In fact, this question is very relevant and important for everyone. People often wonder how to ask God for help. Many believers cry out to God for help, praying daily, and never get what they want. This injustice makes us wonder why God hears some requests, but answers the prayers of others with silence?
The human essence is designed in such a way that each person strives for the truth. Therefore, in search of an answer to their question, some believe that they are not following the rules of prayer. To understand why this happens, you need to understand the reasons for the supposed indifference of the Higher Powers.
Most people tend to believe in miracles. And the process of prayer really obeys certain rules. You should not appeal to heaven only when you need something done. The divine plan is not simply the fulfillment of human dreams. However, God helps all those who pray to achieve their goal. Sometimes this is not as obvious as we think.
Prayer alone is not enough to achieve success. Each person must make their own efforts and have good intentions in order to count on God's help.
If a person is driven by destructive and negative motivation (thirst for revenge, deceiving people, selfish or evil thoughts), then dark forces will come to his aid. However, not everyone knows that the price for fulfilling their evil plans will be their own soul and fate, crippled by failures.
With prayer through life
Prayer is an important part of the spiritual life of every believer. It is impossible to imagine a Christian not praying. Through the words of prayer, praise and thanksgiving are offered to the Almighty Creator. There are also petitions, for example, prayer for help in business, for forgiveness of sins, for recovery, for an end to the epidemic, and the like.
Prayer for help in business
The Power of Prayer
Before repenting, the sinner must make peace with his enemies. This is not an easy task, and the icon of the Seven-Shot Mother of God can help with it.
Also, those who decide to repent can use prayers such as:
- About forgiveness of grievances;
- To God for forgiveness;
- Repentance and forgiveness.
A person, while offering a prayer, can look to the heavens. Perhaps this way he will feel the purity and sincerity of his words. For the forgiveness of all people, the Lord was crucified on the cross.
The True Nature of Prayer
However, one should correctly understand the meaning of Orthodox prayer. It is not a meditation or a spell. This is not a magical ritual for all occasions, where the principle “you - for me, I - for you” works.
“In magic it is believed that the spell formula is wonderful in itself. The meaning of words is not always decisive. In Christianity, prayer and service to God is meaningful. Here the obvious, immediate meaning that is invested in prayer comes to the fore.
Prayer must be reasonable, that is, pronounced consciously and meaningfully. In witchcraft, a person tries to satisfy his individual, selfish desires, without weighing them against his eternal salvation. He wants now and here to achieve success, a good harvest, good luck in personal affairs, the favor of a loved one, revenge on the enemy, etc.. At the same time, without thinking about whether the method itself is salvific, whether the pursued goal is consistent with the will of God...
In prayer, a person, even asking for something very important in an earthly sense, still entrusts himself into the hands of God, commits the fulfillment of what he asks to God, based on the principle: will what he asks be useful, will it not interfere with the spiritual success of a person, does it correspond to will of God? (Archpriest Valery Dukhanin).
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came into the world, set an example of true prayer. It turned out that God should be addressed as a Loving Father. The Lord's Prayer is proof of this.
“The most important thing in this prayer (the only one that the Lord himself gave us) is that God is called Father. For Old Testament man, God is something very powerful, distant, mysterious. And so Jesus offers to call God father and addresses Him that way. The idea of parental care and love immediately arises. Moreover, the father is not “mine”, but ours, that is, of all people” (Archpriest Alexander Borisov).
As we live, so we pray, as we pray, so we live
How to learn to turn to God?
Reading prayers according to the prayer book, even if carefully, does not mean turning to Him. Very often you catch yourself simply reading them or, having already memorized them by heart, pronouncing them like some kind of monologues, but not internally addressing them to the Creator. That’s why you’re distracted, your heart is cold, and you force yourself to rise to prayer with difficulty... What needs to be done to make prayer alive and ardent? We are talking about this with Abbot Nektariy (Morozov). - Father Nektary, turning to God is not at all the same as turning to a person?
