The will of God, Christian sermons. What is the will of God

I was driving along an empty highway, and suddenly a man appeared right in front of the hood of my car...

Accident? Evil fate? God's will? I still can’t accurately classify the incident that happened to me several years ago. Although, after long conversations with Father Peter, I believe that this was the desire of the Almighty. Perhaps at that moment I was daydreaming and lost my vigilance, perhaps the wet track played a cruel joke on me, perhaps... Many questions have haunted me since then also because one second turned the life of a successful and, I will not hide, cold and a calculating businessman turned upside down. Not only life, but also worldview. That day I was scheduled to sign a contract with a new partner, and then I could finally go out of town - there, in quiet hotel, my beloved girl was waiting for me. A business meeting dragged on. At the end we celebrated our collaboration with a glass of whiskey.

I left the restaurant and got into the car. He turned on the engine and slowly moved away. I took out my mobile phone and decided to call my beloved.

Kitty, where are you stuck? - my girlfriend purred in a gentle, slightly capricious voice. - I'll be there soon! - I turned off the phone and involuntarily thought: “How many times have I said that I can’t stand all her “cat, bunny, baby”!

Come on, Milka is still just a girl, she’ll outgrow her stupid habits!” - I thought to myself, but gloomy thoughts continued to creep into my head: “Is this the person I need? Will he come out of it? faithful wife and a caring mother? The rain that had been drizzling all day turned into an autumn downpour. The wipers did not have time to cope with the streams of water flowing down the glass. Somewhere in the distance the lights of a small village were burning, the road to it went sharply to the left. I have always been interested in looking into other people's windows, glowing in the evenings, each of them has its own life, its own joys and sorrows... So are these lights of the suburbs... The lights are on in the houses, some are watching TV, others are sitting at the table and having dinner, someone perhaps someone is looking anxiously out the window, waiting for their daughter who was delayed on a date... I didn’t have time to think it through - in the headlights I suddenly saw a man who had come from nowhere on a deserted highway.

I will never forget his eyes: there was no fear in them - rather some kind of monstrously greedy curiosity. I didn't have time to slow down. How in nightmare or a horror movie: I press the pedal hard, hoping that I can stop the car or at least ease the collision, the car skids a little to the side, then there is a terrible blow, the man flies over the hood... I stopped, turned on the emergency lights, ran out onto the road. "God! Help! - I prayed as I rushed headlong towards the man lying on the highway. “If only he were alive!” - I repeated to myself like a spell. I wanted to run away as far as possible. After all, no one saw the accident. There are no witnesses. They won't find me. However, they will continue to stand rooted to the spot and tremble in horror. Finally, he dared to come closer. I looked around again. There was not a single living soul anywhere. “Get in the car and get away quickly. Run wherever your eyes look! - shouted an inner voice. - You are drunk! You hit a man. You will be sent to prison. This will be your end. End!". Just thinking about it made me feel sick. My heart was pounding madly. I was about to go back and get into the car, but something held me back. I couldn’t act like a coward and leave the man on the road. I checked if he was alive. The pulse was still beating, but weakly. The man was conscious. I turned him on his side. I called an ambulance and the police. I noticed that the victim’s lips were moving: he was trying to say something.

He leaned lower. Then it seemed to me that the man was delirious, because I heard a quiet and hoarse voice: “I’m sorry... And thank you...” Only later did I realize that the man I had hit was not delusional, he actually thanked me. Now, after the passage of time, I know why exactly. " Ambulance"Arrived in a few minutes. Unfortunately, the man I hit could not be saved. He died an hour after the accident. During the investigation of this accident, I tried to prove that the stranger himself stepped under the wheels, but it seems that they did not believe me, citing the fact that, firstly, I was drunk, and secondly, the darkness and rain prevented me from clearly seeing what was happening on road. What happened next? Lawyer, court, verdict and, as a result, a zone. I was horrified by what had happened, as well as by what awaited me ahead. I was worried, thinking about what would happen to my mother, my beloved girl, and the company. But he tried not to think about the family of the man he hit. Perhaps the first most terrible test was the meeting with the wife of the deceased at the court hearing.

The young woman with a detached face did not shed a tear during all this time. Not a word of reproach towards me. Nothing. She seemed petrified with grief. I also learned that after the death of her husband she was left alone with her five-year-old son in her arms. I was afraid that the victim’s wife would attack me with accusations, take revenge, and call me a murderer. But she was silent. She never even looked at me during the trial. And then there was the zone, a series of disappointments and trials. It is very difficult to survive in prison without letters from home, support from relatives and, let’s be honest, parcels and packages. I received a couple of short letters from my beloved and... silence - not a word, not a message. I started to worry how she was doing, if something had happened. My mother, who came on a date, shed light on what was happening: Mila got married. “Well, God will be her judge!” - I thought to myself. And one day I got into a conversation with the priest from the prison church. No, it was not a confession in the literal sense of the word - just a heart-to-heart conversation. I told Father Peter about everything that happened to me.

Don’t despair, my son, everything is God’s will. Perhaps you are right, and that person himself stepped under the wheels of your car, or perhaps you imagined it. Be that as it may, we do not make decisions, but the Lord. He, and only he, administers justice... Pray for the slave you killed Bozhy Nikolai, for his family, left without a father and husband, for your mother, who suffered a difficult ordeal... I wanted to write a letter to the wife of the deceased. But where to find the words? How to ask for forgiveness for what you did? Several times I started a letter and gave it up... And I also believed. In God. The purpose of man on earth.

Upon release, I spent a couple of days with my mother, and then decided to go to Nikolai’s wife (that was the name of the deceased man). It turned out that she and her son moved to the city, rented an apartment, and got a job as a dishwasher in a dining room. Was I afraid of our first meeting? Not that word. I was preparing for the conversation, put a large sum in an envelope, fortunately my business partner turned out to be a decent person - the company flourished the entire time that I was serving my sentence. Awkward meeting. Incoherent words of apology on my part. Her silence. That's how it was at first. And then Lisa plucked up courage and said:

You will forgive him too...
- For what?

She was silent for a moment and held out a crumpled piece of paper:

I didn’t know anything either... Read. “Lizonka, my sunshine! I know I have cancer. There is very little time left to live. I don’t want to be a burden, I can’t allow you to feel sorry for me. This step

I did it in my right mind and memory. Forgive me, my love..."

So... your husband threw himself under the wheels of my car?
- I think yes…
- And you... Why didn’t you say anything about this at the trial?
- I found this letter just a month ago, when we were moving to the city... Forgive us... with Kolya, if you can...

And in my head I heard the words of Father Peter: “Everything is God’s will...” I remembered Nikolai’s face before his death, I remembered that in his eyes there was no fear, but only greedy curiosity. And the words I heard: “Forgive me... And thank you...” After our first conversation with Lisa, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. More precisely, more than two years have passed. I help her and Nikita financially, sometimes I go with the boy to the skating rink, to the circus, to the amusement park. It often happens that I stay up late with them. I don’t argue, I really like sweet and quiet Lisa. I want to believe that I do too. But I’m not rushing things, remembering the words of Father Peter:

Everything is God's will...

