The modern Christian is saved through sorrows and illnesses. There is no persecution of the church - there are no experienced confessors. God leads believers through suffering into the Kingdom of Heaven. Salvation for that person from whose mouth and heart no grumbling is heard on the way of the cross.
With patience and gratitude the believing soul goes to the heavenly abodes. “I believe, Lord, that You send sorrows to save me!” — true Christians meet difficulties on their life path with joy and hope.
What is murmur
One of the main obstacles on the path to the Kingdom of Heaven is a lack of understanding of God’s providence. People are always dissatisfied with something and want more and better. They do not understand why certain troubles happen to them and not to anyone else, for which sorrows and illnesses are sent. This state of soul, expressed by dissatisfaction and reproaches to God and people, is called grumbling in Orthodox asceticism and is considered one of the most dangerous sins.
Origin of the word
The word originated in the Proto-Slavic language (ropot-).
Its roots can be found among other peoples:
- Ukr. - murmur, murmur.
- Bolg. - murmur.
- Slovenian - ropot, ropotati.
- Czech — reptat.
- Slovak — reptat.
- Polish — reptac.
It came into Russian speech from the Old Church Slavonic language. In patristic traditions and church usage this word has been preserved and is found especially often.
Meaning of the concept
Murmuring against God in Orthodoxy is one of the manifestations of pride and despondency, which is characteristic of material people or people of little faith. Its source is internal resistance to the will of God. Outwardly, this manifests itself in the form of dissatisfaction, expressed not directly or openly, but in indirect form - in quiet, muffled speech. The general meaning of the word is an unclear (soft) noise or sounds.
Now dissatisfaction has almost become the status of modern man. From all sides he is taught that he should be dissatisfied with his country, ecology, financial situation, figure, and so on. On the streets and on public transport, you can only hear someone being scolded (as a rule, politicians get the worst of it). But anger has never made anyone better.
Murmur and sadness
Sadness is a feeling that arises as a result of the appearance of any unfavorable life circumstances, obstacles, illnesses - in a word, sorrows. Everyone is used to reacting to difficulties in their own way. A good Christian will go to God with his sadness, and He will help him cope with life’s adversities. He will not complain to others about failures or difficulties that have arisen. Moreover, he will not blame anyone for what happened to him - neither God nor people.
A person of little faith will spend all his mental and physical strength worrying about existing and non-existent sorrows. Verbal indignation is an external manifestation of despondency, sadness, and its consequence. It can be heard from the lips of weak-spirited people who do not have an internal moral core. Complaining, whining, cursing and reproaching are signs of an unbelieving soul. This is disagreement with what is happening, rejection of something.
At first, a person is dissatisfied with the weather, nature, neighbors, government, time, any situation. And then it comes to the point that he sends reproaches to the Heavenly Father: “How did you allow this to happen to me?” Or in other words, but just as grumblingly.
Voice of discontent
Paul's use of the word "murmur" (and the next verse's reference to Deuteronomy 32:5) refers to events that occurred in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. There we meet a group of experienced murmurers. What can we learn about grumbling from the forty years they spent in the wilderness?
We learn that murmur is dissatisfaction expressed out loud; it is the contempt of the heart falling from the tongue. These are the sounds we make when we become “longing” for something we don’t have and become restless (Num. 11:4; Ps. 106:14).
Moreover, the object of our passion does not have to be vicious; And indeed, often there is nothing wrong with him. For example, the Israelites sought pleasures that were completely harmless in themselves: food and water (Ex. 15:24; 16:2-3; 17:3), safe passage to the Promised Land (Num. 14:2-4 ), absence of troubles (Num. 16:41). But somehow these good desires turned into evil: they wanted to get all this before the deadlines set by God; they desired this more than God himself.
The same thing happens to us. We want to spend a quiet evening at home, but we get a call from a friend who needs help with his move. We want work that feels meaningful to us, but we get bogged down in endless papers and spreadsheets. Or, more importantly, we want the future to be the way we planned it, but we get something we didn’t want at all.
“It’s unfair,” says some voice inside us. “This is wrong,” says another. Desires turn into expectations, and expectations assert their rights. And instead of bringing our frustrations to God and allowing His Word to strengthen us, we allow unfulfilled desires to develop into dissatisfaction. We grumble.