When we turn to a person, we don’t have this problem - we see the person in front of us, we know the purpose of our appeal and we turn, and this seems completely natural. But going to God is always a problem, always some kind of difficulty. — I don’t agree with this comparison: turning to a person is no problem, but turning to God is a problem. A huge number of people, when addressing other people, do it in a way that they really shouldn’t do. And the results of such treatment can be quite disastrous. Some people, reading prayers, believe that they are praying, but in fact, as you say, they are not turning to God. But it also happens that a person turns to a person and says to him: I need this and that from you. But there is no heartfelt contact between the person who turns and the one to whom he turns. A person who is asked for something in this way can only do it by virtue of his Christian mercy and kindness. And if he did not fulfill our request, it was because of our hardness of heart. We need to learn equally - both how to address God and how to address a person.
Before answering the question of how to learn to turn to God and people, it must be said: a person can only learn what he wants to learn. If there is a desire, then there will not be any special difficulties. Why? Because if a person feels the need for God, the need for His help, he will look for a way to receive this help, to be worthy of God’s mercy. Every person who believes in God knows that you can ask God for help in prayer and that you need to ask in such a way that your own heart responds. This is how learning happens - the person himself, with his heart, responds to the words of prayers. The whole point is desire.
— In the desire to turn to God and find His help?
- Certainly. Sometimes a strange thing happens: a person seems to be a believer, an Orthodox Christian, but when something happens in his life, he does not pray to God, does not ask for His help. Why? Not out of modesty, not out of humility. But because he is somehow afraid to interfere with God in his affairs. He wants to sort out his own affairs. At the very least, badly, but - myself. Because suddenly the Lord will intervene in his affairs and do everything completely differently than he wants. Such a person will never learn to turn to God. Because in order to truly turn to Him, you need to be ready to accept His will for yourself, whatever it may be. Any prayer should end with the words: however, not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42). But this is what a person doesn’t want to say, and sometimes he prefers not to say anything.
If a person has a desire to fulfill the will of God, if he needs this will to be fulfilled, what can you tell him how to learn to turn to God, so that it is not formal, but from the heart? Our life consists of situations in which we feel our human insufficiency, foolishness, weakness, sinfulness. And every such situation should become a reason to turn to God. As the Monk Nicodemus the Holy Mountain said: you got up in the evening to pray to God, and you must force out of your heart everything that occupied you during the day. But if you were unable to repress all this, were unable to forget all this for the sake of prayer, then turn it all into a reason for prayer. Because if this is important to you, then it cannot be passed by Him.
How many things happen to us, including things that hurt us! Unforeseen circumstances break our plans, destroy the work we are doing, a seemingly good and godly work; people suffer from this. How to deal with this? It is necessary to say: Lord, I will try to do what depends on me, and the rest is in Your hands, as You please, so it will be. And come to terms with it. As Elder Paisios said: before I do anything, I light a lamp and raise my hands to God, and then I do what is in my human power. This is a very good lesson for us. We need to do everything in our power, but before doing it, turn to God. And submit everything to His will and not worry about anything else. When we have such an attitude towards everything that happens to us and to God, it means that a thread (also an expression by Paisius the Holy Mountain) of trust has connected us with Him. But trust comes precisely through prayer.
- But in order to say in the hour of sorrow “... not my will, but Yours” - we need to think that we actually need this sorrow, this pain for some reason. So do I understand you?
— As the Monk Isaac the Syrian said, there is no other way to get closer to God except through sorrow. In an even, carefree, sorrowless life there would not be those moments that would make us cry out to God. When something happens to us, it mobilizes us, it gathers all our strength. Saint Theophan the Recluse said: if you pray to God, you must feel in your heart a certain “soreness” that makes you feel your heart, cry out from its depths. And when something happens to us, this sore forms by itself. Pain gathers our attention in the heart, and we pray from the heart, and not from somewhere - God knows where.
Grief can bring us closer to God, or it can push us away. To get closer, you need to say: Lord, I feel bad, I’m in pain, but if You allowed me to do this, then I need it, I thank You. If a person finds the strength to do this, he has taken a huge step forward. If a person says otherwise: “What is this, Lord, why are You so unfair to me!” - he will take a huge step back. By and large, we need to rejoice in those situations that hurt us, which the Lord Himself sends to us and in which we can trust Him. We need to be glad that the storm has broken out and we can step over the side of the boat and walk through the stormy water - to Him. Without this storm, we would not have known that this was possible. Although, of course, it is common for any of us to wish that the weather on our sea would be good.
- So, the Gethsemane prayer is an eternal model for all of us?