“Is it God’s will for me to marry this man?” “What about going to work in a specific organization in order to enter such and such an institute?” “Is God’s will for some event in my life and for some action of mine?” We ask ourselves questions like these all the time. How can we understand whether we act in life according to the will of God or on our own? And in general, do we understand the will of God correctly? Archpriest Alexy Uminsky, rector of the church, answers Holy Trinity in Khokhly.

–How can God's will be manifested in our lives?

– I think it can manifest itself through the circumstances of life, the movement of our conscience, the reflections of the human mind, through comparisons with the commandments of God, through, first of all, a person’s very desire to live according to the will of God.

More often than not, the desire to know God’s will arises spontaneously: five minutes ago we didn’t need it, and suddenly boom, we urgently need to understand God’s will. And most often in everyday situations that do not concern the main thing.

Here some life circumstances become the main thing: to get married or not to get married, to go left, right or straight, what will you lose - a horse, a head or something else, or vice versa will you gain? The person begins, as if blindfolded, to poke in different directions.

I think knowing God's will is one of the main tasks human life, the urgent task of every day. This is one of the main requests of the Lord’s Prayer, to which people do not pay enough attention.

– Yes, we say: “Thy will be done” at least five times a day. But we ourselves internally want “everything to be fine” according to our own ideas...

– Vladyka Anthony of Sourozh very often said that when we say “Thy will be done,” we actually really want our will to be, but so that at that moment it coincides with the will of God, is sanctioned, approved by Him. At its core, this is a crafty idea.

The will of God is neither a secret, nor a secret, nor some kind of code that needs to be deciphered; to know it, you don’t have to go to the elders, you don’t have to specifically ask someone else about it.

The Monk Abba Dorotheos writes about it this way:

“Another may think: if someone does not have a person whom he could question, then what should he do in this case? If someone wants to truly, with all his heart, fulfill the will of God, then God will never leave him, but will instruct him in every possible way according to His will. Truly, if someone directs his heart according to the will of God, then God will enlighten the little child to tell him His will. If someone does not want to sincerely do the will of God, then even though he will go to the prophet, and God will put it on the prophet’s heart to answer him, in accordance with his corrupted heart, as the Scripture says: and if a prophet is deceived and speaks a word, the Lord has deceived that prophet. (Ezek. 14:9).”

Although every person, to one degree or another, suffers from some kind of internal spiritual deafness. Brodsky has this line: “I’m a little deaf. God, I am blind." Develop this inner hearing- one of the main spiritual tasks of a believer.

There are people who are born with an absolute ear for music, but there are those who do not hit the notes. But with constant practice, they can develop their missing ear for music. Even if not to the absolute extent. The same thing happens to a person who wants to know the will of God.

–What spiritual exercises are needed here?

– Yes, no special exercises, you just need a great desire to hear and trust God. This is a serious struggle with oneself, which is called asceticism. Here is the main center of asceticism, when instead of yourself, instead of all your ambitions, you put God at the center.

– How can we understand that a person is really fulfilling the will of God, and is not acting arbitrarily, hiding behind it? Here the saint boldly prayed righteous John Kronstadt about the recovery of those asking and knew that he was fulfilling the will of God. On the other hand, it’s so easy, hiding behind the fact that you act according to the will of God, to do something unknown...

– Of course, the concept of “God’s will” in itself can be used, like everything in human life, simply for some kind of manipulation. It is too easy to arbitrarily attract God to one’s side, to justify the suffering of another person, one’s own, by the will of God. own mistakes and your own inaction, stupidity, sin, malice.

We attribute a lot of things to God. God is often on our trial, as the accused. The will of God is unknown to us only because we do not want to know it. We replace it with our fictions and use it to realize some false aspirations.

The real will of God is unobtrusive, very tactful. Unfortunately, anyone can easily use this phrase to their advantage. People manipulate God. It’s easy for us to justify our crimes or sins all the time by saying that God is with us.

We see this happening before our eyes today. How people with the words “God’s Will” on their T-shirts hit their opponents in the face, insult them, and send them to hell. Is it God’s will to beat and insult? But some people believe that they themselves are the will of God. How to dissuade them from this? I don't know.

The will of God, war and commandments

– But still, how not to make a mistake, to recognize the true will of God, and not something arbitrary?

– Great amount things most often happen according to our own will, according to our desire, because when a person wants his will to be, it is done. When a person wants God's will to be done and says, “Thy will be done,” and opens the door of his heart to God, then little by little the person's life is taken into God's hands. And when a person does not want this, then God says to him: “thy will be done, please.”

The question arises about our freedom, in which the Lord does not interfere, for the sake of which He limits His absolute freedom.

The Gospel tells us that God's will is the salvation of all people. God came into the world so that no one would perish. Our personal knowledge of the will of God lies in the knowledge of God, which for us also reveals the Gospel: “That they may know You, the only true God” (John 17:3), says Jesus Christ.

These words are heard at the Last Supper, at which the Lord washes the feet of His disciples and appears before them as sacrificial, merciful, saving love. Where the Lord reveals the will of God, showing the disciples and all of us the image of service and love, so that we do the same.

After washing the feet of his disciples, Christ says: “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you speak correctly, for I am exactly that. So, if I, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, then you should wash each other’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do the same as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know this, blessed are you when you do it” (John 13:12–17).

Thus, God's will for each of us is revealed as a task for each of us to be like Christ, to be involved in Him and co-natural in His love. His will is also in that first commandment - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).

His will is this too: “...love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).

And, for example, in this: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

The Gospel word and the apostolic word, the word of the New Testament - all this is a manifestation of God's will for each of us. There is no will of God for sin, for insulting another person, for humiliating other people, for people to kill each other, even if their banners say: “God is with us.”

– It turns out that during a war there is a violation of the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” But, for example, the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War who defended their homeland and family, did they really go against the will of the Lord?

– It is obvious that there is God’s will to protect from violence, to protect, among other things, one’s Fatherland from the “finding of foreigners”, from the ruin and enslavement of one’s people. But at the same time, there is no will of God for hatred, for murder, for revenge.

You just need to understand that those who defended their Motherland then had no other choice this moment. But any war is a tragedy and a sin. There are no just wars.

In Christian times, all soldiers returning from war performed penance. All, despite any seemingly just war, in defense of their homeland. Because it is impossible to keep yourself pure, in love and in union with God when you have a weapon in your hands and, whether you want it or not, you are obliged to kill.

I would also like to note this: when we talk about love for enemies, about the Gospel, when we understand that the Gospel is God’s will for us, then sometimes we really want to justify our dislike and reluctance to live according to the Gospel with some almost patristic sayings.

Well, for example: give a quote taken from John Chrysostom “sanctify your hand with a blow” or the opinion of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow that: love your enemies, beat the enemies of the Fatherland and abhor the enemies of Christ. It would seem that such a succinct phrase, everything falls into place, I always have the right to choose who is the enemy of Christ among those whom I hate and can easily name: “You are simply an enemy of Christ, and that is why I abhor you; you are an enemy of my Fatherland, that’s why I beat you.”

