What to do if the Lord does not give a child. God does not send about trials in our life
Today the Church remembers the great martyr and healer Panteleimon. His believers are often asked to intercede with God for healing. But is there any point in praying for recovery? Why do we ask for health if God sends us sickness? The priest Sergiy Kruglov answers.
“In our prayers we ask for health, but the Lord knows why we are given sickness. After all, nothing happens without His will...
- You want to say that diseases are sent to man by God for something useful? A more anti-Christian idea cannot be imagined! God is the Father, and we are the children. Is it possible to imagine that a person who has children will intentionally send suffering and illness to them? And this concerns a simple sinful person, and even more so God, who loves us to the point that he went to the cross for us.
That's not the point at all. The world is arranged very seriously, and life is a very serious thing, and it is given to people. The world is given to people. Here a children's room was built, and the children settled in it, saying: “You will live here and host yourself!” And this is not done for fun - God does not do anything for fun - it is done in earnest. Man is responsible for the world in which he lives and for the life he lives. And when, as a result of the fall into sin, death entered life and received some of its rights in it, everything began to gradually collapse, anger, hatred, the most diverse sinful passions appeared, a person began to grow old, tired, yearn, get bored, die, that is, all that what we generally call death.
Death is everywhere in this world. It's mixed like nasty saccharin in tea - everywhere! She accompanies any person - a small, adult, old man. The world has become quite a scary place. When a child is born, he screams, he probably feels that he has fallen into some very scary, difficult place that is full of dangers. Life doesn't spare anyone! This is a wheel that rides and grinds a person, his bones ...
And the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the greatest thing is that God loves us so much, pities us, he cannot bear seeing the suffering of a person. He, of course, understands that everything happens by the will of man, through the fault of man. He perfectly understands that the child was scalded with boiling water, not listening to his mother, he climbed for the kettle himself. But when a child has two-thirds of the body burns, the mother will not scold him for not obeying, she is ready to give her skin so that he stops suffering. She is ready to sacrifice herself so that he stops hurting. So right?
This is the logic of God. He Himself came into the world, He became a man. Naturally, the wheel of life crushed Him too, He fell on the cross, He died. But He is God, He could not die, He rose again. And this is a great breakthrough in the occupation of death. I found a wonderful phrase in the bowels of Facebook: “Sir, we are surrounded! - Excellent! Now we can attack in any direction!” This is the logic of the resurrection! This is the logic of Christianity! There was a breakthrough, a breakthrough to conquer death. Breakthrough defeat evil.
But God didn't just do it and rest. Not! He continues to participate because saving a person from death is the highest kind of creativity. To transform a person, to transform. There is synergy - we are doing it together with God. And God continues to participate in all this, He puts His hands, He constantly saves us. Maybe we sometimes do not understand this, do not see it, and when we see it, we forget. And He goes to the cross again and again, again and again puts His hands up, protecting us from all evil.
God does not send us sickness, it is life that sends us sickness, a world permeated with evil. And God does so, offering his hands, that these diseases, firstly, can be healed, and secondly, they can bring some benefit.
The logic of death itself is completely incomprehensible. For her, disease is meant to be destroyed. And God makes it so that there is benefit from illness. A person who has experienced severe suffering, illness, is strengthened in spirit, he can then help those who are also suffering. That's what's happening! To say that God sends us sickness as some kind of good is wrong! God sends us only good things.
“But He knows why illnesses…
- A meaningless expression - "why illness." Illness BECAUSE. He knows why the disease. It comes from evil, from the fall, from this and that. Like any evil, it is meaningless. Only what the Lord has created makes sense. And evil, sickness, sin have no meaning. What is sin? They took a good thing and ruined it. After all, a good thing grows under any sin: the wine was spoiled - drunkenness turned out; love between a man and a woman has turned into fornication.
Man is meant to be healthy. God gave it to live forever. A disease has no meaning, it must be healed. That is why the Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, a healer, and very many other doctors. Despite some obscurantist notions that sometimes exist in parishes that, they say, being treated is a sin, you only need to be treated with holy water, God created doctors and glorifies doctors in the face of saints precisely for their medical work. These are Cosmas and Damian - holy unmercenary doctors, St. Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky and many others.