- Yes, and following this as a model, we need to take into account this: if the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane cried out to God three times, struggling and watering the earth with bloody sweat, then we need to cry out - not three times, but three hundred times, maybe. Because our struggle is a struggle with our own sin, cowardice, laziness. It is not easy for us to emerge victorious from this struggle. But when we come out, we always become stronger because we grow in trust in God. One of the ancient saints said: even if the sky bows to the earth, my mind will not be shaken. Such was his trust in God. We are far from such a measure, but by approaching this measure step by step, we can become a very strong and happy person.
“They say, however, that the path to spiritual growth is running up an escalator going down. Worth a stop...
“As soon as a person, who has already become accustomed to repentance and trust in God, relaxes, allows himself to complain and grumble, he becomes weaker and more unreasonable than he was.” He relaxed once, twice, three times - and became a completely unreasonable person, not understanding the ways of God and unable to come to terms with them.
— When we are in the grip of some acute experience, when we are in tears, in a state of extreme emotional stress, we relax and often do not remember God at all. If we are able to look back at ourselves - at least because we have accustomed ourselves to evening prayer and even in this state we cannot omit it - we realize that all this time it was as if God did not exist for us. And it is very difficult to gather again and return to Him.
“But in fact, this painful situation for us aims to remind us of God.” In such cases, it can really be difficult to cope with the excited nerves. But how does it arise, nervous excitement? It has a reason in the multitude of thoughts that push and pull us back and forth in our heads. An episode from the life of Macarius of Alexandria tells us what kind of battle with thoughts there is even among saints: he was so tormented by the thought of going somewhere that he lay down on the threshold of his cell and said: whoever wants can carry me, but I myself I'm not going anywhere. And he lay there until the thought went away. Thoughts weaken the nervous system, and the fight against them is, firstly, a matter of faith, and secondly, discipline. Discipline is needed in everything. If a person is used to getting up on time, he will get up on time. If I’m used to allowing myself to lie down for “five minutes,” I’ll lie down for an hour. I am accustomed to say at any time of sorrow: Lord, Thy good will be done, let us not endure the evil (cf. Job 2:10) [1], which means that he will say so. And if a person first allows himself to become faint-hearted, indulges in self-pity and only then tries to take control of himself, then, of course, it will be difficult for him to cope with himself.
- It was pulled down, try to get up now...
- Yes, I know this from my own experience, because I, too, am constantly dragged there. The escalator not only goes down, it also moves very quickly. But there are times when you still don’t let yourself be pulled off.
- Throughout our entire life, day after day, our attention is occupied by our own situation with all its problems, joys, hopes, fears... We are turned to ourselves, inwardly, perhaps, and to God - only insofar as this has attitude towards our same situation. When we feel bad and scared, we are ready to cry out, “Lord, have mercy!”; when we desperately need something, we are ready to ask Him for it, beg it, but we do not have a constant turn to the Creator. That’s why we can’t really pray... How can we turn ourselves a certain number of degrees?
- This is the right idea, you don’t just need to turn to God from time to time, you need to constantly turn yourself to Him. Why is this so difficult? It is difficult to leave everything that a person is turned to, to which he holds on, that owns his soul and attention. Where to begin? Anthony the Great has good advice: before going to bed, be sure to thank God for everything that happened that day. Even if on that day, according to human reasoning, there was nothing good at all, but only bad. You still need to thank God - first only with your lips, and after this verbal gratitude - perhaps even through the power of utterance - there will be an awareness of what we thank God for. Because He gave us another day to live. Because, although we fell into sins, the Lord saved us from many other sins. Because He somehow changes, forms, teaches our soul. Just start thanking - and your heart will tell you why. And it is important to start your day with the same gratitude to God. Then there won’t be this instant immersion in your own circumstances, problems, sorrows - immediately after awakening. Then you opened your eyes, and your first thought was not about the alarm clock, not about work, not about money, not even about the service - because we manage to run to church without thinking about God at all - but about Him. If a person becomes accustomed, as soon as he opens his eyes, to immediately say: “Lord, I thank You for giving me one more day,” then over time these words will penetrate very deeply into the heart.
- And so it is possible to learn to see God all the time, in other words, to respond to Him as a circumstance constantly present in our lives?
