My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
“FOR YOU ARE MY HOPE, O LORD GOD…” [Psalm 71:5].
The holy Apostle Paul says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and REJOICES IN HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD. And not only that, but WE ALSO GLORY IN TRIBULATIONS, KNOWING THAT TRIBULATION PRODUCES PERSEVERANCE; AND PERSEVERANCE, CHARACTER; AND CHARACTER, HOPE. Now hope DOES NOT DISAPPOINT, BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD HAS BEEN POURED OUT IN OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO WAS GIVEN TO US” [Romans 5:1-5].
The Greek word pistis [πίστις] can be translate both “faith” and “faithfulness.” Faith is the conviction that something is true; faithfulness is loyalty and obedience to God. Faith, therefore, is far more than possessing mental belief. Since neither faith nor righteousness originates in us but in our All-Merciful God, true faith transforms our lives, making us Godlike, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. While hope is more than optimism; it is settled confidence about things to come–so secure that we can patiently wait through much suffering. Saint Paul writes: “For we were sae in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” {Romans 8:24-25).
When we hope, what we are saying is that we have hope in God. Hope is not an abstract concept or something imaginary. In order for one to have hope in God he or she should be willing to totally have faith and trust in Him. Trust that God knows best what is profitable to us, that He knows everything about us and what we need. He knows our past, present, and future. It is a common human fallacy to expect an immediate answer or help from Him, but He does not adhere to our expectations and desires or time limitations. Time, unlike us, means absolutely nothing to God. God is timeless, and what we consider a long time of waiting for an answer from Him; for God, it is but a second of our time. At other times, even God’s silence is a kind of an answer to us. It could also mean that He wants to see how sincere our faith in Him is and to test our patience and humility.
God does not show favoritism and He cannot be either bribed, threatened, or deceived by us. He is not a human being! He is the Almighty God and Creator of All! We are all His children and His only desire is to save us from evil, death and even ourselves. Our understanding of Him is limited and much of the time distorted and wrong. How can one understand God when we cannot understand ourselves or others like us. When one is seeking or supplicating Him for something it must be done with a pure heart and genuine love. I am referring to prayer of course. No matter how urgent the situation that we find ourselves in, we ought to know as Orthodox Christians that we cannot presure God to comply with our will. Do you not remember that we were taught by Christ how to pray to Him in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. We do not control the actions of God or the timing of His answer to us. However, in the meantime the Christian must continue with his or her life and not fold one’s hands and do nothing but wait. Life should be lived and nothing should hinder your efforts to provide for yourself and your families. Life is too precious and at the same time brief.
No one should ever doubt God’s love for us. His love is not a frail and imperfect human love. Our hope is founded on His infinite and unconditional love for all people. None of us is deserving of God’s love and yet He was willing to die for us on the Cross to save us. To those who for any reason are persecuted the holy Fathers state that “since it is through tribulation that we must enter the Kingdom of God, Saint Paul teaches that we should rejoice in them. For suffering is the measure of how much hope we have, and it testifies to the fact that we deserve the crown we shall inherit.” They, the holy Fathers, say the following: “Hope does not let us down, even though we are considered by evil people to be stupid and naive, because we believe in things which are impossible in this world. For we have in us the pledge of God’s love through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us.”
“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Roman 8:23-270). Saint John Chrysostom says, “What Paul means is that we are not to expect everything to be given to us in this life, but we are to have hope as well. For the only thing we brought to God ws our faith in the promises of what was to come, and it was in this way that we were saved. If we lose this hope, we lose the one thing which we have contributed to our salvation.” It is unthinkable for any Christian to ever lose hope in our God. Saint Cyprian writes: “Patient waiting is necessary that we may fulfill what we have begun to be and, through God’s help, that we may obtain what we hope for and believe.”
Saint Bede spoke about the metaphor of the egg. “The certainty of our hope is prefigured by the egg. No offspring is as yet discernible in the egg, but the birth of the bird to come is hoped for. The faithful do not yet look upon the glory of the fatherland on high in which they believe at the present time, but they await its coming in hope.” Christians are safe in the love of God and have nothing to fear from anyone. When Christians reflect on the fact that God has already sacrificed His Son for them, they can hardly doubt that he will look after them in the future as well. Nobody can attack the Christian, nor even the devil, because Christ has chosen us, he has died for us, and now he intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.
It is to our advantage spiritually to maintain our hope with patience and confidence. We must, however, be vigilant for the evil one will tempt us so that we lose hope in God. We must not give in to his evil temptations but to instead pray that God will strengthen our faith and hope. As Orthodox Christians we have countless examples of Christians who suffered but never lost faith or hope. Saint Athanasius writes, “For we ought to walk by the standard of the saints and the fathers, and imitate them.” Without faith and hope, the Christian becomes diffensless and vulnerable to evil temptations and thoughts. Our enemy and adversary, the devil, waits patiently for the opportunity to make you his victim. Be always alert and pray to the Almighty and Merciful God to give you strength, patience, and discernment.
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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God