Today we are taught to believe in ourselves and our strengths. You need to be confident, make money, build a business. It's hard to argue with this. And when you ask: What about God? Do you believe in God? Answer: Where is he, God? Where is God when I feel bad, when nothing works out. How to believe in God when problems come one after another, God will solve them for me? Until I myself go and do what I have in mind, it will not work out on its own.
- Is there a God?
Well, if you don’t delve deeply, then all these words are not without truth. If you don’t think further, don’t try to ask other questions, then you can stop there.
Seek God
A person is born into a certain national culture, which has its own religious traditions. A resident of an Arab country is automatically equated with Muslims, a Slavic country with Christians, an Asian country with Buddhists, etc. A person is not always satisfied with traditional religion. He begins to look for something new, and these searches are regarded negatively by the environment. And a person simply sincerely wants to truly believe in God. This cannot be regarded as betrayal.
Different religious traditions carry a certain mood. Mood is a unique type of relationship with the Almighty. God is like a father, friend, master. Each soul has its own, individual relationship with Him. Coming to an understanding of these relationships is one of the tasks in the search for God. A person begins to study different religious traditions.
Scriptures about God
All holy books give their own idea of God. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ speaks of God as a loving Heavenly Father. In the Qur'an, the Almighty appears as an all-merciful ruler who is worshiped in a mood of reverence and reverence. The Vedic treatise Mahabharata describes the Supreme Lord Krishna as a playful boy and an attractive youth.
The Lord has an infinite number of forms and manifestations. He is the Absolute Truth, who controls everything. Each person will decide for himself which Divine Image to devote himself to. The main thing here is to listen to the heart: where the soul is drawn, where it feels good, what it responds to. God is love and love is bliss. All these are correct words, but how can you believe in God if you can’t believe it? Saints who have not only deep faith, but also transcendental experience can help here.
Why don't people believe in God?
Here I am, you can touch me with your hands, see me with your eyes and hear my words with your ears . This fits into our logic and worldview. And God? How to believe in God if I don’t see him, I don’t hear him, I can’t touch him . That means He doesn't exist. And if there is, then what good does it do me?
Many people think this way. In my subjective opinion, the absolute majority of us are like that. This is practical thinking based on benefit, benefit, meaning . There are a lot of atheists, even more than we think. There are strong atheists who clearly say that they do not believe in God, there is no God. This is an opinion that, just like everyone else, has the right to life.
But there are also those who do not consider themselves an atheist and believe in God. But just in case. Well, what if there is a God and there is a hell, but I didn’t believe it. No matter how hard it all fits into your head, you definitely need to celebrate the main holidays, perform the main rituals and traditions, but without understanding the meaning of these actions, nor their purpose and purpose. This is called religious hypocrisy. But only here hypocrisy does not work. These people are afraid to consider themselves atheists, but in my opinion, they are. Implicit atheists.
Although, of course, this is not about everyone. Few people really strive to know themselves and faith. And the fact that they go to church and observe rituals is not due to ignorance, but precisely to eliminate ignorance, for the sake of the desire to realize and understand.
But there are many atheists. (What is true faith?)
This is because we look only at the outside world and believe in it.
But we have neither the time nor the desire to think about what is not seen and not heard.
How to believe in God? Jesus Christ said: “The kingdom of God is within you”
Also in the Gospel it is written: “We speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.” Why? Because they didn’t see or hear.
There is no point in reading the Bible or any other sacred texts if your gaze is directed only to the outside world . Everything you read there will seem like some kind of fairy tale, myth, nonsense that has nothing to do with you and your life. Because there are no logical explanations in my head.
Looking only in front of you, you will never be able to believe in God or in sincere kindness, love, compassion. This will cause slight laughter, and the person speaking about it will cause distrust and antipathy.
“As long as and how long a person is occupied with external images and enters into them, it is impossible for him to reach this depth, and as long as he does not believe that it is in him. But whoever strives for this and who wants to become within himself must abandon the multiplicity of external images and turn entirely to the internal ones, and, finally, must step beyond the contemplation of images further, in the absence of any images - and thereby become one with the One.”