But here it is enough to simply look at the Gospel and see: who crucified Christ and for whom Christ prayed, asked his Father, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)? Were they the enemies of Christ? Yes, these were the enemies of Christ, and He prayed for them. Were these the enemies of the Fatherland, the Romans? Yes, these were enemies of the Fatherland. Were these His personal enemies? Most likely no. Because Christ personally cannot have enemies. A person cannot be an enemy to Christ. Eat the only creature The only one who can truly be called an enemy is Satan.

And therefore, yes, of course, when your Fatherland was surrounded by enemies and your house was burned, then you must fight for it and you must fight off these enemies, you must overcome them. But the enemy immediately ceases to be an enemy as soon as he lays down his arms.

Let us remember how Russian women, whose loved ones were killed by these same Germans, treated the captured Germans, how they shared a meager piece of bread with them. Why at that moment did they cease to be personal enemies for them, remaining enemies of the Fatherland? The love and forgiveness that the captured Germans saw then, they still remember and describe in their memoirs...

If one of your neighbors suddenly insulted your faith, you probably have the right from this person to cross to the other side of the street. But this does not mean that you are freed from the right to pray for him, to wish for the salvation of his soul and in every possible way to use your own love for the conversion of this person.

Is it God's will for suffering?

– The Apostle Paul says: “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18) This means that everything that happens to us is according to His will. Or do we act on our own?

– I think it’s correct to quote the entire quote: “Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

God's will for us is that we live in a state of prayer, joy and thanksgiving. So that our condition, our completeness, lies in these three important actions of the Christian life.

– A person clearly does not want illness or trouble for himself. But all this happens. By whose will?

– Even if a person does not want troubles and illnesses to happen in his life, he cannot always avoid them. But there is no will of God for suffering. There is no will of God on the mountain. There is no will of God for the death and torture of children. It is not the will of God for there to be wars or bombing of Donetsk and Lugansk, for Christians in that terrible conflict, located on opposite sides of the front line, taking communion in Orthodox churches, and then going to kill each other.

God doesn't like our suffering. Therefore, when people say: “God sent the disease,” this is a lie, blasphemy. God does not send diseases.

They exist in the world because the world lies in evil.

–It is difficult for a person to understand all this, especially when he finds himself in trouble...

– We don’t understand many things in life, relying on God. But if we know that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), we should not be afraid. And we don’t just know from books, but we understand through our experience of living according to the Gospel, then we may not understand God, at some point we may not even hear Him, but we can trust Him and not be afraid.

Because if God is love, even something happening to us at the moment seems completely strange and inexplicable, we can understand and trust God, know that with Him there can be no catastrophe.

Let us remember how the apostles, seeing that they were drowning in a boat during a storm, and thinking that Christ was sleeping, were horrified that everything was already over and now they would drown, and no one would save them. Christ said to them: “Why are you so fearful, you of little faith!” (Matthew 8:26) And - stopped the storm.

The same thing that happens to the apostles happens to us. It seems to us that God does not care about us. But in fact, we must follow the path of trust in God to the end, if we know that He is love.

- But still, if you take our daily life. I would like to understand where His plan for us is, what it is. A person stubbornly applies to a university and is accepted the fifth time. Or maybe I should have stopped and chosen a different profession? Or do childless spouses undergo treatment, spend a lot of effort to become parents, and maybe, according to God’s plan, they don’t need to do this? And sometimes, after years of treatment for childlessness, spouses suddenly give birth to triplets...

– It seems to me that God may have many plans for a person. A person can choose different life paths, and this does not mean that he violates the will of God or lives according to it. Because the will of God can be for different things for one particular person, and at different periods of his life. And sometimes it is God’s will for a person to go astray and through failure to learn some important things for himself.

The will of God is educational. It is not a test for the Unified State Exam, where you need to fill in the required box with a tick: if you fill it out, you find out, if you don’t fill it out, you made a mistake, and then your whole life is going wrong. Not true. The will of God happens to us constantly, as a kind of movement of us in this life on the path to God, along which we wander, fall, are mistaken, go in the wrong direction, and enter the clear path.

And the whole path of our life is God’s amazing upbringing of us. This does not mean that if I entered somewhere or did not enter, this is God’s will for me forever or the absence thereof. There is no need to be afraid of this, that's all. Because the will of God is a manifestation of God’s love for us, for our lives, this is the path to salvation. And not the path of entering or not entering the institute...

You need to trust God and stop being afraid of God’s will, because it seems to a person that God’s will is such an unpleasant, unbearable thing, when you have to forget about everything, give up everything, break yourself completely, reshape yourself and, above all, lose your freedom.

And a person really wants to be free. And so it seems to him that if God’s will, then this is just deprivation of freedom, such torment, an incredible feat.

But in fact, the will of God is freedom, because the word “will” is a synonym for the word “freedom”. And when a person truly understands this, he will not be afraid of anything.

priest Mikhail Shpolyansky

It must be said unequivocally: the will of God is the only final criterion of good and evil in this world. The commandments of God are not absolute, the commandments of God are in a certain sense statistical. So, in the overwhelming majority of cases, in millions, billions of cases to one, killing from the point of view of Christianity is unacceptable, but this does not mean that one should never kill. We know that our holy leaders, the noble princes Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, acquired the Kingdom of Heaven, despite the fact that their swords were stained with the blood of many enemies of the faith and the Fatherland. If they had mechanically adhered to the letter of the Law, Rus' would still have been an ulus of Genghis Khan’s or Batu’s empire, and Orthodoxy on our land would most likely have been destroyed. It is also known that Venerable Sergius Radonezh blessed the Battle of Kulikovo and even sent two schema-monks to the army.

These are the most striking and obvious examples, but one can say about almost any commandment of God that there are cases when it is God’s will to break this commandment in this particular situation. Here is the commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” that is, do not lie. Lying is a dangerous sin precisely because it is somehow little noticeable and little perceptible, especially in the form of deceit: to keep something silent, to distort something, so that it is beneficial either for oneself or for someone else. We don’t even notice this deceit, it passes by our consciousness, we don’t even see that it is a lie. But this is exactly what terrible word The devil is named in the only prayer given by the Lord Himself to the disciples, “Our Father.” The Savior calls the devil evil. Therefore, every time we deceive, we seem to identify ourselves with an unclean spirit, with the spirit of darkness. Scary. So, you can’t lie, it’s scary. But let us remember the chapter with the remarkable title “about what should not lie” from the teachings of one of the pillars of Christian asceticism. It says, among other things, that sometimes you have to tell a lie not for the sake of self-interest, but out of love, out of compassion. But, it is true, the saint makes such a wonderful reservation (remember that this reservation was made in the 4th century after the Nativity of Christ for Palestinian monks): “he should not do this often, but only in exceptional cases, once in many years.” This is the measure of the saints.

Thus, we see that the two-thousand-year experience of the Church, the experience of life in Christ, places the final criterion of good and evil not on the letter of the law, but on the fulfillment of the will of God (“the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” -). And if there is the will of God to take the sword and go to defend your people, your loved ones, then fulfilling this will of God is not sin, but righteousness.
And so the question arises with all its severity: “How to know the will of God?”