“In order to see Him all the time, you simply don’t have to turn away from Him. After all, in this world, in our lives, there is nothing that does not remind us of God. We live, breathe and exist by it. If at any moment His will, which supports our existence, becomes different, we will cease to exist. Therefore, there is no moment at which we would not have a reason to remember Him.
But the strength of a person’s remembrance of God can be different. It’s like a relationship with a person: sometimes they are smooth and familiar, but sometimes they capture us completely. It is very important that this feeling - that everything around us, everything that happens to us, is the work of God and His Providence for us - is constantly present in us. There is nothing in our lives that is not related to God!
Duccio di Buoninsegna. The calling of the apostles Peter and Andrew
— You say: “If you have the desire, there won’t be any special difficulties,” but how difficult it is, almost impossible to rebuild yourself! Who can do it? For example, do you succeed?
— Small discoveries await each of us on the spiritual path. And these discoveries testify not to success, no, but to the fact that a person is somehow still groping for a certain path for himself. We are very different, and the Lord, when he wants to achieve something from us, uses different ways of influencing our souls. Different ways of calling. What was, for example, the method of calling the Apostle Peter? An unexpectedly rich catch of fish (see: Luke 5 , 4–7). But with the Apostle Matthew this happened differently (see: Matthew 9 :9). And with the Apostle Paul (see: Acts 9 , 3–9). The Lord selects his own key to each heart. So we, each to our own heart, must select some keys. Because the heart of each of us - on the one hand, it belongs to a person, but on the other hand, it doesn’t seem to belong to him, it is so not controlled by him.
For example, I found this key for myself: when I find myself in a situation that is difficult for me, that can destroy me - and not only my nervous system, not only my life, but also - the worst thing - my relationship with God - I try to imagine the consequences. What will I become if I allow this situation to overcome me, if I do not find the strength to come to terms with the will of God and thank Him for everything that He has sent me? I'll be left with nothing. With frayed nerves, a ruined life, with obvious signs of moral and intellectual degradation. And most importantly, I will find myself at a distance from God. How can I live like this? This thought about the horror into which I can plunge myself - it helps me overcome the painful situation and live, although it does not always help right away.
- Tell me, what else should our work consist of? It seems to me that a lot of things need to be rebuilt, for example, the attitude towards people.
— From the outside, all the trials that befall us come from people. The Lord arranges our lives, but it is people who directly create our life circumstances. Sometimes we tell ourselves this: “Yes, of course, I resign myself to what God sends me, but with this particular person I cannot find peace, because he is an instrument of untruth.” But we shouldn't really say that; in this case, we, according to the words of Abba Dorotheus, become like a dog at which a stick was thrown, and instead of figuring out where and why this stick came from, it grabs it and gnaws it as the cause of its trouble. And the cause of our misfortune is not man or God. The reason is, on the one hand, our depravity, on the other, the depravity of the world around us. And this must be accepted - not as something that has only an indirect relation to us, but as something in which we directly live. When we are accused, oppressed, as it seems to us, unfairly, remember the commandment about the left cheek (see: Matt. 5 , 39), remember those of our untruths, for which no one convicted us or punished us, which, except for us and God, No one knows. Yes, we can say: it is very difficult, it is difficult to live the way you propose now. But experience shows that living differently, not doing all this, is much more difficult.
— The prayers left to us by the holy fathers of the Church are, as it were, not tailored to our standards. We do not experience what they experienced; we simply have not grown up to these experiences. Getting to know their heritage is certainly useful for us, moreover, it is necessary: without this beacon we will not be able to find the right course; but how can we pray with their words? What to do if this or that prayer does not become your own?
— A child learns poems by Pushkin, or Tyutchev, or Blok, without understanding their deep meaning; but if he reads poetry with interest and attention, his soul is gradually transformed, and gradually he can come to an understanding of poetry. And over time, perhaps, he will understand more than Pushkin or Tyutchev, such things happen. Something similar can be said about reading prayers. A person who reads them carefully will always find in them something that meets his own internal needs. By praying according to the prayer book, we ask God for forgiveness and mercy, and this is fully consistent with our measure. But there really are things there that exceed our measure. For example: saints see their own sinfulness, their unworthiness much better than us, and put it into such verbal form that it seems to us that we are better than them. Or: we understand that we are much worse, but we grieve because, unlike them, we cannot truly feel it. But if a person prays carefully and diligently, if he aligns his life with prayer, changes take place in him. A person grows - if not to the extent of saints, then, in any case, to the extent of understanding, internal acceptance of those words with which they addressed God. Prayer educates a person.