The Saints
Saints are considered to be people who live in this world, but do not internally belong to it. All their thoughts and hopes are connected with God and the spiritual world. Their main distinguishing feature is a taste for spiritual practice, lack of fear of life and death, and the presence of Divine love in the heart. The scriptures say that faith is contracted like a disease from those who have it. It is a great success to meet such a person on the path of life. You will be even luckier if you have the opportunity to live next to him, study and serve him.
Communication determines consciousness. Contact with a holy person cleanses the mind of material desires and gives a taste for spirituality. The divine energy passing through the hearts of these people helps to believe in God.
The problem is that there are very few of them, and they prefer to lead a solitary lifestyle. It is unlikely that you will be lucky enough to meet him. How to believe in God if there are no saints in the area? The soul in search of God turns to religion.
Faith Job
The Bible tells us that Job had a very prosperous family, as well as ten children and many servants; he was greatly respected and highly valued by his friends. However, due to the temptations and attacks of Satan, Job lost all his property and his children within one day, and after that he was completely stricken with leprosy. This test turned Job from the greatest man in the East to the most destitute man in the East. Family and friends also judged and condemned him. Even when faced with such a great trial, Job did not utter a single word of complaint to God, and even fell to the ground and worshiped God, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked shall I return. Jehovah gave, Jehovah also took away; Blessed be the name of Jehovah!” (Job 1:21), and “shall we really accept good from God, but not evil?” (Job 2:10). Thanks to the test, Job was able not to sin with his lips, and also to appear before God in prayer. This shows that he had a place in his heart for God, he had true faith in God, he believed that all events and all things are in the hands of God, and all those circumstances that he encountered had God's approval and were not created person. Also, over the decades of his life, Job deeply realized that everything he had was the result of God's rule and arrangement; all his wealth was given by God and was not the result of his own labor. Therefore, if God wanted to take away what He had previously given, it was natural and right, and as a created being, he had to submit to God taking it all away. He should not argue with God, and he, in particular, should not complain to God - even if his life itself was taken away from him, he knew that he still should not express a single complaint. Job's testimony completely put Satan to shame, and after that God appeared to Job out of the storm and bestowed even more blessings on him.
From the experiences of Abraham and Job, we can see that in order to achieve true faith in God, we must first have a true understanding of God's government and the belief that all things and all events are completely in God's hands. We must also truly know our places as created beings and have the intelligence that created beings should have. No matter how great our trials and difficulties may be, we cannot blame or abandon God, but we must continue to be able to seek God's will, stand by His side, and follow Him relentlessly. No matter how much suffering we endure, we must still stand strong in our testimony for God. Only those who are able to do this have true faith in God. Just think of those brothers and sisters who were persecuted and arrested by the atheistic Chinese Communist Party, brutally tortured and sentenced to several years in prison. However, they never denied or abandoned God - this is true faith in God. There are brothers and sisters who are rejected by their families and friends after they become believers, or unexpected misfortunes befall their families, but they never complain to God and are able to continue to follow God and give themselves completely to Him - this is also a manifestation of true faith into God. If we compare ourselves to these testimonies, can we really say that we are actually the ones who have true faith in God? For most of us, faith is based on the unequivocal recognition that God exists and the opportunity to suffer a little and pay a little price while working to spread the gospel for the Lord. However, this cannot be considered true faith.
Religion and religiosity
Religion is an attempt to understand the spiritual world and the Supreme through matter. People compiled holy scriptures and invented rituals of worship. Archpriest Alexander Men said that religion is an earthly, human phenomenon. The sacred treatises of all religious denominations describe how to believe in God. With the help of religion, a person acquires a worldview that leads him along the spiritual path.
Just as it is impossible to become a doctor by reading medical textbooks, so it is impossible to gain faith only by reading the holy scriptures. This requires a special mood of the soul and a desire to know the Absolute Truth. Without such an approach, religiosity turns into fanaticism.