Of course, knowing the will of God is a matter of all life and no brief rules it cannot be exhausted. Perhaps, Metropolitan of Tobolsk illuminated this topic most fully among the holy fathers. He wrote a wonderful book, “Or on the conformity of the human will with the Divine will.” "Iliotropion" means sunflower. That is, this is a plant that, turning its head behind the sun, constantly strives for light. Saint John gave this poetic title to his book about knowledge of the will of God. Although it was written more than a century ago, it is nevertheless surprising modern book, both in language and in spirit. It is interesting, understandable and close to modern people. The advice of the wise saint is quite applicable in conditions of life that have radically changed compared to recent times. The task of retelling “” is not set here - this book must be read in its entirety. We will try to offer only the most general scheme solution of this most important issue for the salvation of the soul.

Let's consider this example: here in front of us is a sheet of paper on which a certain dot has been placed invisibly. Can we immediately, without any information, by “pointing a finger,” so to speak, determine (essentially guess) the location of this point? Naturally - no. However, if we draw several visible points in a circle around this invisible point, then, based on them, we can with a high probability determine the desired point - the center of the circle.
Are there such “visible points” in our lives with the help of which we could know the will of God? Eat. What are these dots? These are certain methods of turning to God, to the experience of the Church and to our soul on the path of man’s knowledge of the will of God. But each of these techniques is not self-sufficient. That's when there are several of these techniques, when they are combined and taken into account in to the extent necessary, only then we are with our hearts! - we can know what the Lord actually expects from us.

So, the first “point”, the first criterion- this, of course, is Holy Scripture, directly the Word of God. Based on the Holy Scriptures, we can quite clearly imagine the boundaries of God’s will, that is, what is acceptable for us and what is completely unacceptable. There is a commandment of God: “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (). Love is the final criterion. From here we conclude: if something is done out of hatred, then it automatically falls outside the bounds of the possibility of God’s will.

What are the difficulties along this path? Paradoxically, what makes divinely inspired Scripture a truly Great Book is its universality. A reverse side universality is the impossibility of unambiguously interpreting Scripture in each specific everyday case outside the colossal spiritual experience of life in Christ. And this, sorry, is not said about us... But, nevertheless, there is a point...

Next criterion- Sacred Tradition. This is an implementation experience Holy Scripture in time. This is the experience of the holy fathers, this is the experience of the Church, which for 2000 years has been searching for the answer to the question of what it means to live, fulfilling the will of God. This experience is enormous, priceless and practically provides answers to all life’s questions. But there are problems here too. Here the difficulty is the opposite - discreteness of experience. Indeed, precisely because this experience is so vast, it includes many different options for solving spiritual and everyday problems. Apply it to specific situations almost impossible without the grace-filled gift of prudence - again in modern life exceptionally rare.

Some specific temptations are also associated with the book teachings of the holy fathers and elders. The fact is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the advice of elders refers to to a specific person in the specific circumstances of his life and may change as these circumstances change. We talked about the fact that God's providence for the salvation of man can be different. And why? Because, as a rule, a person does not follow the direct path - the path of perfection - due to his weakness (laziness?). Today he did not do what he was supposed to do. What can he do? Die? No! In this case, the Lord provides for him some other, perhaps more thorny, long, but equally absolute path of salvation. If he has sinned, and violation of God’s will is always a voluntary or involuntary sin, then this path of salvation necessarily lies through repentance. For example, today the elder says: “You should do this and that.” And the person avoids fulfilling the spiritual order. Then he again comes to the elder for advice. And then the elder, if he sees repentance in him, says what he should do in the new situation. Says perhaps the opposite of the previous word. After all, the person did not follow the previous advice, he acted in his own way, and this radically changed the situation and created new - primarily spiritual - circumstances. Thus, we see that the individuality of the advice of the elders in specific cases of life is an objective obstacle to the fact that one can simply say: “Read the advice of the elders, follow them - and you will live according to the will of God.” But this is the point...

The third criterion is the voice of God in a person's heart. What is this? Conscience. The Apostle Paul said surprisingly and comfortingly that “when the pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are a law unto themselves, they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience testifies... " (). In a sense, we can say that conscience is also the image of God in man. And although the “image of God” is a complex concept, one of its manifestations is the voice of conscience. Thus, the voice of conscience can to a certain extent be identified with the voice of God in a person’s heart, revealing to him the will of the Lord. So, it is very important for those who want to live according to the will of God to be honest and sober in hearing the voice of their conscience (the question is how capable we are of this).

Another criterion, the fourth (of course, not diminished in importance, because all points in the circle are equal) is prayer. A completely natural and obvious way for a believer to know the will of God. I'll tell you an example from my life. There was a difficult period for her: there were so many problems concentrated, so much thinking - it seemed that life had reached a dead end. There is some kind of endless labyrinth of roads ahead, where to step, which way to go - it’s completely unclear. And then my confessor said to me: “Why are you wise? Pray every evening. There is no need for any extra effort - say a prayer every evening: “Lord, show me the path, and I will go there.” Every time before going to bed, say this to bow to the ground“The Lord will definitely answer.” So I prayed for two weeks, and then an extremely unlikely event happened in the everyday sense, which resolved all my problems and determined later life. The Lord answered...

The fifth criterion is the blessing of the confessor. Happy is the one whom the Lord allows to receive the blessing of the elder. Unfortunately, in our time - “the elders are taken away from the world” - this is an exceptional rarity. It’s good if you have the opportunity to receive the blessing of your confessor, but this is also not so easy, not everyone now has a confessor. But even in the first centuries of Christianity, when people were rich in spiritual gifts, the holy fathers said: “Pray to God to send you a person who will guide you spiritually.” That is, even then, finding a confessor was a definite problem, and then it was necessary to especially beg for a spiritual leader. If there is neither an elder nor a confessor, then you can receive a blessing from a priest. But nowadays, time spiritual impoverishment, you need to be quite sober. You cannot follow the principle mechanically: everything that a priest says is necessarily from God. It is naive to assume that all priests can be confessors. The Apostle says: “Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are everyone miracle workers? Does everyone have gifts of healing?” (). One should not assume that the charisma of the priesthood in itself is automatically the charisma of prophecy and clairvoyance. Here you must always be careful and look for such a spiritual leader, communication with whom would bring obvious benefits to the soul.

The next criterion is advice from spiritually experienced people. This is the experience of the life of a pious person and this is our ability to learn from a good (and maybe negative - also experience) example. Remember how in the movie “The Shield and the Sword” someone said: “Only fools learn from their own experience, smart people learn from the experience of others.” The ability to perceive the experience of pious people, communication with whom the Lord has given us, the ability to listen to their advice, find in them what is necessary for oneself and rationally use it - also a way of knowing the will of God.

There is also a very important criterion for determining the will of God. The criterion that the holy fathers talk about. So, the monk writes about this in his famous “Ladder”: that which is from God pacifies the human soul, that which is against God confuses the soul and brings it into a restless state. When the result of our activity is the acquisition of peace in the soul about the Lord - not laziness and drowsiness, but a special state of active and bright peace - then this is also an indicator of the correctness of the chosen path.