We often proceed in our reasoning from the fact that saints are not at all people like us, where should we care about them. This is, on the one hand, true; but the human soul, the soul of any of us, was originally created amazingly good, pure, bright. And in it - since man is created in the image and likeness of God - all the best is already contained. Yes, she is corrupted, distorted by sin. But there is still the best in her, and this best, of course, is able to respond to the words of the saints, live by these words and perceive them as her own. Our soul is like a tormented, downtrodden prisoner, and when we pray, we set it free. She has wings and when we pray we let her spread them and she can fly again.
- So we need to wait and hope that the words of the prayers composed by the holy fathers will one day become ours?
- There is no need to wait. You have to go towards this every day. It’s like sparks - today one spark will flash and illuminate our life, tomorrow another. Today one word of prayer is suddenly experienced by the heart as our own, tomorrow another. You just need to remember this, not to forget the insights that have already happened. Put this experience in your heart and continue to live by it. It is also important not to be afraid to experience what the saints experienced. A person is often afraid of this because it is painful to experience; the heart has to be deeply opened and laid bare before God and before oneself. This requires a renunciation of self-defense, a feeling of one’s own defenselessness. Because only when we do not protect ourselves, our Protector protects us.
“But in our daily lives we are so accustomed to defending ourselves that it seems impossible to break this habit.
- Yes, a person is a creature dependent on his habits, but habits can be changed. A person can change the bad habit of smoking to a good habit - running in the morning. Habits should depend on the person, not the person on the habits. We are used to being offended and suffering if we are told some unpleasant truth about us; and why? Why is suffering primary, and not joy from the fact that we were pointed out to something bad in us and thereby helped to change? Prayer is designed to change our heart, and by protecting ourselves, we protect our hearts from it. Here you need to choose and you need to know that it does not depend on possibility or impossibility, but on desire or unwillingness. There is, for example, such a thing as ballet: can you and I do what ballet dancers do on stage? Hardly. But they are the same people as us, they just exercised their body for years - because they wanted to dance in ballet. We are not called to exercise the body, but the soul, and if we do this poorly, it is only because we do not want to.
Venerable Silouan of Athos
And one more important point: not to be afraid of the truth of life around us. Don’t hide, don’t run from it, don’t embellish it, but have the courage to face it face to face - with all its pain, horror, heaviness. And not to be horrified by this, not to be exhausted by this pain, but to accept life as it is. Only by approaching life in this way can you see human pain and try to heal it. Only by seeing life as it is, can you help someone and not ultimately pass by Christ. Often a person refuses to see life as it is and tries to formalize it. And then everything becomes a formality, including the attitude towards God. At the beginning of our conversation, you compared your attitude towards God with your attitude towards man: do we always treat people informally? Are we always ready to accept a person as he is, to accept him into our hearts, and not turn away from him? How often do we turn away from a person because he causes us some kind of pain - by the very fact of his existence! And when we close ourselves off from people, we almost always close ourselves off from God. And if we once closed our heart to Him, it will not open later automatically. In order for it to reveal itself, special efforts and work of repentance will be needed. Why did St. Silouan of Athos say that praying for peace means shedding blood? Because to pray for the world you need to have such a heart - loving, feeling, merciful. That is why Elder Silouan cried over a cut snake, over a bat that he accidentally scalded with boiling water. It's hard to live like this. Live and cry over other people's pain. From the point of view of a modern person, such tears are a sign of a shattered nervous system, hysteria, etc. But from the point of view of Christianity, this is the norm - such an attitude towards all living things. Nude.
There is one more good rule, although it is not so easy to follow. When something happens that hurts us, when we suddenly learn about something, do not react to it immediately, but take a step back and wait, let what happened resonate in your heart, respond - and react after this heartfelt response. After all, we very often skim only on the surface of events and phenomena, and this also prevents us from living a true heartfelt life. And if a person does not live an authentic life, then his prayer cannot be authentic.
