant idea for your business will come to you - at the next smart conference or while contemplating the sunset.

Goals

A clear goal or at least a clear direction is already half the success. You can't create something if you don't have the whole picture. One common, big goal is good, but you must work out ways to achieve it, lay out steps to it. Gradually overcoming step by step, you can achieve results. Only the goal must be real. You must understand what you really want and what failure will cost you.

Anne struggled with anorexia for 14 years. Her main goal was to survive at any cost and start living a full life. Of course, my own life cannot be compared with “I want to build a successful business”, “move my business to another country with better conditions” or “provide for yourself in old age.”

You must really believe in your endeavors and clearly know what you want to achieve as a result. Even creating a simple application for photography or video shooting can help you earn enough money not only to provide a reliable rear in your old age or the opportunity to finance other projects, but also to serve greater goals - helping children, the disabled, etc.

Durability

Fortitude is the fifth and final element. You should not give up, even if everything is against you, and in the short term you will be sucking paws for several months, or even more. At this time, it is difficult to do without the support of those closest to you and without their faith in your success. But if you insist on yours and believe, then they will believe too.

If you know that everything should work out, you must defend your point of view and your creation. Even if you have to slow down, don’t give up or retreat, but continue moving with smaller but confident steps.

These are five tips from a person who was on the verge of death (even if because of her stupidity), but she had the strength not only to overcome it, but also to move on, proving to her by example that the impossible only happens in our heads.

And a small note from my inner skeptic - sometimes more sober look It still won’t hurt to look at things, because if you lose your head, you’ll lose everything.

There are some things you can do right now.

“I don’t even know, it seems to me that I don’t believe anymore... And I can’t imagine what to do with it...” I hear these words every day from all over the world, from representatives of any Christian movement, from every rung of the social ladder .

They were all once very pious, but now, according to various reasons, the ground of faith disappears from under their feet - and they panic.

Their fear is understandable. It's really quite scary. It is one thing to question church foundations or point out gaps in religious systems, which were invented by people themselves, or even criticize the Bible and the ways of its interpretation. You can live with all this. We can go through these crises and still continue to firmly believe that God exists and that He is good. There are days when this is the only thing we believe in, but usually it is enough.

Losing faith is more than weakness of will.

But what if, despite insomnia, intense prayers, endless questions and tension of willpower, do you understand that you no longer believe in anything? What do you do when the very reality of God (or the fact that God is good) becomes an unaffordable luxury for you? How to survive in the epicenter of a spiritual catastrophe?

Do not give up. God is strong enough to handle your doubts.

Most often, the point is not to become even more stubborn or “religious.” In most cases, people begin to doubt, despite constant Bible reading, prayer, regular church attendance, participation in church services and a desire to believe with all their hearts. They never shied away from all these right things. They are truly God-fearing and active Christians, but all these activities no longer provide the clarity, confidence and comfort that they usually did.

Almost everyone who comes to me in this state of spiritual emptiness and dryness says that they feel guilty. They lament, realizing that no one can help them regain what they have lost, and they scold themselves for not being able to bring themselves to believe as before, when it was easy and simple.

If you are currently in the midst of such a spiritual storm, I will not tell you that there is a quick and easy way to regain your faith. I can’t even say that you will ever return it, at least in its previous form. Perhaps something awaits you that is completely different from what you have experienced before.

Return

And still something needs to be done. Question - what?

Maybe you need to pray more, or start a Bible study group, or go to church more often. Or maybe it’s not necessary. After all, God is not only found in “spiritual things.”

Maybe today you just need to look around, look at familiar shapes, listen, touch, breathe and taste. Maybe the best thing you can do is simply revisit the things and activities you know so well and re-accept them with gratitude.

When you accept these beautiful, pure, visible gifts and appreciate them, you cannot help but recognize the Giver. This may be all the faith you can muster right now, but that's okay. Simply living and being grateful for life is already a spiritual quest; this is a sacred attitude.

Fewer turns - faster to the intended goal

You will see how the feeling of gratitude will lead you on a straight path to the lost sense of faith. It will clear the path to God from all sadness, disappointment, doubt and even religiosity.