Can prayer heal?
Also a wonderful expression! How can prayer itself heal? Although many believe that prayer is such a spell, a magic phrase that heals in itself. This is not true.
The word is given great power. There are entire medical fields where the word is used as a medicine, as a method of treatment. Prayer is a conversation between man and God. This is not just a conversation, chatter ... This is an appeal, a request, gratitude, this is when all the strength is gathered, how with the last strength a young man shouts to a girl about love, or she shouts to him - he is taken to the army, he rides a train, leans out the window, and the girl shouts to him - this is a prayer, because everything is collected there human! Or gratitude. Or a request - help, save!
Prayer is a dialogue. You need to hear the answer to your title. Of course, if a person with the fullness of his faith, with the fullness of his being, screams like this, calls out, of course, he will not go unheeded. In this sense, prayer is saving.
But some are healed, some are not. Doesn't he pray so fervently?
“That's not the point. This is such a superficial sign for us: if you are so smart, then why are you so poor.
We see one, two, three, sometimes fifteen aspects of a person's life. An intelligent person sees sixteen sides. And there are one thousand one hundred and sixteen of them! Man is a huge system that is connected with everything in the world. Therefore, two people suffering from the same disease and having approximately the same level of churchness have absolutely different lives, because in all other respects they are completely different. One is healed, the other is not, not because one prays fervently and the other does not, but there are many other reasons, sometimes very serious reasons.\
For example, one of the reasons is whether a person wants to get well or not? A lot of illnesses, if you dig a person deeper and pull everything out of him by the ear, and into the sun, come from the fact that a person wants to get sick and does not want healing. For him, illness is a way to hide from the world. Often this happens - some difficult, unbearable circumstances have fallen on a person - bang! he collapsed and got sick! The man wanted to relieve himself of responsibility: “That's it! I got sick!" He is given tea with raspberries and medicines. A simple example is when a person hides in illness from overexertion. Many mental illness- a way to hide from life.
Sometimes it happens that a person does not want to be healed. To be healthy, you need to lead a certain lifestyle, and a person has a more important goal than being healthy. For example, an alcoholic understands that he is destroying himself, but says: “Give me some pill so that I can be healthy, but I won’t stop drinking!”
And yet the weakness of prayer can mean that a person understands prayer as a kind of spell, a magic pill. Not like talking to God. He does not need God himself, but he needs specific momentary health. There are many examples when people travel to holy places, and immediately go to different grandmothers, healers, psychics, read any prayers and spells mixed, because they believe that correctly pronounced words in the correct order will produce something by themselves. And how many pseudo-scientific treatises on the benefits of prayer for this, for that, for piglets, for geese ...
“Maybe it’s still scary to pray because at the end you need to add: Let it not be as I want, but as You ...
- Yes. But in reality it is not so scary, because the Lord does not wish us anything bad. Never! He only wants the best for us. He never wants a person to suffer.
But another thing, we are behaving like a child! The Lord says: “For you to be healthy, you need to be a little patient and take medicine.” “No,” we whine, “I’d rather die, but I won’t give you an injection!”
"Thy will be done!" The will of God is always good.
There may be another point here. It is hard for us to say “Thy will be done!”, because we know that something will be required of us. “Yes, it is My will that you be well. Come on, follow the regime, diet, give up bad habits "" Ahh, I don't want this! I want to climb the tree and not scratch anything! I want…"
- Yes. As in the old joke: “Well, okay! I will drink, but I will not quit smoking!”
The words "Thy will be done!" very difficult to pronounce. They are easy to pronounce for those who pray superficially. And a person who understands what he is saying is difficult for him. Whoever has more faith always finds it more difficult.
“And the mother’s prayer will get it from the bottom of the sea, it’s ...
“This is a manifestation of love. Love is the basis of life, it holds the world. Love always saves. A mother's prayer is a manifestation of love.
The mother in this case follows in the footsteps of Christ. Christ is ready to go to the cross, to death, He gives everything - the body, His blood, everything! We are not only enjoying the fruits of what He has done, we are using Him ourselves. We eat Him at every liturgy. He gave us everything!