The eighth criterion is the ability to feel the circumstances of life; perceive and soberly evaluate what is happening around us. After all, nothing happens for nothing. A hair from a person’s head will not fall without the will of the Almighty; a drop of water will not roll down, the twig will not break; no one will come up and insult us, and will not kiss us, if this was not allowed by the Lord for some kind of admonition of us. This is how God creates the circumstances of life, but our freedom is in no way limited by this: the choice of behavior in all circumstances is always ours (“... the will of man that chooses...”). We can say that living according to God's will is our natural response to circumstances created by God. Of course, “naturalness” must be Christian. If the circumstances of life develop, for example, in such a way that in order to provide for the family it seems necessary to steal, then, of course, this cannot be the will of God, for this contradicts the commandments of God.

And another most important criterion, without which nothing else can exist - patience: “... with your patience save your souls” (). Everything is received by the one who knows how to wait, who knows how to entrust to God the solution to his problem, who knows how to give the Lord the opportunity to Himself create what He has provided for us. There is no need to impose your will on God. Of course, sometimes it happens that you need to decide on something in an instant, do something in one second, accomplish something, respond. But this, again, is some kind of special providence of God, and even in these circumstances there will definitely be some kind of clue. In most cases, the most optimal way is to give the Lord the opportunity to reveal His will in our lives through circumstances so obvious that there is no escape from it. Pray and wait, being, as long as possible, in the state in which the Lord has placed you, and the Lord will show you His will for the future of life. In practice, this means not to rush into making responsible decisions (for example, Fr. I.K. advises newlyweds to “see the four seasons of the year” in the state of the bride and groom) and not to change their everyday position without a clear need: “Everyone remain in the rank in which whom he is called to" ().

So, we have outlined those criteria, “points” - Holy Scripture and Tradition, conscience, prayer, blessing and spiritual advice, a peaceful state of soul, sensitive attitude to the circumstances of life, patience - which give us the opportunity to know God’s providence for our salvation. And here a completely different, paradoxical question arises: “Are we aware of it - why do we need to know the will of God?” I remember the words of an experienced priest, the fraternal confessor of one of oldest monasteries Rus': “It’s scary to know the will of God.” And there is a deep meaning in this, which is somehow frivolously missed in conversations about knowing the will of God. It is indeed scary to know the will of God, for this knowledge is a colossal responsibility. Remember the words of the Gospel: “That servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times; but whoever did not know and did something worthy of punishment will receive less punishment. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, from him more will be demanded” (). Imagine: coming to the Court of God and hearing: “You knew! It was revealed to you what I expected from you - and you deliberately did the opposite!” - that’s one thing, but to come and humbly pray: “Lord, I’m so unreasonable, I don’t understand anything. I tried as best I could to do good, but things didn’t work out right.” What can we take from this! Of course, he did not deserve to be with Christ - but still, “there will be fewer beats.”

I often hear: “Father, how to live according to the will of God?” They ask, but they don’t want to live according to His will. This is why it is scary to know the will of God - because then you need to live according to it, and this is often not at all what we want. From a truly gracious elder, Fr. , I heard such sad words: “They are trading my blessings! Everyone asks me: “What should I do?” Everyone says they live by my blessings, but almost no one does what I tell them.” This is scary.

It turns out that “to know the will of God” and “to live according to the will of God” are not at all the same thing. It is possible to know the will of God - she has left us with a great experience of such knowledge. But to live according to the will of God is personal feat. And a frivolous attitude is unacceptable here. Unfortunately, there is very little understanding of this. Wailings are heard from all sides: “Give it to us!” Show us! Tell us how to act according to God’s will?” And when you say: “God will bless you to do such and such,” they still act in their own way. So it turns out - “Tell me the will of God, but I will live the way I want.”

But, my friend, the moment will come when God’s justice, burdened by our indolence in sins, will be forced to overcome God’s mercy, and we will have to answer for everything - both for indulging passions and for “playing with the will of God.” This issue must be taken very seriously. In essence, this is a matter of life and salvation. Whose will - the Savior or the tempter - do we choose every moment of our lives? Here you need to be reasonable, sober, and honest. You should not “play at knowing the will of God” by running around priests for advice until you hear from someone the “will of God” that pleases you. After all, in this way one’s self-will is subtly justified, and then there is no room for saving repentance. It’s better to say honestly: “Forgive me, Lord! Of course, Your will is holy and high, but due to my weakness I do not achieve this. Have mercy on me, a sinner! Grant me forgiveness for my weaknesses and grant me a path on which I would not perish, but could come to You!”

So, there is God’s providence for the salvation of every person, and there is the only value in this world - life according to the will of God. The Lord gives us the opportunity to understand the universal mystery - the will of the Creator to save His fallen creation. We just need to have a firm determination not to play at knowing the will of God, but to live according to it - this is the path to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about prudence - without it, knowledge of the will of God is impossible. And indeed - we talked about the fact that in specific life circumstances Only by spiritual reasoning can one correctly interpret both the truths of Holy Scripture, the experience of the holy fathers, and everyday collisions. Mechanical adherence to the letter of the law outside of spiritual reasoning - for example, giving away property for the sake of achieving perfection (without ripening the soul for achievement; in fact, outside of humility) - is a direct path either to spiritual delusion or to falling into despondency. But the spirit of reasoning is not a criterion, it is a gift. It is not “mastered” by consciousness (like, for example, the experience of the holy fathers) - it is sent down from above in response to our prayer and, like any gift of grace, rests only in a humble heart. Let us proceed from this - and enough is enough.
And again let us listen to the words of the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, from the day we heard about this, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of God in everything pleasing Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God...” ().

Maria Gorodova spoke with Bishop John of Belgorod

– Vladyka, let’s talk about what the will of God is. We pray “Our Father...” and, repeating after Christ, we say: “Thy will be done...” Every believer would like to measure his actions, his life with His will. The meaning of human life is to fulfill His will. But how to recognize it? It is clear that there is a general plan of God for the world and for us, there are commandments that the Lord gave us. But, on the other hand, every day a person faces a choice of what to do, the decision is not always obvious, so it is very important to understand what it is, the will of God, in relation to you?

– We live in a world where everyone relies only on themselves, moreover, we live in a world where a cult exists and is imposed strong people who crush everything, conquer everything, and are always successful. But if we look closely at this promoted image of a successful, strong person who meets all the standards of the time, we will see that behind all this there is emptiness, because no matter how strong, powerful and successful a person is, he can lose it all in one moment, everything will crumble if there is no God behind it. Jesus compared such people to a man who built his house on sand: “...everyone who hears... My words and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and he fell, and his fall was great.” And vice versa, the one who listens to His words and fulfills them will be like “a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-27).

God's will for man is that God wants no one to perish, but everyone to have eternal life; God's will for man is the salvation of man. And at the same time, it is love towards him, although often this love is not even clear to a person, because he has his own ideas about what this love should be. The will of God towards man is both God’s favor and gracious mercy towards him. Previously, in Rus' they used the following phrase: “God takes pity on him,” and this meant simultaneously both that God takes pity on a person, and that He pities a person by His participation in his fate, by His visit to him.

The will of God is always good, and this is what we often forget when we grumble about what is sent to us.

– It is difficult not to grumble when it is illness or sorrow. Although here you can remember the answer of the old woman crying at the temple. When the priest asked her: “What is she crying about?” - she said: “God probably completely forgot me: this year I was not sick, and no sorrows happened to me.”