All about religion and faith - “prayer if you lose faith in God” with detailed description and photographs.

What to do if you have lost faith? What to do if you are afraid to take communion?

What to do if you have completely lost faith in God? You ask Him, but He doesn’t help. I understand, of course, that we create our own destiny, but He must also help. And also, what to do if you are afraid of communion?

Hello Ilaria. A-priory St. John A believer of the Ladder is not one who thinks that everything is possible with God, but who believes that he will receive from God everything he asks. Christ Himself says: Ask, and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7) and whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive (Matthew 21:22). Thus the Lord shows that an indispensable condition The fulfillment of our prayers is our faith. But the Lord does not always fulfill the requests of even ardent believers. It happens that what we earnestly ask for in our prayers will not bring us any benefit, and, moreover, may even harm us. And it happens that what we ask is simply untimely, and the Lord will definitely give it, but later, just when what we ask will serve our benefit. And yet, we very often do not notice His countless benefits for us, believing that He has abandoned us. This is wrong. I will give you one parable, perhaps known to you: One dying man during his transition to better world introduced himself to him life path in the form of footprints in the sand. At the same time, in addition to his own traces, he saw another trace - God's. And then it struck him that in the most difficult moments of his life, God’s trace was lost. And he, shocked, asked: Lord, how could You, in such difficult days and hours, leave me, suffering and exhausted? To which the Lord answered him that He was carrying him in his arms at that time...

And yet, we very often (not to say always) seek what is Godly, but not God. We sometimes develop a kind of consumerist attitude towards Him. We ask Him, we want Him to fulfill everything, that’s all. But we don’t want Him to be entirely in our lives. It is more convenient for us to live without Him. Therefore, we simply need to change priorities in our lives. To desire not only Divine blessings, but to desire sincerely personal meeting with Christ, to desire to be with God.

Loss of faith is a terrible spiritual catastrophe. But I ask you not to despair. With God everything is possible. Remember the words of the father of the youth, healed by the Savior, who answered Christ’s question “Do you believe” - “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.”

The question about the sacrament is quite difficult to answer, because you did not indicate what exactly you are afraid of. If this fear of receiving communion is unworthy, leading to condemnation, then here we can advise you to preserve this feeling of unworthiness and receive communion, because only in this case can we receive communion most worthily. But let me remind you that you also need to approach this Great Sacrament with firm faith.

Faith is a step out of the boat onto the water

Constantly using the words “faith”, “believe”, “believer”, picking up the priest or deacon with “I believe in the One...”, do we think about what faith is? What does it mean to believe in God? Why does one person believe in God and another does not, what is the difference between these two people? How and why does yesterday's atheist gain faith? Let's try to clarify this for ourselves with the help of the editor-in-chief of our magazine, Abbot Nektary (Morozov).

The question of what faith is was answered best, of course, by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews: the realization of what is expected and the certainty of what is not seen (11, 1). We know very well what trust is. We communicate with a person, and thanks to his actions, his behavior towards us, we develop trust in him. Faith in God is also trust in Him. But here a person must - even without knowing God at all, without yet seeing Him in his life - believe that He exists. This is very similar to the very step of the Apostle Peter - from the side of the boat onto the heaving shaft of Lake Gennesaret (see: Matt. 14, 29). Peter takes this step at the word of his Teacher.