Reasons for appearance
A significant role in the spread of despondency and discontent is played by the inculcation of the ideology of the primacy of material wealth. People's consciousness is instilled with an excessive desire for a high standard of living, without which they supposedly cannot consider themselves happy or accomplished. It has become customary to evaluate people by social status and material prosperity.
But this has never happened before in Rus', at least not in wide use. From the pages of Russian literature, many cheerful and resourceful “losers” smile warmly, who live and do not know grief. The concepts of happiness and joy have always been associated with spiritual success, with the ability to endure difficulties steadfastly and complacently, and not with the achievement of wealth.
It becomes obvious that the roots of this lie in the Orthodox faith. It doesn't matter whether a person is rich or poor. In any circumstances, you need to remain a Christian and give thanks to God for what you have. In the first case, do not become complacent and arrogant; in the second, do not lose heart.
The most common cause of dissatisfaction is not at all external unfavorable circumstances. A person with emptiness in his soul, who does not feel the meaning of life, cannot understand why he needs to endure all the difficulties and overcome them. And despondency settles inside him, resulting in dissatisfaction with everything around him.
The most dangerous habit is pity, grumbling and self-pity.
The most dangerous habit is pity, grumbling and self-pity.
The worst habit that all ever wounded people develop is feeling sorry for themselves. And if it were harmless, I would not spend a single line on this text. But this contagious epidemic is affecting so many. This needs to be dealt with.
Pity is a never-ending activity. Way down by high speed train. If before the moment of self-pity you have a chance of success, the curve of your possibilities stretches upward, then when you fall into pity, you can give up on all successful dreams.
And I know about this because I myself once did something similar on the sly.
But first things first.
5 reasons why self-pity and feelings of pity are bad
I don't know a worse habit . Judge for yourself - many people do not accept smoking and alcoholism. Vanity is clearly visible from afar and it is repulsive.
self pity
But self-pity sits quietly in the corner and doesn’t stick its nose out. And when you are left with yourself, she opens the doors wide with the words: “Here I am.” She is so pleasant, gentle, understands everything, it’s so good to be with her that no one else is needed.
But you need to drive her to the neck, with kicks.
I have identified 5 negative signs of self-pity . These are the brightest for me. If you dig around, you can find more, but these are enough to see the abomination of this feeling.
- Self-pity eats you from the inside.
Pity is not a creative concept at all. On the contrary, pity completely destroys all the good principles on which a person relies.
- Self-pity makes you lonely.
People deeply feel when you are busy with yourself. Essentially, pity is selfishness squared . Because you not only live for yourself, but you also think only about yourself, even next to others.
- Self-pity is unpleasant for others.
Even worse, self-pity is like a bad smell that comes from a person. Others may be nearby, but not for long. And even then, covering their noses. People avoid selfish people who feel sorry for themselves.
- Self-pity lowers self-esteem.
God created us beautifully. Each person is the greatest value in the entire Universe. After all, God the Father gave Jesus Christ for every person.
But man lost this sense of self-worth after the Fall .
And pity kindles more and more this fire of sadness, one’s own pain and despondency. And, among other things, it reduces respect for oneself as a creation of God, as a beloved son or daughter of God.
- Self-pity doesn't help.
It seems that this is already clear.
Self-pity doesn't help at all. This is the most useless activity in difficulties that you can think of.
What does God's Word say about self-pity?
It is amazing. But in the Bible there are practically no words with the root “regret”, and those that exist carry a completely different meaning than self-pity. Despite this, there is a word in the Word of God that very well depicts the essence of self-pity. This is a murmur.
Let's see what God's Word says about grumbling.
Hebrews 3:8 Do not harden your hearts, as in murmuring. 3:10 Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, “They continually err in heart; they have not known My ways.”
It is very interesting. Two conclusions can be drawn from this scripture :
- When a person grumbles, his heart constantly goes astray. He thinks that he is right , but in fact he is mistaken .
A scripture verse comes to mind:
There are ways that seem right to a man; but their end is the path to death. (Proverbs 14:12)
- Murmuring hardens the heart.
A person with a soft heart can serve others, can take care of people, love and help.
A person with a hard heart does not feel compassion for the pain of others. And he himself is not worthy of compassion.
And it is grumbling that leads a person to this position.
These are murmurers, not satisfied with anything, walking according to their own lusts (ungodly and lawless); their lips utter inflated words; (Jude 1:16)
These words are from the letter of the Apostle Jude.
The Word of God says that people who grumble are not happy with anything . And these people walk according to their own lusts. Only the way they want.