– Grief and suffering cleanse a person. Through sorrow a person becomes stronger, he begins to perceive differently the world and yourself in it. This is also a manifestation of the will of God when the Lord grants something to a person. And even though at first this may not be understood by a person, but after going through such trials and being cleansed, a person can perceive others differently, become different.

We always have a problem - coordinating our will with the will of the Lord. God manifests His will independently of ours; no one can interfere with its fulfillment. I will say it more harshly: man, as a creation, cannot even enter this sphere, he cannot intrude there. On the other hand, man is the creation of God, and, naturally, he depends on his Creator, and in a certain way participates in His plan, carries it out. Moreover, as God’s beloved creation, he possesses such a gift from God as free will. And very often a clash arises in a person between the will of the Lord and his own will, while even the freedom of choice given to him by God is understood in his own way. Free will is, first of all, will free from the burden of sin. And a person perceives this gift most often in the sense: I do what I want.

– So it turns out that free will is a gift from God, and we are using it incorrectly?

– Of course, because it is given to man to know the truth. Our freedom, free will is always a choice. For holy people it is a choice between lesser and greater good, for ordinary person is a choice between sin and virtue. But even people who are in sin are also not deprived of this gift - free will, they also have a choice - this is a choice between a greater sin and a lesser one.

– Vladyka, I would like you to stop at the fact that man cannot interfere with the fulfillment of God’s will. It seems to me that a lack of understanding of this often leads to the fact that we resist the inevitable just because it is inconvenient, unpleasant, etc.

– There is the Book of the Prophet Jonah in the Bible, it takes up a little more than a page – read it. It tells how to Jonah “the word of the Lord came” to rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it, because his atrocities had reached God (Jon. 1:1). The Lord, by virtue of His mercy, desired the salvation of these people, “more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know how to distinguish right hand from the left” (Jon. 4:11). But Jonah is trying to avoid fulfilling the will of God, he does not want to go and preach, he is not ready to be a prophet. By the way, many people mistakenly believe that prophets are predictors of the future; in fact, prophets are those who proclaim the will of God. So, Jonah, despite the fact that he was called by God to fulfill His will, tries in every possible way to avoid this - he even boards a ship that was heading in the other direction, as it is said, to “flee ... from the presence of the Lord” (Jon. 1.3 ). When we read the book, we understand the character of Jonah, it’s all similar to us, to our actions, although it happened in the 700s BC. Jonah did not manage to evade fulfilling the will of the Lord; he finally came to Nineveh, preached there, and the Ninevites believed in God and repented. God's will for the salvation of Nineveh was fulfilled.

– That is, you cannot evade fulfilling God’s will, otherwise the Lord will punish you?

- Well, this is not a punishment. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16), says Jesus. It’s just that a person who goes against the will of God, like King Saul, finds himself outside the grace of God, he begins to live outside of it. I would like to give an example from the life of St. Innocent, the first bishop of Kamchatka, Aleutian and Kuril. In 1823, Bishop Mikhail of Irkutsk received a decree Holy Synod, which ordered that a priest be sent to the Russian-American Company colony on the island of Unalaska, among the Aleuts. The lot fell on one priest, who, citing the illness of his wife, refused. But twenty-six-year-old Father John, the future saint (in the world he was Ivan Popov), suddenly, feeling a calling within himself, he himself asked to go to this remote corner Russian Empire. And together with his wife and a one-year-old child on the ship "Constantine", having passed a lot of hardships and dangers, he reached the Aleutian ridge. Subsequently, he will translate the Catechism, prayers, the Gospel, the Acts of the Holy Apostles for the Aleuts and write the famous book in the Aleut-Lisev language: “Indicating the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.” This book will go through dozens of editions and will be translated into many languages. The children of Saint Innocent will graduate from the St. Petersburg Academy, and during his lifetime he himself will be called the Apostle of America and Siberia. But the fate of the priest, who evaded the lot that fell to him, turned out differently: he divorced his mother, and there were canonical violations, and ended his life as a soldier.

– So, a person who fulfills the will of God also receives relief?

– I would not pose the question in this way, because in this case there is a moment: “You - to me, I - to you.” The point here is about calling: if a person feels a calling within himself, he will go to the end, he will begin to fulfill this calling, no matter what he is. Because it is an internal motivating relationship between the creation and Its Creator. How to explain this when a person feels called? God called, and man cannot help but go. Although it requires strength from him. After all, every time a person begins to do the will of God, he enters into an invisible battle.

– Vladyka, explain that this is “invisible warfare”?

– In order for even unchurched people to understand what this is, let’s remember how difficult it is sometimes to get up in the morning and go to church for service if you have firmly decided to do this in the evening. A lot of obstacles of various kinds arise, which - and a believer will immediately understand this - are not just of an everyday nature. This is something that has to do with the spiritual world - after all, you are going to go to God, and not to the theater, for example. All these are obstacles, no matter in what form they appear, against our good desire to become closer to God. This example makes it clear what “spiritual warfare” is. And we must understand that everyone who does the will of God condemns himself to some kind of spiritual feat. But a person must perform it, look, the word “feat” has the same root as the word “movement,” and a person must move spiritually.

– But how to recognize the will of God? What are the signs that can be interpreted as a manifestation of the Lord's will for you?

– This happens in different ways: sometimes these are life circumstances, sometimes something comes to us during prayer, sometimes in a dream or even through friends. But it will always be through the word. Everything goes through the word: a person can hear one phrase, and it will change his whole life, as it happened with the not very churched person described in the book “ Candid stories wanderer to his spiritual father." Having entered the temple, he heard the words read from the apostolic epistle: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) - and suddenly this phrase became defining for him - it determined his entire future life. He wanted to know what it means to pray unceasingly. It happens that a person does not even understand what is happening to him, but he is simply ready to hear the will of God and fulfill it.

– When Bishop Vasily (Rodzianko) was asked about the coincidences that sometimes lead us through life, he answered: “As soon as I stop praying, the coincidences stop.” Apparently, he had these signs in mind?

– Probably, although for a person who is in search of the will of God, there is a danger of falling into false mysticism, when in everything that happens to him, he begins to look for some sign of God. Contacting a confessor protects a person from this.

– Master, is recognizing the will of God a dialogue with God?

– Of course, but prayer is also a dialogue, and calling, which we talked about today, comes from the word “call”: God calls. After all, when we turn to God, we hear an answer, and this answer is internal: a state arises in a person when he feels the ability and strength to solve some problems. All these are states of internal dialogue that a person conducts with the Creator.

– Vladyka, how to cultivate in yourself this ability to hear the will of God?

– Only one thing: first the child learns to hear and obey his parents, then this leads to obedience, first to the parents. Then he goes to the temple and learns to listen there. After all, what is obedience? This is the ability to listen. And then comes the execution. And here it is very important to dwell on the motives of obedience, on the motives of fulfilling His will. So, a person who does the will of God, who listens to God, must love Him and trust Him in everything.

– Yes, these are completely different motives: not out of fear, but out of love. A person, loving God, trusts Him and relies on Him in everything. Vladyka, what does it mean to “rely on the will of God”? Do nothing? Not trying to change the course of events?