Journal "Orthodoxy and Modernity", No. 29 (45)
Marina Biryukova
Prayer for help in business: how to get what you ask for
Calling on God's help in every matter is absolutely natural for Christians. After all, without the blessing of the Lord it is impossible to achieve success in anything. For Orthodox Christians, prayer for a successful outcome is not a guarantee of necessarily receiving what is planned. This is asking God for help before starting any endeavor. Through the words of prayer, believers do not bring the Lord closer to themselves, but, on the contrary, a person approaches the Creator. We are like sailors on a ship trying to land on shore.
“Being in a ship, grasping the ropes attached to the rock and stretched out to us so that we could moor, we attract not the rock to ourselves, but ourselves and the ship to the rock” (Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite).
The Orthodox Church calls for beginning communion with God only with a pure heart. You need to make every effort to combat absent-mindedness and inattention. Prayer is often compared to a certain amount of work that requires effort and time on the part of the person praying.
Prayer for help in deeds to the Lord should not be limited only to words. You need to “take advantage” of other opportunities for this. That is, to resort to the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, and to participate in joint prayers at church services.
When exactly can you pray?
The Bible contains the words of the Apostle Paul, who calls us to constant prayer. John the Theologian claims that you need to turn to Christ even more often than you take a breath. Thus, the ideal is when all human life turns into a constant presence before the Lord.
It is safe to say that many troubles occurred precisely because man forgot about the All-Seeing Lord. It is difficult to imagine a criminal committing a crime with the thought of Jesus crucified for his own sins.
Important! A person falls under the influence of sin precisely when he loses the memory of God.
Since modern people do not have the opportunity to be in prayer all day, they need to find a certain time for it. So, when waking up in the morning, even the busiest person can find a couple of minutes to stand in front of the icons and ask the Lord for blessings for the new day. During the day, you can repeat short prayers to yourself to the Mother of God, the Lord, your Guardian Angel. You can do this to yourself, completely unnoticed by others.
A special time is before bed. It is then that we need to look at the day we have lived, draw conclusions about how spiritually it was spent, and what we sinned about. Prayer before bed calms you down, eliminates the bustle of the past day, and sets you up for a quiet, peaceful sleep. We must remember to thank the Lord for all the good deeds during the day and for the fact that it was lived by us.
It may seem to a beginner that doing this requires a lot of time, and now everyone has it in short supply. In fact, no matter how fast the pace of our life is, there are always pauses in which we can remember God. Waiting for transport, queues, traffic jams and much more can be turned from irritating factors into a time when we raise our minds to Heaven.
How long should a prayer for help in business be?
However, many are confused by the fact that the gospel words “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Gospel of Luke 11:9) are not always fulfilled. It’s like you’re praying and asking, but you don’t feel any help in your affairs. How long to keep asking?
According to St. John Chrysostom (347-407), there must be persistence in prayer. That is, ask the Lord until what you ask is received. However, we should not forget that in addition to human (sometimes earthly) desires, there is also the Providence of God. This is concern for each person, manifested in protection, protection from possible mistakes, in the direction towards the true good for salvation. Therefore, there is a “postponement” of what is requested. The Lord loves every person and gives what he asks for only if it is for his benefit.
“Let us not force God with prayer. Let us not ask God to deliver us from anything, from illness or the like, or to solve our problems. But let us ask Him for strength and strengthening to endure everything. If God does not give us what we so earnestly ask for, then He has his own reason for this. God also has His “secrets”. If we believe in His good providence, that He knows everything and He always wants good, why shouldn’t we trust Him? Let us pray simply and calmly, without passion and violence.
We know that the past, present and future are all known, naked and open before God. We won't insist. Such effort brings harm, not good. Let us not strive to acquire what we desire, but let us leave it to the will of God. Because the more we chase something, the further it moves away. This means patience, faith and calm are needed. And if we forget about it, the Lord never forgets, and if it is for our benefit, then He will give us what we need and when we need it” (Reverend Porfiry Kavsokalivit, 1906-1991).
What you can't ask God for
Not every request can be pleasing to the Lord. If you ask God for something unworthy, then your most sincere prayers will not be heard.
Moreover, requests that violate the laws of God and harm other people can be heard and fulfilled by the servants of dark forces. You will have to pay for such fulfillment of desires in crippled destinies, destruction of the family, and loss of peace of mind.
A wish for harm to the health or death of a neighbor cannot be fulfilled. You cannot ask for benefits for yourself without having humility in your heart before the will of the Lord.