Fanaticism and faith
The inability to feel spiritual vibrations is replaced by external worship. This in itself is not bad, but often there is a bias towards strict adherence to rules and regulations at the expense of internal fullness. Instead of changing for the better, a person cultivates pride in himself. He considers himself better than others because he worships God, which means he is the chosen one. Arrogance and disdainful attitude towards people arises.
Fanatics are present in all religions. They believe that only their religious organization, their scriptures, their rituals, etc. are the most correct. And only they know how to believe in God. The rest are infidels, fallen because they chose the wrong path. A meeting with a fanatical person can kill a weak sprout of faith.
But any beginner can become a fanatic. By imposing his religion on others, he, first of all, proves to himself that he made the right choice. This is the initial stage of spiritual life that almost everyone goes through. The main thing is not to get stuck on it, not to let pride take over. We must remember that by destroying the faith of others, it is impossible to develop yourself.
God's Word Helps You Have Strong Faith
“But how could they trust God if they did not acknowledge Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have not heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him if no one preaches to them about Him? And how will people preach if they are not sent to preach? As Scripture says, “Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Romans 10:14-15).
A person with strong and strong faith always trusts God. But trust in God is not born immediately. It's like a relationship between two people. People get to know each other, get to know each other, but trust does not come immediately. Trusting God is a process of knowing God and is the path to strong faith. And faith itself, in turn, is born when someone preaches about Jesus Christ, as we read above.
What do you know about Jesus Christ? What do you know about His life? Do you know why Jesus gave His life? Do you know that Jesus died for the sins of people and personally for your sins? Do you know that your sins can be forgiven and God does not want to judge you for your previous life? Do you know what we need to do to become a disciple of Christ? Finding answers to these questions gives you the opportunity to begin to believe in God.
You can find a person who can help you understand these issues; you can write to us through the contact section on our website. You can begin reading the New Testament to learn about the life of Jesus Christ personally, at home. This is an excellent step towards the initial shoots of faith, which over time will strengthen and become stronger. It is important to never stop “hearing the word of God.” Faith always needs fuel. This fuel is preaching about Christ and His life. Read. Listen. Study the life of Jesus Christ.
What is faith
How to make you believe in God? The answer is no. Faith is not a thing that can be transferred at will. You can only be a conductor of this Divine energy acting through a person. Faith is not simply a product of reflection, logical comparison and evidence. It comes from spiritual reality, contrary to our reasoning. Only having it in your own heart can you pass it on to others.
“Faith is the strength of the heart”
Thinker Blaise Pascal
But if the heart is silent, how to believe in God? Orthodoxy defines faith as a person’s trust in Divine truth, not on the basis of reason and evidence, but on the basis of the testimony of the sacred scriptures. Faith is not just recognition of God, it is unconditional devotion to Him.
Doubts
Initial faith is very fragile. Doubts can break her. Archpriest Alexander Lebedev identified four types of doubts.
- Doubt of the mind is born from superficial knowledge. It passes over time as deeper knowledge is gained.
- Doubt of the heart. With his mind, a person understands and accepts everything, but his heart does not feel the presence of God and the spiritual world. Books won't help here. Information can satisfy the mind, but the heart is nourished by feelings. Sincere prayer to God helps to get rid of such doubt, because the Lord always answers the call of the heart.
- Doubt arises from a conflict between the mind and the heart. It feels that the Lord exists, but the mind finds it difficult to believe in God. Why does he allow people to suffer? Both prayers and books will help here.
- Doubts of life. Man accepts the existence of God, but modern life is not conducive to keeping the commandments. Archpriest Alexander Lebedev recommends taking a decisive step and forcing yourself to follow Divine laws. Over time, this will become a habit and will not cause difficulties.
The reason for doubts is a large number of unresolved material desires.
HOW TO PLEASE GOD?
Read all of Hebrews 11 and you will see that it is all about men and women who lived in faith.