How faith arises in a person’s heart is a question that cannot be fully answered. There are a lot of people around us, believers and non-believers; both among those and among others there are people who are kind, honest, merciful, decent... And it is impossible to draw a line, to say: this type of people inevitably comes to faith, but this one does not. Faith is an encounter with God, and it has different people happens in different ways. One person experiences this meeting directly and does not need reasoning, while the other thinks, analyzes and finally comes to the conclusion that God exists, and this confidence of the mind is transferred to his heart. Reason alone, without the participation of the heart, does not lead to faith. There are any number of scientists who understand perfectly well that none of the existing scientific theories explain the origin of the universe, but for some reason are unable to say: “I believe in God and the Creator.” Only the person who has had a meeting with God in his heart can use analysis. There are these words in the Apocalypse: Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (3, 20). Someone will hear this knock and open the door - being a scientist and eventually coming to the conclusion that science is powerless to explain certain things. Someone will suddenly hear a knock that has actually been heard all his life - receiving unexpected help in grief. And someone - when everyone abandons him, when he is left completely alone. And he will understand, perhaps for the first time, that there is Someone Who loves him. But each of them recognizes God, until then unknown, in a feeling that cannot be confused with anything. Because meeting God presupposes recognition. It is, of course, impossible to answer the question of why a person recognized the Father at that very moment, and not earlier or later. But any of us can be compared to a fruit hanging on a branch and ripening in due time. It’s just that someone will ripen, and someone will sag and eventually fall from this branch unripe... What is faith? In one word we can answer this: faith is a miracle.

You can hear from another psychologist that faith is just an optimal way to live for certain natures, an escape from all problems. I'm afraid that's just my nature. I know that I cannot do without faith; but - here's the paradox - this is precisely why I am haunted by doubt about the truths of faith. I think I believe only because I have to; that my faith has the character of a certain agreement with itself: “In order to live, let’s agree that for you and me from now on this is how it is, and not otherwise.” What would you say to this?

You have extremely complicated something that is actually very simple. Faith is truly a way to live. Moreover - the only way live for real. Not to exist, not to survive, not to while away life, but to live. Life is God's gift. Many people waste this gift, trample it under foot, mindlessly play with it, or turn it into some kind of constant torment for themselves - but only a minority live truly! Those live for whom life is a gift from God. And if a person chooses life with God, then this is not psychological technique, applied by him to himself, is not a conditioning with himself, not a subjective choice associated with personality characteristics, no, it is simply the only Right way. And there is no need to be afraid of this at all.

As for the fact that faith is an escape from problems, faith actually gives rise to a huge number of problems. For a person who knows God, lying is a problem, acting selfishly is a problem, refusing to help a neighbor is a problem. Things that previously seemed morally neutral acquire a moral connotation. Good and evil clearly diverge along their poles, and a person is deprived of the possibility of compromise. Only a person who has no idea about faith can say that it is easier to live with faith than without faith. Faith is not an evasion of responsibility, but, on the contrary, a person’s full responsibility for his life.

The fact of the matter is that faith is not a compensation for inferiority, it is not the lot of losers. There are many things in life that can satisfy a person. But about people who “perfectly” manage without faith, the Lord Holy Scripture speaks: My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh.(Gen. 6, 3). A person can become so fleshy, so earthly, that his soul practically dies within him, and his spirit fades away, and he does not even feel the need for what he was created for. But this too free choice person, and also a certain result to which he can come. The irreligious conscience that has been talked about so much in Soviet times, is the same evil conscience for which the priest prays for cleansing in the prayer of the Great Entrance. A truly religious person will never claim: “I live according to my conscience,” because he knows that his conscience is evil. With the help of an irreligious conscience, a person deceives himself. People who did not deceive themselves - saints - saw themselves as great sinners. They looked at themselves with the eyes with which the Lord looks at us. A a common person sees himself better than he is. A person who believes that his conscience is clear is dishonest with himself. The “clear revolutionary conscience” of the iron Bolsheviks and fiery Komsomol members did not hinder them; on the contrary, it pushed them to fratricidal war, terror, destruction of temples. There are subjective criteria - these are what the irreligious conscience chooses for itself, each time anew, depending on the era - but there is an unshakable eternal criterion, this is the Lord.

What is doubt: the pride of reason, convinced that only it alone can comprehend everything, or simply the sanity of reason, its normal functioning? What to do with doubt - just pray? Or try to convince reason in its language, that is, with its own rational arguments?