The demanding “Give!” addressed to God shows that a person has not destroyed pride in his heart and suffers from lack of faith. And the Lord helps according to our faith. If a person is weak in faith, then his request will not be heard.
God's Providence in People's Lives
One day, the Monk Paisiy Svyatogorets (1924-1994) told the story of the life of a Christian who worked as a lawyer. He adhered to certain principles in his professional activities. If he had to defend a guilty person, he tried to expose him and put him on the path to correction. When the guilty person repented of what he had done, he took care of the sentence being commuted. If a poor man was unfairly accused, he defended him free of charge. The lawyer had many acquaintances among high-ranking people. Everyone loved and respected him and tried to fulfill his requests whenever possible.
His wife was also distinguished by her decency. Many neighborhood children addressed her as their mother. She helped poor families and orphans. Once a woman told Elder Paisius that after getting married, she left her job, dreaming of a large family. She asked the Lord to give her as many children as possible, even 20. But God did not give even one.
The Reverend consoled her, explaining that she had more than five hundred children that she cared for. For this woman, the salvation was to become a spiritual mother in order to instruct the younger generation on the right path, to live with God. Subsequently, the couple adopted a girl who, when she grew up, took care of them in their old age. After their death, the adopted daughter became a monk. The Lord did not abandon the pious spouses and arranged their lives in the most correct and beneficial way for them.
About how to pray correctly in church: mistakes that should not be made...
Often believers, trying to pray correctly down to the last detail, forget about what prayer is and why people go to church in the first place.
This is why inexperienced churchgoers often run into comments and nagging from those who consider themselves omniscient, and therefore worthy of criticizing others.
But we go to church to pray, and not to keep an eye on others. Making comments and looking for conflict means accumulating additional sin, putting pride first rather than love for God.
If you have become a victim of such a remark, there is no need to be indignant, say some offensive words, or get angry. Just thank the person who gave you the advice, because he wanted to do what was best, and get back to what you were doing.
Here are 5 tips for those who doubt how to pray correctly in church:
- It is better to pray together in a temple. If you ask, for example, for peace in your country or for wisdom for government leaders, or for an end to some natural disaster, then it is better to do this in church together with other believers, and it is also better to say personal prayers in front of icons.
- Attend church more than once a year. People who consider themselves believers should not attend church only on Easter and when they feel bad. Make it a habit to come to Sunday service. Being a frequent visitor to the temple, you will no longer feel uncomfortable here.
- Don't be afraid to make a mistake. Some people do not go to church not because they are atheists, but because they are afraid of making some mistake: standing in the wrong place, putting a candle in the wrong place, crossing themselves at the wrong time, etc. These are little things that you will learn to understand over time. If you are in doubt about what to do and how to do it, ask those who serve in the church - they are always ready to help.
- Don’t think that the louder you speak, the faster the Lord will hear you. That's not how it works. You don’t have to say anything out loud at all, turning to God to yourself, you can whisper quietly. But loud pronunciation of the words of prayer is undesirable - this way you can disturb those present.
- Follow the correct ritual of beginning and ending prayer. Actually, ritual is too strong a name. Just before you start, you should tune in to the right mood. You can’t pronounce words mechanically and think about something of your own at the same time. Clear your mind and focus on what you are doing. You need to complete the prayer correctly: stand for a while in front of the icon, and not immediately run about your business, as if you had not just prayed, but were doing some mundane, meaningless things.
Take care of your appearance when going to church.
Take the recommendations regarding a long skirt, headscarf (for women), no head covering and a ban on shorts (for men) as a mandatory dress code. Out of a spirit of contradiction and pride, there is no need to offend others and come to church in a defiant manner.
And remember that when entering and leaving the temple, you should cross yourself.
Prayer for help in business: who to contact
Orthodox prayers are not only an appeal to the Creator. You can always ask the Mother of God and the saints for help in business.
Each person decides for himself which one to contact. It depends on your heart’s disposition towards this or that saint. This could be the well-known Saint Nicholas of Myra (3rd-4th century), an ambulance in any matter. Or some little-known saint, if the believer has a heartfelt attachment to him. This could also be his namesake saint, who is the special patron of a Christian.