To each of them God gave a specific command either regarding their life or regarding their generation. Although it was difficult to accomplish, they still performed it steadfastly. As a result, they changed their generation and pleased God. Faith was where they lived, and because they stayed in the territory of faith, that is, doing what God called them to do, they gave Him great pleasure. The devil will try to dissuade you from remaining steadfast and faithful. He will create situations that will make you anxious or afraid. And if his plan works, then without thinking twice you will pack your things and change location: you will leave the territory of faith and move to the valley of defeats, where you will no longer be able to please God.
Reasons for material desires
The desire for selfish pleasure gives rise to an infinite number of material desires. It is impossible to satisfy them, because the spiritual emptiness cannot be filled with dead things. A person is thrown from one extreme to another. At first he can enjoy himself to the point of satiety, and then abruptly renounce everything, like Aramis from “The Three Musketeers...” by A. Dumas. He either dated married ladies, or dressed as a priest and lived in a monastery.
Such wanderings do not lead to anything good. A person must stop and think about himself and his nature, about God, and his relationship with Him. Find answers in the scriptures.
Refusal to communicate with materially minded people who live under the slogan: “Take everything from life!” will help to muffle the itch of material desires. These tips help a person who has at least some faith. How can an atheist believe in God?
BE BEYOND
Hebrews 11:6 says:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God...”
Today I want to study with you the word “without” used in this verse. This is a translation of the Greek word choris,
which means to be
outside of something
,
beyond
,
beyond the territory
,
outside
, as, say,
to live outside a city
.
Here are examples for comparison between being inside
outside
of something : being
in
the house and being
outside
the house;
to be in
the yard and to be
outside
the yard;
being in
the car and being
outside
the car.
The word choris
refers to someone who is
outside
something or
outside
a place, rather than
inside
something or
in
a specific place.
Since this word is used in connection with faith, the writer of Hebrews is letting us know that we can, so to speak, live within
faith or
outside
faith,
on
the territory of faith or
beyond
its borders.
There are no atheists in the trenches
Dictionaries define atheism as disbelief and denial of the Divine principle. The Soviet Union was considered an atheistic state, and Soviet citizens were considered atheists. But things were different. Many times in life a person unconsciously says phrases dedicated to God: “Glory to God,” “Well, God help you,” “God will forgive,” “God help you,” etc.
There is no such person who, in difficult times, would not turn to higher powers. Despair sometimes makes you believe in the most impossible. It is known that during the Second World War, everyone prayed before battle: both believers and party atheists.
History knows many cases of how difficult situations helped people to believe in God. This confirms the story of one pilot. The plane was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft guns. I had to fall from a great height. All this time he desperately prayed: “Lord, if you exist, save me, and I will devote my life to you.” The agreement was fulfilled: the pilot was miraculously saved and became a believer. Making deals with God is the beginning level of faith.
LET'S PRAY!
By remaining in the territory of faith, you thereby help others to pray for you, since they know what exactly to pray for regarding you.
So, what are your needs for us? We have a whole group of people who are praying with Denise and me for your needs. Please let us know your specific needs and we will immediately address them to God on your behalf. I promise! And in conclusion, I want to thank you for every service you have given to our church. Thanks to your support, we are able to do what we do. Together with you, we influence this world with God's Word. And we are very grateful to God for you!
How faith develops
A person coming into this world is conditioned by his body, which makes him seek certain pleasures. There are people who easily give up pleasures associated with food, sex, etc. And for some, this is the meaning of life. These categories of people are differently interested in the search for Truth. The former sincerely turn to God, while the latter remember the Lord either in difficult times or out of a desire to gain more material wealth. The former are more successful in gaining faith, the latter are in constant doubt.
Faith develops from a selfish relationship with God: “You are for me, I am for you,” to complete selfless service to Him and others.
Developing faith helps you truly believe in God. Orthodoxy, like other religious denominations, defines several levels of faith. Priest Valery Dukhanin talks about three types:
- Faith is like confidence. A person accepts truths at the level of the mind. He is convinced of the existence of something: there is a planet Venus, the USSR won the war, God exists. Such faith does not change anything inside. The Absolute Truth stands on a par with matter.