Doubt and doubt are different. There are doubts with which the enemy shakes our mind. Everything that the enemy does to us is imputed not to us, but to him. Another thing is whether these doubts and hesitations find any basis for themselves in us. This is where our area of ​​responsibility begins. If we strengthen, develop, cultivate doubts that arise in our hearts and minds, it means that we ourselves, for one reason or another, are prone to them. For what reason? Note: dishonest and dishonest people are usually distrustful and suspicious of others. They do not trust anyone because they know that they themselves cannot be trusted, and they judge others by themselves. So it is here. A person who is faithful and devoted to God will not doubt Him: if you can rely on me, a sinner, then even more so on the Lord.

- So, any thinking, thinking through, and therefore developing one’s doubts is obviously a sin?

Thinking ability is what is given to a person for creation. For the creation of the soul, the spiritual home, own life and life around you. And it happens that thinking process gets out of control and becomes the master of a person. Then it is no longer thought for man, but man for thought. Should a person think? Yes he thinking creature, he must think. But mental activity must find support in his heart. If a person has faith only in his head, he will constantly waver. As soon as it descends to the region of the heart, doubts will go away. What is needed for this? To do this you need to become simpler. Because God is a completely simple being. And man became complex as a result of the Fall. But, as we gain the simplicity that Christianity imparts to us, a person gains the ability to believe simply, like children. Why does the Lord say: unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven(Matt. 18, 3)? What is the secret of this childhood faith? The child does not know how not to trust. Here he is lost, we come up to him, take him by the hand and say: “Come on, I’ll take you to your mother.” And he puts his palm in ours and calmly follows us. And we, adults, are distrustful: even the person who sincerely offers us help or asks about our health, we suspect something of something. This is our depravity, distortion by sin - on the one hand, and on the other - by the bitter experience of our life. But every person is called to acquire childlike faith. Stop delving into your doubts, your reasoning and turn to your direct experience. After all, every believer has it - the experience of God’s direct participation in his life. Everyone had such a moment when he could not help but understand: this is the Lord. When doubt comes, you just need to remember this moment - when your hand lay in the hand of God. Did you know then that it was Him? Why don't you believe now? What have you blocked your path to God with? What have you set up here, what reasoning? You don't need all this. When we put our hand into the hand of God and the Lord leads us along a sometimes difficult and tough path, but we do not pull our hand away, we do not run away - this makes faith stronger.

But what if this very “God helped me” is just some kind of self-hypnosis, self-hypnosis, thanks to which I was able to organize myself internally and get out of some kind of crisis state?

If you refuse to see God’s help and give thanks for it, asking for and receiving it, you find yourself among those same nine lepers who, being cleansed of leprosy, did not consider it necessary to come and thank Christ (see: Lk. 17, 12–19). The mental leprosy they suffered from was much worse than physical leprosy. This is unbelief and ingratitude, but faith is given to a grateful heart. Faith goes away from ingratitude and internal betrayal.

Such strange thing: You can recognize a miracle as a miracle and rely on it only if you already have faith. If there is no faith, a miracle will not convince. A person will give him any explanation or no explanation at all - he will simply forget about him. For many reporters reporting on the descent Holy Fire in Jerusalem on Easter, this is only news in the stream of news: it does not change them, just as, by the way, it does not change humanity as a whole. Visible miracles are much less miracles than those that happen in human hearts. The fact that the tax collector Zacchaeus, an adult, wealthy man, most likely truly spoiled by his life and profession, climbed a fig tree to see Christ is a miracle (see: Lk. 19, 1–10). And the fact that the Sun stopped is not a miracle. The One who created this sun can stop it. He who created the sea can make it part. But a person can only turn to God himself, by his own personal choice. And this is truly a miracle. A miracle is when a person prays and suddenly feels that the Lord hears his prayer, that He answers him - not with his voice, not with light, but with this touch to the heart. This is much more wonderful than the parting of the sea. I may bring someone’s condemnation upon myself, but I will still say that for me personally, the descent of the Holy Fire is not as important as those seemingly small miracles that the Lord performed in my own life. And if it suddenly turned out, let’s say, that there is no Holy Fire, that this is just a trick, as some claim (I myself don’t think so, of course) - this would not shake my faith at all. If a person's faith collapses, how House of cards, from exposing a miracle - it means that this is not faith at all. A visible miracle can be taken away from us, but that miracle that is known to me alone, that happened in my heart, no one will ever take away from me. Increased attention to visible miracles, the desire to lean on them in faith is akin to the desire to lean on crutches. This is weakness, although weakness is not shameful, it is natural for us. However, you need to learn to walk without crutches.