– To rely on the will of God means to show both the highest love and the highest courage. Because you don’t distance yourself from life, you don’t switch off from it, you don’t shirk responsibility. On the contrary, you show the highest responsibility - to be a conductor of the will of God, whatever it may be.

There is such a prayer written by St. Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow - it was his daily prayer. Read her words carefully.

Daily prayer of St. Philaret (Drozdov)

Lord, I don’t know what to ask of You? You alone know what I need. You love me more than I can love You. Father, give to Your servant what I myself cannot ask for. I do not dare to ask for either a cross or consolation, I only appear before You, my heart is open; You see needs that I don’t know. See and create according to Your mercy; strike and heal, overthrow and raise me! I am in awe and silent before Your holy will and Your destinies, incomprehensible to me. I offer myself as a sacrifice to You; teach me to pray. Pray within me yourself.

Maximilian Voloshin

Readiness

Didn’t I choose the hour of birth myself?

Age and kingdom, region and people,

To go through torment and baptism

Conscience, fire and waters?

To the apocalyptic beast

Thrown into the gaping maw,

Fallen deeper than it is possible to fall,

In the grinding and stench - I believe!

I believe in the correctness of the supreme powers,

Unchained the ancient elements,

And from the depths of charred Russia

I say: “You’re right to judge that way!”

It needs to be diamond hardened

To calcinate the entire thickness of existence,

If there is not enough wood in the smelting furnace,

Lord, this is my flesh!

Many people shout that religion is bad, that there is no God, and that miracles do not happen. When everything is fine with them, these people have no faith in God and they do not follow the rules that He has established. They say that why on earth should I believe in someone whom I have not even seen, there is no one there, and no one will punish me for my sinful actions. But when people find themselves in a difficult situation, be it a serious illness, a terrible disaster, or a strong relationship with others, they often begin to cry out to God, beginning to believe that there is someone, someone who can help. A person immediately begins to admit his many mistakes, but when everything is good, people do not want to believe in God and follow the commandments. One person once said: “God thinks about us all the time, but people remember Him only when it’s hard for them”. A parable that makes you think about who we are:

Parable "Who are you?"

At the American Kennedy Airport, a journalist conducted a survey on the topic:

“What do you think is the most disgusting thing in the world?”

People answered differently: war, poverty, betrayal, illness.

At this time, the Zen monk Sung San was in the hall. The journalist, seeing the Buddhist robe, asked the monk a question. And the monk asked a counter question:

- Who you are?

- I, John Smith.

- No, it's a name, but who are you?

- I am a television reporter for such and such a company.

- No. This is a profession, but who are you?

- I'm human, after all!

- No, it's yours biological species, but who are you?

The reporter finally understood what the monk meant and froze with open mouth, because he couldn’t say anything.

The monk remarked:

- This is the most disgusting thing in the world - not knowing who you are.

Someone says that religion is for the weak, that it is one of the ways to shift responsibility for your life from yourself to God. But the presence of God, on the contrary, means the presence of some meaning in our lives, God’s plan, and not just an empty life that arose from chaos and ends at death. Adhering to an atheistic outlook on life, when there is no true faith in God, many people behave as they please, not following the commandments, but only indulging one’s feelings and desires, trying at any cost to make oneself happy, without taking into account the interests of other people. They say that you only live once, which means you can drink, party, have fun, rob, cheat, and you don’t have to follow moral and ethical standards. If you are not caught, you are not a thief, they say, but what is the meaning of such a life, how can one live this way? A person, adhering to such a concept, at one moment can simply commit suicide, when he feels bad, why suffer - he will say, why all these problems, this world is cruel, why suffer in it.

Someone may object and say why do I need faith in God, why God and religion, I can live correctly by adhering to moral behavior and without religion. But knowing the path and walking along it are not the same thing; knowing what you need to adhere to in life does not mean having the strength to follow it. Undoubtedly, there are people who lack true faith in God, but they adhere morally ethical standards in their behavior, but there are people who believe in God, and their behavior cannot be called correct. Religion is one of the sources of strength - being and communicating with those people who stand on the path of spiritual development, it is the guardianship of older people who can help with advice and support, it regulates people's lives, imposing certain restrictions on it. But this is not a restriction of freedom, no, if a person constantly indulges his feelings and desires, he falls into slavery, saying that I live as I want, that I must try everything in this life. Such people do only what their feelings and desires tell them, freedom lies in the ability to refuse what you want, freedom means having a choice, but when there is no strength to do otherwise, there is no freedom.

Victory over yourself. From the moment he becomes able to control his feelings and desires, he takes fate into his own hands. One person once said, “Indulging in the senses is like drinking salt water: the more we do it, the more our desires and thirst grow,” as we can see in our own lives. Of course, you don’t need to drive yourself into a life full of hardships, I’m talking about the golden mean, you don’t need to rush to extremes, I just encourage you to live a measured life. It is necessary to make vows to ourselves, to perform austerities that would give us strength.

For example, if children are allowed everything and constantly indulged, they will grow up selfish and weak, having become accustomed to the fact that their parents will always take care of them. Parents, when they invest everything in their children, thinking that they will not need anything, simply poison the lives of both themselves and their children. This is what happens now in modern society, people are accustomed to only receiving, not giving.

“and use things, but, unfortunately, many are accustomed to loving things and using people” Radhanath Swami

No matter how much a person satisfies his material needs, he always doesn’t have enough, achieved one thing, then you want more and more, and there is no end to these desires, you need to fight greed and become more modest, ultimately becoming satisfied.

"The highest wealth is the absence of greed" Seneca

Parable “Rich or Rich?”

Diogenes was asked about a rich man, whether he was rich.

“I don’t know,” answered Diogenes. “I only know that he has a lot of money.”

- So he is rich!

“Being rich and having a lot of money are not the same thing,” answered Diogenes. – Only those who are completely satisfied with what they have are truly rich. The one who tries to have Furthermore who has is poorer than the one who has nothing, but is at the same time satisfied with his lot.

Religion expands the scope of knowledge of the world, for me, true faith in God is not some kind of blind faith in the supernatural, but what is based on facts from your life and the lives of other people. If there is astrology that can tell us about our destiny, then there are laws that someone created . Those horoscopes that are talked about on television and published in newspapers every day only undermine the authority of true astrology. It's about about those astrologers who are able not only to predict, but also to see your destiny, and not about those charlatans who want to make extra money by deceiving people. For example, Rami Blekt, Ruslan Narushevich, Sanjay Rath, K.N. The Raos are good astrologers, if you want to determine the truth of astrology, contact these people. But most people don’t need the truth, it’s hard for people to admit that they are wrong, sometimes I even know within myself that I’m wrong, but sometimes it’s very, very difficult to say it out loud. And if we are talking about a whole worldview, when a person has long years there was one understanding of things, and suddenly admitting that it was wrong is extremely difficult; the easiest thing is to simply reassure yourself with the thoughts that you are right.