You can also ask not one, but many saints at once - this will already be a prayer to all the saints for help. But we must not forget that the saints do not give help on their own, they are not the source of miraculous help. They ask God for it for people, intercede before Him. The Lord himself decides whether to help or not. Only from Him do those who pray receive what they ask for.
“Saints are saints, and they have no human passions, no human pettiness. What a person feels is what is given to him. Someone can ask for help from some great saint and receive it, and someone asks for a little-known saint, and still receives help, because in both cases the power of God acts” (Reverend Paisius the Svyatogorets, 1924-1994 ).
What is the difference between home and church prayer
Since an Orthodox Christian is called to constantly pray and can do this almost anywhere, many people ask why they need to pray in church. There is a certain difference between church prayer and personal prayer.
The Church was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, so for a long time Orthodox Christians gathered in communities to glorify the Lord. Church conciliar prayer has great power, and there are many testimonies of believers about grace-filled help after services in the Church.
Church fellowship presupposes mandatory participation in divine services. How to pray so that God will hear? To do this, you need to come to the temple and try to understand the essence of the service. At first it may seem difficult, but over time everything will become clear. In addition, to help the beginning Christian, special books are published that explain everything that happens in the church. You can buy them in the icon shop.
Prayer before starting anything
Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth, Who is everywhere and fulfills everything, Treasure of good things and Giver of life, come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O Good One, our souls.
Bless, Lord, and help me, a sinner, to complete the work I have begun, for Your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of Your Father without beginning, You declared with Your most pure lips that without Me you cannot do anything. My Lord, Lord, with faith in my soul and heart spoken by You, I fall down in Your goodness: help me, a sinner, to complete this work, which I have begun, in You, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, through the prayers of the Mother of God and all Your saints . Amen.
Prayer before the icon of the Mother of God “Quick to Hear”
Most blessed Lady, Ever-Virgin Mother of God, who gave birth to God the Word more than any word for our salvation, and who received His grace more abundantly than all others, who appeared as a sea of Divine gifts and miracles, an ever-flowing river, pouring out goodness to all who come running to You with faith!
It falls to Your miraculous image, we pray to You, the all-generous Mother of the humane-loving Lord, surprise us with Your rich mercies and our petitions brought to You, Quick to Hear, speed up the fulfillment of everything that is arranged for the benefit of consolation and salvation for everyone. Visit, O Blessing Thy servants, with Thy grace, grant to the sick healing and perfect health, to those overwhelmed by silence, to those captivated by freedom, and to the afflicted by various images of comfort.
Deliver, O All-Merciful Lady, every city and country from famine, plague, cowardice, flood, fire, sword and other temporary and eternal punishments, by Your maternal boldness turning away the wrath of God; and spiritual relaxation, overwhelm by passions and falls, free Thy servant, as if, without stumbling in all piety, having lived in this world, and in the future, eternal blessings, we will be made worthy of the grace and love for mankind of Thy Son and God, to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship with His Beginning Father and the Most Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Will God forgive if you ask him for forgiveness?
The Lord God loves all his children, he is merciful, he is ready to grant forgiveness for all sins. What we need from us is:
- Trust in God
- admit your sin
- repent of it
- ask for forgiveness through prayer
- make every effort not to sin in the future
The merciful God is ready to forgive people their sins.
Prayer to Nicholas the Wonderworker
Oh, great intercessor, to the bishop of God, the Most Blessed Nicholas, who shone with sunflower miracles, appearing as a quick hearer to those who call upon you, who always precede them and save them, and deliver them, and take them away from all sorts of troubles, from these God-given miracles and gifts of grace!
Hear me, unworthy, calling you with faith and bringing you prayer songs; I offer you an intercessor to plead with Christ. Oh, renowned for miracles, saint of heights! as if you have the boldness, soon stand before the Lady, and reverently stretch out your hands in prayer to Him for me, a sinner, and grant me the bounty of goodness from Him, and accept me into your intercession, and deliver me from all troubles and evils, from the invasion of enemies visible and invisible freeing, and destroying all those slander and malice, and reflecting those who fight me throughout my life; for my sins, ask for forgiveness, and present me saved to Christ and be worthy to receive the Kingdom of Heaven for the abundance of that love for mankind, to which belongs all glory, honor and worship, with his beginningless Father, and with the Most Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages centuries. Amen.