So the mother gives herself. Only an earthly woman has limited opportunities, God has more opportunities. But she repeats in her impulse, in love, in prayer the same feat, she follows in the footsteps of Christ.
Interviewed by Tamara Amelina
Asks GalinaAnswered by Alexandra Lantz, 02/18/2013
Question: "The Bible says that God does not give a person more trials than a person can endure, but why then do people sometimes fail to withstand everything that has fallen on them, and end their lives by suicide?"
Peace to your heart, Galina!
Yes, the Bible does indeed say so. And here is the most striking New Testament text on the subject:
We break not because the circumstances are too difficult (after all, God measured them to the millimeter and milligram), but because we refuse to turn our faces to the One who allowed them in our lives and admit that we are wrong before Him, that we are dirty and weak, that our hearts are dark and heavy, that we need Him to correct us from the inside out. But we very quickly fall into a state of resentment against Him for such a “wrong” treatment of us, we pour out on Him all the claims that have accumulated in us over the previous years, we refuse to analyze our path that has led us to where it is hard. We find many excuses for ourselves, just to blame God. ... and if we allow ourselves to get stuck in this state for a long time, then one day nothing will help us ().
A few years ago at a Sabbath School debriefing, one of my sisters came up with the idea (seems to be quoting some source), which seemed strange to me then, but now, years later, looking at people, how they accept the winds of loss and pain, I see that she was right. “At the end of time,” she said, “when God raises sinners to life to show them why they will not enter Eternity, He will show them the lives of those who have entered His presence, and the lost will see that the saved people have passed through the same upheavals, through the same circumstances of life, but with one difference: they chose to trust God, humble themselves before Him, hold on to Him, and change in His likeness.”
May we be with you, Galina, among them - among the saved,
Sasha.
Read more on the topic "Miscellaneous":
Does it make sense to pray for recovery? Why do we ask for health if God sends us sickness?
In our prayers we ask for health, but the Lord knows why sicknesses are given to us. After all, nothing happens without His will...
We hear this kind of reasoning often. Yes, and ourselves, sometimes we think something like this: “Lord, for what sins have so many diseases been imposed on me?”
(The priest answers these and similar questions Sergiy Kruglov).
You want to say that diseases are sent by God for something useful? A more anti-Christian idea cannot be imagined! God is the Father, and we are the children. Is it possible to imagine that a person who has children will intentionally send suffering and illness to them? And this concerns a simple sinful person, and even more so God, who loves us to the point that he went to the cross for us.
That's not the point at all. The world is arranged very seriously, and life is a very serious thing, and it is given to people. The world is given to people.
Here a children's room was built, and the children settled in it, saying: “You will live here and host yourself!” And this is not done for fun - God does not do anything for fun - it is done in earnest. Man is responsible for the world in which he lives and for the life in which he lives. And when, as a result of the fall, death entered the world and received some of its rights in it, everything began to gradually collapse, anger, hatred, the most diverse sinful passions appeared, a person began to grow old, tired, yearn, get bored, die ...
The world has become quite a scary place. When a child is born, he cries, he probably feels that he has fallen into some place that is full of dangers. Life doesn't spare anyone! This is a wheel that rides and grinds a person ...
And the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the greatest thing is that God loves us so much, pities us, He cannot bear seeing the suffering of a person. He, of course, understands that everything happens by the will of man, through the fault of man. He perfectly understands that the child was scalded with boiling water, not listening to his mother, he climbed for the kettle himself. But when a child has burns on two-thirds of his body, his mother will not scold him for not obeying, she is ready to give her skin so that he stops suffering. She is ready to sacrifice herself so that he stops hurting. So right?
This is the logic of God. He Himself came into the world, He became a man. Naturally, the wheel of life crushed Him too, He fell on the cross, He died. But He is God. He couldn't die. He has risen. And this is a great breakthrough in the occupation of death.
I found a wonderful phrase in the bowels of Facebook: “Sir, we are surrounded! - Excellent! Now we can attack in any direction!” This is the logic of the resurrection! This is the logic of Christianity!