- Faith is like trust. At this level, a person not only accepts the existence of God at the level of the mind, but it already lives in the heart. With such faith, a person turns to the Lord with prayers, in difficult times he relies on Him, and lives according to the commandments.
- Faith is like fidelity. A person not only recognizes God with his mind, trusts Him in his heart, but is also ready to follow Him with his will. Such faith is characterized by purity of love based on fidelity. It involves sacrifice, when life is built according to God's will. To reach this level, you need to work internally on yourself and your passions. It is this kind of faith that saves.
How to see, how to feel God? How to get rid of doubts and lack of faith?
Sermon by the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Rev. Victor (Burbela) on St. Thomas week April 15, 2022 Today’s Sunday is called St. Thomas because the Gospel passage was read which tells about the unbelief of the Apostle Thomas.
Faith in God is the basis of our actions, our hope, our outlet, our joy and our meaning, and without faith we rush from side to side, looking for some kind of understanding, some kind of justification and find only partially and for a long time, and not we can be happy and calm, for we have no understanding of this world if we do not have faith in life, in the Risen Christ. And it is no coincidence that on the first Sunday after Easter we emphasize that we believe in the Resurrection of Christ. All people can be conditionally divided into those who believe in God and those who do not believe, into those who believe in the Resurrection of Christ and those who do not believe. There are even people who believe in God, but cannot believe that Christ is Risen. Like the Apostle Thomas. But today we will not talk about non-believers, but about the doubts of believers, those who have already felt their faith, accepted it as a gift of God, and who have learned to be guided by this faith in their lives.
In our Christian environment there are people who say that they believe in God, but do not go to church; they believe, but continue to sin; they believe, but doubt. It happens that a believer goes to church, takes communion and rejoices in his faith, but then sorrow comes and he begins to lose heart and says: Lord, where are you, help me, come to me! In illness, he begins to become depressed because the end is approaching in his consciousness, which we call the outcome, the end of life, because illness is perceived as something that moves towards this end at a very fast pace, brings it closer, and the person cries out: Lord, You did you punish me, or did you leave me, or do you not hear my prayers, or is it for my sins before you? And often comes to grumbling, which is due to doubt in God’s providence.
A person who doubts does not pay enough attention to his faith, which is why he also raises his children without a strong faith, and so the children grow up and leave their parents, and live as they were taught, and the parents begin to grieve, because they have invested their whole lives in this child, all his labors, all his meaning, but he abandoned them. And the man, left alone with himself, says: Lord, well, at least don’t leave me, because those for whom I lived left me. And the children seem to call on the phone and come once a week, but they don’t really communicate, because they are not interested, they have other worries, they have a different meaning, the person has become a burden. And suffering from this, the mother or father says: Lord, my soul is so sad, and You have left me.
And this is how those who believe in God are exposed to the lack of faith, the dubious faith of the Apostle Thomas, which awaits clear proof of the presence of God. And they also say: until You, Lord, change the situation the way I want, I will not believe in You. And this man is unhappy, because in order to see God, it is not enough to simply desire it mentally, you must have a pure heart, because the Lord said: only the pure in heart will see God.
In order to see God, one must understand Him and desire to see Him, and not the reflection of human affairs in someone or something. How do you want to know God, with what senses? Do you want to see Him with your eyes, hear Him with your hearing or touch? How well do your eyes see in this case? How acute is your hearing? How capable are your senses of perceiving even this world, which is limited, changeable, imperfect, constantly changing and tending towards chaos, towards the end? And if you cannot know even this world with your senses, then how do you want to know God with these ears or eyes? Do you want God to appear limited to you? So He once took on the human form for the sake of condescension to the human race, for the sake of changing this imperfect body into a perfect one. And he appeared before men as a man, and performed miracles, but they did not believe him, and they hated him, and they crucified him. And when they saw miracles, they said: He does this with the power of demons. And the Lord said: if they had not seen, they would not have had sin, but since they both saw and heard, there is no excuse for them for this, for their flesh and blood, their eyes and ears, were revealed more than many people, ever lived.