How to resist self-pity and feelings of pity?
I’ll say right away that this is not just a set of knowledge. This is the weapons room. Learn these principles with a willingness to apply them right away. This is a practical task. Treat him that way. Otherwise, there is no point in reading further.
- Thanksgiving.
...giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20)
Each of us can thank God for everything.
Do you have difficult relationships in your family? Be grateful that you have it.
You do not have money? Give thanks for the mind, arms, legs and strength that you can earn. And pray - God will give you a job.
Is your business not going well? Thank God for giving you your business, and pray for new niches, ideas, and opportunities.
And further. This passage clearly shows that we can always thank God . I repeat once again - always. That is, every day, in any circumstances.
- Know your purpose and act in it. Without being distracted by difficulties and difficulties.
Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of a man of understanding is knowledge of his way.
God entrusted each of us with his own plot, his own field for work, and his own destiny. (More about this
Why is it a sin
The Orthodox faith says that everything is in the providence of God. Heavenly Father cares for his creation. Without His will nothing happens at all. But a proud soul resists its Creator. She has her own idea of how best to live in this world. This results in ingratitude to God for His benefits and care.
The material world loads life with ever new benefits and pleasures, which are very difficult to keep up with. This instills in the soul dissatisfaction with oneself and one's life. “Why don’t I have everything that others have that are worse than me?” - an unspiritual person asks himself a question, completely mired in bodily concerns, forgetting about God and his true purpose.
Discontent destroys a Christian as a person, makes him a pitiful, eternally whining creature, incapable of any good deed. Yes, everyone has moments when tears well up in their eyes, sadness settles in their soul, and everything is seen in black colors. And if you don’t go with your sorrow to God, then you can start wasting complaints left and right. Constantly throwing out small portions of poison from the heart, over time a person wastes his mental and physical strength, destroying himself.
Grumbling against our good
However, grumbling is more than voicing discontent. This is also the voice of disbelief. We begin to grumble when our faith in God's good plans wavers. Unwilling to believe that God is turning this disappointment for our good, we look only at the painful present.
When the people of Israel buried the last of the desert generation, Moses revealed God's plan for all their misadventures in the wilderness: "[God] brought you through the great and terrible wilderness... to humble you and to test you, so that later he could do good to you" (Deut. 8). :15-16). What a sad remark about those desert graves. On every tombstone there were carved the words: “we murmured against our own good.”
God had already told them all this after the first instance of their murmuring. He gave them a choice: they could either “listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God” (Exodus 15:26 NIV) or follow the call of the rampant mob within them. Well, this story is familiar to us. They followed the crowd.
In the same way, our grumbling is caused by judgments about God, about ourselves and about the world that are completely inconsistent with reality. (Of course, it seems to us that these judgments are just real; this always happens when the voice of the serpent sounds.) We grumble because we listened carefully to someone else’s voice, and not to the voice of our Lord God, and began to repeat after him. Instead of crying out to God: “Help me believe in Your goodness!”, we grumble, throw out our feelings and let off steam, thereby saying: “God, Your ways are bad.”
How to deal with it
To take the path of correction, you need to realize that the highest wisdom of life lies in the unity of spirit, soul and body. It is impossible to live a successful, fulfilling life with only material wealth in abundance.
The main reason for any dissatisfaction is the lack of spiritual life, inner emptiness.
The first thing you need to do is to turn to God with all your heart and repent of the fact that you tried to live on your own and in your own way, which predetermined for yourself the path of finding yourself in spiritual darkness, hopelessness, cruel despair, despondency and indignation.
Graceful changes may not happen to the soul immediately. Any passion as a medicine should be counteracted by certain virtues.
It is necessary to learn these important Christian qualities:
- patience;
- humility;
- self-reproach;
- obedience;
- trust in God's Providence.
The cause of despondency is often not the difficult circumstances of life, but the way a person relates to them. If a Christian is internally relaxed, expects only “gifts” from life, and also experiences eternal dissatisfaction from the lack of comfort and prosperity, this paralyzes his will, exhausts him, and makes him prone to despondency.
The Holy Fathers say that the most important remedy for despondency is gratitude to God. Even if it is brought with some effort and coercion, but consciously. This will be an expression of faith, and without it no spiritual life is possible. In this regard, the priests also mention the determination to firmly endure all temptations along the path of life, doing this with patience and completely trusting in the Lord. And remembering that God’s mercy turns even the most severe trials into indescribable blessings.