But God didn't just do it and rest. Not! He continues to participate because saving a person from death is the highest kind of creativity. To transform a person, to transform. There is a synergy - we do it together with God. He puts His hands up again to keep us safe from evil.
God does not send us sickness, it is life that sends us sickness, a world permeated with evil. And God does so, offering his hands, that these diseases, firstly, can be healed, and secondly, they can bring some benefit.
The logic of death itself is completely incomprehensible. For her, disease is meant to be destroyed. And God makes it so that there is benefit from illness. A person who has experienced severe suffering, illness, is strengthened in spirit, he can then help those who are also suffering. That's what's happening!
Nonsensical question: "Why diseases?"
Illness is not “why”, but “because”. It comes from evil, from the fall, from this, from that. Man is meant to be healthy! God gave it - to live forever. A disease has no meaning, it must be healed. That is why the Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon and many other doctors. Despite some obscurantist notions that sometimes exist in parishes that, they say, being treated is a sin, you only need to be treated with holy water, God created doctors and glorifies doctors in the face of saints precisely for their medical work. These are Cosmas and Diamian - holy doctors without silver, St. Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky and many others.
Can prayer heal?- many people ask. Prayer is not a spell, not a magic phrase that in itself heals, although ... Great power has been given to the Word. There are entire medical fields where the word is used as a medicine, as a method of treatment.
What is prayer? Prayer is a conversation between a person and God!
Prayer is a dialogue! You need to hear an answer to your request. Of course, if a person with the fullness of his faith cries out to God, he will not remain unheeded. The Lord never wants anything bad for us! He only wants the best for us. He never wants a person to suffer.
Is it true that the Lord does not give a person trials that he cannot afford?
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
This is what St. Apostle Paul: No other temptation has come upon you than that of man; and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond your strength, but when tempted will give you relief, so that you can endure(1 Corinthians 10:13). The above words express a thought that explains why some people fall under the burden of temptations. Most people bring upon themselves heavy temptations of sins (fornication, proud and arrogant arrogance, trampling on the Divine commandments). For many, these temptations prove fatal. The apostle tells the Corinthians: while you struggled with the trials sent by God, you were not in danger of falling into sin and falling away from the faith, because God does not allow us to be tempted beyond strength. But when you yourself bring temptations on yourself by your behavior, then you cannot be sure of victory over them.
St. Apostle James calls to endure temptations complacently: testing your faith produces patience; patience must have a perfect effect, so that you are perfect in all its fullness, without any lack(James 1:3-4). Sometimes it seems to a person that the trials exceed the measure of his strength. This can be overcome by complete trust in God and trust in His Divine mercy. In one old Byzantine manuscript, a comforting admonition of the holy elder is given: “Someone told me that one man always prayed to God that He would not leave him on his earthly path, and how the Lord once descended with His disciples on their way to Emmaus (see ch. : Lk 24:13-32), so that he may also walk along the path of his life. And at the end of his life, he had a vision: he saw that he was walking along the sandy shore of the ocean (of course, understand the ocean of eternity, along the coast of which the path of mortals passes). And, looking back, he saw the prints of his feet on the soft sand, going far back: this was the path of his life. And next to the prints of his feet were the prints of a couple more feet; and he understood that it was the Lord who had traveled with him in life, just as he had prayed to Him. But in some places of the traversed path, he saw prints of only one pair of feet, which cut deep into the sand, as if testifying to the severity of the path at that time. And this man remembered that it was when there were especially difficult moments in his life and when life seemed unbearably difficult and painful. And this man said to the Lord: You see, Lord, in the difficult times of my life You did not go with me; You see that the prints of only one pair of feet at that time indicate that then I walked alone in life, and You see from the fact that the footprints cut deep into the ground that it was very difficult for me to walk then. But the Lord answered him: My son, you are mistaken. Indeed, you see the prints of only one pair of feet during those times of your life that you remember as the most difficult. But these are not the prints of your feet, but of Mine. Because in the difficult times of your life, I took you in My arms and carried you. So, My son, these are not the prints of your feet, but of Mine ”( Meditation of a humble heart).