This is how we are: we are looking for a meeting with the physical God, and this is correct, for seeking God and his truth is the surest path of life on earth. But one must look for Him not in the ghostly images of a changing world, but in His truth and power, in His omnipresence and in His eternity. This is not where we look for God. And non-believers often say: if only your God would come and talk to us, tell us, then we would believe. No, they would not believe it even if the dead were resurrected, as the Lord said in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. They wouldn’t believe it, because human pride conquers and tramples everything, even the most wonderful and great.
But where to look for God, how to see Him, how to see the Risen One in yourself, how to understand His Resurrection? Just as the bright angels told the myrrh-bearing women when they came to the Holy Sepulcher to anoint the body of Jesus, according to Jewish custom. But they saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, and when they looked inside, they saw an angel, and the angel said: “Why do you seek the living with the dead? He is not here, He is Risen, go and tell others.” Here is the answer: we must seek the living God, not the dead. Do not seek God with the body, which must die, seek God with the spirit, which must live, for God is not dead, but Living. And for this we are given other organs of cognition, not only our hearing and sight, not only our rational mind, which analyzes everything that we saw, heard and felt, sight, hearing, smell and touch, but also the soul, with which we also feel this world.
We cannot understand what love is and why it is needed from the point of view of rational perception and survival. Why is love needed from an evolutionary point of view? Why do we need consciousness from an evolutionary point of view? Why do we need so much anxiety, worry, so much desire for creativity, for transformation, for kindness, which is higher than everything we need? The answers to these questions are known only by those who look into the mirror of their soul, with faith in God, and see the answer written there that man was created in the image and likeness of God. And everything that is in God is also in man, which is hidden under a mortal body, subject to the earthly conditions of time and death, for the sake of the destruction of sin and death itself. For if you remove death from the life of an earthly sinful person, then sin will become eternal in people. And this eternal vanity of sin and the eternal enmity of sin makes people the most insane and unfortunate creatures, constantly at war with each other. And only death stops this madness of enmity, pride, selfishness and balances it all. Only death is the guarantee of the coming of new life to earth, and thus, as the holy fathers put it, the earth becomes “a seedbed of life for eternity.”
Here God plants a new life in co-creation with two people, a man and a woman, and if this life grows and knows God in spirit, and in the body it knows frailty and God-forsakenness, and if it chooses God, it moves into eternal life with God, and if it chooses frailty, then here too he will be burdened by this frailty, and eternity will condemn this frailty and burn both the mind and body with the fire of hell, the fire of despondency, the fire of the madness of pride, which he strived for in this life.
God wants man to develop the Divine principle in himself - the likeness of God, so that man uses reason, so that he uses all the senses, not selectively, but in full. And physical and spiritual, and consciousness, and love, and kindness, so that he applies this in his life and recognizes the greatness of his Creator, and recognizes himself as a particle of everything created and harmonious.
How many, even in Christian circles, sometimes cry out: Lord, well, where are you? May God appear to me, even saints sometimes prayed like this, asking for God to appear. How do we know how we can see God? How can your doubting rational mind be convinced of His presence, of His being? And the answer to this question can be gleaned, first of all, from the Holy Scriptures in the words of Christ himself: “But when you pray, go into your room and, having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.” Matthew 6.6. That is, he will reward obvious gifts, and you will be convinced with your mind that the Lord is here and nearby. And it will be a miracle within you.
And if at home you cannot pray in secret to God, who rewards openly, then look for him where two or three are gathered in His name, because, according to His word: “where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them” Matt. .18.20. Go to the temple of God, stand among these two, three, ten, pray with them in the words of the Apostle Thomas: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And you will see the presence of God in the soul and in the mind, and in the world, you will see it so clearly that you will never want anything else, you will never want to sin, because you have seen God in the fullness of life, in the fullness of meaning. According to His word, the Lord is near. He is not somewhere far away, he is close.