How to explain treatment precious stones, twigs or tree bark of a wide variety of diseases, both mild and severe, by Ayurvedic doctors, the same Oleg Torsunov, or his determination of a person’s character and diseases by the phalanges of the fingers, by the voice or by the face. Many people don’t understand how it is, who this Oleg Torsunov is, they type “Oleg Torsunov, such and such treatment methods” into the Internet, read it and don’t believe what is written, this cannot be. And the next step is to type into the Internet “Oleg Torsunov is a charlatan, a sectarian, etc.”, find several messages of similar content, and reassure themselves with the words “Well, the charlatan said, it’s all nonsense,” and simply do not pay attention to the remaining thousands of cases of recovery . People don’t want to study many things, what the soul is, what chakras, astrology is a pseudoscience, of course, there are plenty of storytellers, but there is no need to equate everyone to the same tune. There are many liars in our time, many are trying to earn money through some teachings, pursuing only their own selfish goals, and all because there are a lot of gullible people, there is only blind faith all around. Just because something is unclear doesn't mean it's wrong, or just because we don't know something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

We must try to verify the acquired knowledge, and not, as usually happens, they hear something and rumors begin to circulate. Whether it's true or not, you can't tell. Check, check, check, and don’t blindly trust everything; faith in the truth of knowledge must be tested in practice, not theory. I have often been convinced that when, according to logic, there should be one thing at a time, but in reality in life it happens differently, logical reasoning often fails us. But only, and think that we need to test, for example, drugs on ourselves, no, someday we should operate on the experience of other people, and, starting from it, draw conclusions, going through something ourselves.

When there is God, when there is true faith in God, there is a meaning in life, not the goals in life that people set for themselves, but precisely the meaning of existence. A person is defined by his behavior in society, that is, not by the potential he has, but by the extent to which he demonstrates it.

“Anyone who does not ask questions about the creator of this world, about its structure, about his place in the world and purpose, is not worthy to be called a man.” Bhaktivinoda Thakura

The will of God and the will of God for everything

Parable "Faith and Unbelief"

The only person who survived the shipwreck was washed up on a small uninhabited island.

He prayed feverishly for God to save him. Every day he scanned the horizon for approaching help. Completely exhausted, he decided to build a small hut from floating logs to protect himself from the elements and preserve his possessions. But one day, returning home after a hike in search of food, he found his hut shrouded in flames, the smoke rising to the sky. The worst thing was that everything was lost. He was overcome with grief and anger.

“God, how could you do this to me!” he cried, sobbing.

Early the next morning he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the shore. The ship came to save him.

- How did you know that I was here? - the tired man asked his rescuers.

“We saw your smoke signal,” they replied.

God is the one who is just, which means that there is some meaning in what is happening, that everything that happens is not accidental. The will of God is, that’s true, but there is also freedom of choice, our freedom of choice, we need to separate these things, and not pass off our wrong behavior as the will of God. If a crime is committed, this does not mean that you need to be inactive and think that God sees everything and does not interfere, allowing this crime - that is His will, no, decisive action is needed, God does not call for indifference to the troubles of other people.

Many people, when everything is good, say that “Everything is God’s will,” but when something bad happens to them, which they could not avoid, for example, it comes from the Devil. But this means that God is not omnipotent, maybe he didn’t see enough, or maybe the Devil is higher than God, no, there is some meaning in the event that happened, and it needs to be understood. Some might say this is ingratiation deep meaning where it actually does not exist, others simply continue to say “Everything is the will of God,” without trying to understand why this is the will of God, and still others become completely disappointed in God, think that He seemed to have fallen asleep there, and stop Believe him.

Such people are in the dark, the first ones begin to blame it on the injustice of this world, to blame everyone around for what happened - the government is bad, the relatives are bad, this is just some kind of law of meanness, etc. The latter simply plunge into their sins, begin to engage in self-torture, so I am fallen - just words, but in reality nothing, just an excuse for their own selfishness and powerlessness. Still others seemed to be exploiting God, as often happens in family relationships, people take advantage of each other, but when someone lacks something, like a difficult period in a relationship, you immediately don’t love me, you’re such a bastard, I’ve lost faith in you, etc. That’s it, there is no God, if He exists, He doesn’t give a damn about me, or if He existed, He wouldn’t allow this.

But truefaith in God means trusting Him, but at the same time, don’t let go of your life, don’t shift responsibility onto someone else, no, we must admit that what happened is fair, everything is God’s will, and by cultivating a grateful mood in ourselves, we will gradually be able take even very heavy ones life situations. If we do not accept what is happening, then we get angry, angry, offended by people, by events, we try to change everyone around us, and only in in rare cases We are thinking of starting with ourselves. If there is no God, then there is no higher justice, I want - I create lawlessness, I deceive, everyone aims to make themselves happy. It’s very difficult to change your mind-set, if they treated you badly, it means that you will take revenge, hate these people. Undoubtedly, the offender must be punished if he did wrong, the question is how exactly, if we respond to evil with evil, then we are no better. A person needs to be punished not to take out his anger on him, but so that the person repents and understands his wrong behavior .

“If we apply the principle: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” then most of the world will remain blind and toothless" Mahatma Gandhi

Gratitude, desire, as well as the ability to understand the essence of what is happening, the ability to soberly assess situations and draw conclusions - this is what gives rise to humility, peace and the desire to correct oneself bad traits character. Often the wrong behavior of others is a consequence of our wrong behavior, but there are people who do not even want to think about it, they are blind and do not see how it provokes and incites anger in their hearts. People nag others, blame them for their problems, but they themselves don’t even want to hear that they are wrong - these people are in the shackles of their fate. Someone justifies their behavior by the fact that in this way it strengthens the character of those around them - yes, a person cannot be placed in one atmosphere of comfort, there must be some difficulties, a golden mean, but it is vile to pass off one’s wrong actions as good.

You told yourself “God will do everything” and immediately begin to act - this is what needs to be done, to atone for one’s sins in serving people, in better side, that's what we're talking about , see the bad character traits in yourself and fight them with all your might, develop true faith in God. Pray to God that He will give answers to the questions, I myself received the answers, as I wrote at the beginning of the article, they either opened in my heart, or I received them through other people, some signs. Some people probably think it’s just searching, concentrating on a specific question, maybe some logical thinking in the mind, but I see it in a different light. Answers come within a short time, which lead me to the correct understanding of things, and following them, both my life and the lives of other people became better and happier. One of the manifestations of God is the Supersoul, which is located in the heart of every living being, it is also the Voice of Conscience, and it is also called the Absolute Truth, God answers our prayers.

Parable "In the Heart"

They say that after God created the world, man showed extraordinary agility and immediately stepped beyond the limits of what was permitted.

This circumstance greatly troubled God. He called the seven archangels to a council and said: “Perhaps I made a mistake in creating man, now I will have no peace. People will transgress what is permitted, and then complain endlessly about their miserable lives. Where can I hide from them?

The archangels thought for a long time. One of them advised God to hide on the top of Everest. But God said, “Very soon the people will get there.”

Another archangel suggested hiding at the bottom of the ocean. Another advised to take refuge on the Moon. There were many more different proposals, but God rejected them all.

Finally, one of the archangels came up with an idea: “Hide in the heart of a person. No one will bother you there, and only a person with an open heart will find you.”

This proposal pleased God. He did just that.