But I will say again: in order for these genuine, invisible to the world, miracles to happen to us, we must become as simple as possible, and not get confused in our own thoughts. There are things that cannot be analyzed. We can analyze external events and some processes taking place in our souls, but our relationship with God can be dissected and analyzed as if it were data. scientific experiment, No need. We need to understand what deprives us of grace and what helps us acquire it. Sometimes the Lord does not give us grace, because it is premature, it will not be useful to us now; sometime - so that we don’t get the impression that it comes easy. But mostly, anger, condemnation, severe, gross sins deprive us of grace. And if we try to get rid of them, we will see that there are still some seemingly small things that also deprive us of grace. There is something in ourselves that resists grace. If we understand this, then we are learning a life of grace. And grace and faith are inseparable concepts, because genuine faith is a gift of God’s grace. When faith is alive in a person, he feels it precisely as life. What death did the Lord save us from? From what life without Him really is. The feeling of life with God is faith.

There is some connection between doubt and sin. A person who does not want or cannot find the strength to part with his sins, subconsciously needs that there be no Creator and Judge.

When we pray, asking: “Lord, help me, I am lost without You,” we believe that He exists, that He hears us and will come to our aid. If they didn’t believe, they wouldn’t pray. But here’s another situation: a person no longer needs help, and he is about to commit some sin. However, your conscience tells you: the One to whom you prayed is here, He has not disappeared anywhere. Just as you prayed before His face, so you sin—before His face. And the man says: no, it’s not like that, where is it, this face. In the old days there were people who covered the icons in their home with towels before committing something sinful. Likewise, Adam hid from his Creator between the trees of paradise as stated in the Book of Genesis ( 3, 8). If a person who has received the gift of faith from God lives by faith, it will strengthen in him, otherwise it will quietly leave him.

This probably explains the fear of a sinful person when meeting a miracle, the desire for the miracle not to happen, for it to turn out to be an optical illusion or someone’s trick?

If the miracle of God frightens you, it means that you, like the inhabitants of the country of the Gadarenes, have your own pigs that are dear to you, and you do not want them to rush into the lake and die there (see: Mk. 5, 11–14; OK. 8, 32–34; Mf. 8, 30–34). There are different pigs, some are big, fat, grunt, it’s hard not to notice them, and some have quite cute pink pigs - but your conscience tells you that these are pigs after all! That is why it is scary that now the Lord will appear - and everything that is incompatible with His light in us will be revealed and will be repressed, driven away. Fear and desire to turn away in this case- defensive reaction. However, it is within the power of a person - every time - to say: “Lord, as I am, I fear You; but I want to learn to love You. Because I understand that I will be lost without You.”

- Doubt and lack of faith - how do these concepts relate? Is this the same thing or not?

These concepts are very close. Remember, the Lord says to Peter, stretching out His hand to him: of little faith! why did you doubt?(Matt. 14, 31). Lack of faith is a small faith, a faith that lives in a person, but does not force a person to live in accordance with it. Remember the episode with the healing of the demon-possessed youth? The father of this boy says to the Lord: if you can, have pity on us and help us(Mk. 9, 22). He has faith, enough to turn to the Teacher, but not enough to believe in His omnipotence.

There are people who say that they cannot believe in God and everything that happens in the Church: “There is no faith, that’s all. Apparently, this is how I am by nature - an unbeliever (non-believer).” What would you say to such a person?

I wouldn't say anything. It is useless to say anything, to prove something to a person who himself puts up a shield between himself and God. You need to pray for such a person, so that the Lord will enlighten him. And showing him the love that is in Christians is the main evidence of the God of Love who attracts human hearts to himself.

Interviewed by Marina Biryukova

Journal "Orthodoxy and Modernity", No. 22 (38), 2012.

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