And Christ, who appeared to the apostles, said: “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen." Mf. 28.19. That is, teach them to change their lives in the name of the Holy Trinity, so that they see God in their lives, because I am with you all the days, and until the end of the age.
But this is not the most important revelation of God. Here we are standing in the temple and hearing the words: approach with the fear of God and faith. Let us approach Holy Communion, accept the true Body and true Blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine. The Lord said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” John 6.56. And he will have life because He said “I am the way and the Truth and the Life” John. 14.6. And inside this person streams of “living water” of God’s revelation, life-giving, will flow. And he will no longer look for God among the dead, as we look for evidence of God from the lips of unbelieving people who are waiting for death and do not know what eternity is and do not believe in it.
Do you want to find the living God among the dead? Are you looking for the living God in the minds of the thinkers of this age who think about death? Are you looking for eternity in that person who has limited himself only to this? You won't find it there. Do not seek the living with the dead, for He is Risen. He rose again and exalted himself above death, above our logic, for God is not limited only by the patterns of behavior of our nature or our universe. He is above all this. God cannot act only as we can act, because we are not capable of anything else. He is free in his actions.
Are you looking for evidence of eternity in a person who lives by instincts and cannot use the organs of spiritual senses? You are looking for Him among the dead. Look for Him among the living who have known and seen Him! And everyone who partakes of His Body and Blood with faith becomes alive for eternal life, he already lives for eternity, and no longer lives himself, but the Risen Christ lives in him. Lives in his mind, and this mind sets completely different life goals. He lives in his heart, and good deeds and thoughts come from this heart. He lives in all actions and leads life, leading it meaningfully, measuredly, defeating all disorder, all sorrows and illnesses, defeating death in the human mind.
And this man crosses the threshold of death with joy and says: the Lord is near at the door, now I’ll step, and the Lord will meet me, and accept me into His arms, and place me in the abodes of heaven, in eternity. And such a person will joyfully meet the path of new life, expecting the general resurrection of the dead. Amen.
How to truly believe in God
The reason for any dissatisfaction is the lack of love and happiness. The reason for dissatisfaction with weak faith is the soul’s desire for Divine Love. At first, a person is satisfied with external attributes: religious rituals, visiting temples and holy places. If all actions were mechanical in nature, then a spiritual crisis sets in.
The path to God is the path to love, long and full of suffering. They arise through the fault of the person himself, because the level of consciousness is low. More often, instead of love, anger and envy, hatred and aggression, greed and indifference, etc. appear. If a person needs real, not formal faith, he must be honest with himself. It is necessary to remove all psychological masks and defenses, and see yourself as you are – imperfect. Recognizing your negative qualities, you need to accept them. This step reduces pride, arrogance and slander.
Sincere prayers help to overcome suffering and follow the path of Love. The Vedic holy scriptures state that man cannot do anything, not even control his body. The only thing available to him is desire. The Lord fulfills all our real aspirations. A strong desire to reach God and have real faith will also be satisfied by the Almighty.
How to Form True Faith in God
If we want to have true faith, we must strive to recognize God's rule in all the people, events, and things we encounter every day. And whether the conditions which God arranges conform to our own conceptions or not, and whether they are outwardly beneficial to us or not, we must know our places as created beings and seek the will of God with reverence in heart. We must understand God's painstaking, sincere intentions behind the conditions He creates for us so that we can learn something from everything we go through, and we can see God's works in everything He directs. Then our faith in God will gradually begin to become more and more genuine. It is the same as with Job's faith - it was not something innate to him, it gradually grew out of the experience of God's rule in everything that happened in his life and the desire to know God. If we can follow Job's example by focusing on experiencing and truly understanding God's rule in our lives, thereby achieving true knowledge of God, then only can we develop true faith in God. And then, no matter what difficulties or trials befall us, and no matter how great our physical or spiritual suffering, we can calmly cope with it with the help of our faith, we can actively seek the will of God and His requirements for us, submit to His rule and arrangement and remain strong in testimony for Him.
Thank God for enlightenment and guidance. Amen!
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