Many people experience a state when they seem to believe in God, but they don’t want to pray, fast, or attend church services. My heart is anxious, my soul is tossing, but doubts and everyday worries occupy all my time. This state can last for several days or even months... Then often a feeling of one’s own uselessness and worthlessness appears, and then the thought: faith has weakened, is it... gone? How to survive a period when faith weakens? How to deal with your own indifference? Experienced shepherds share effective and time-tested advice.
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“The Christian life requires consistency and diligence.”
(abbot Nektariy (Morozov))
When a person just comes to the Lord, he feels the warmth of his heart, shows zeal, sometimes is ready to pray around the clock, but often, without calculating his own strength, he gets tired and stops his work to save the soul, then internal devastation sets in.
However, if a person continues to work and pray, then the period of weakening faith passes, he again begins to feel God’s grace and joy from his own Christian life.
If, during a period of life's difficulties, when faith weakens, you stop working and praying out of cowardice, then serious efforts will be required later to take the path of salvation.
who stopped believing in God. (if you believed it, of course)
Nothing - return to God! Time will pass, the evil storm in the soul will calm down, rethink everything and come back... Don’t forget that the devil also tempts us and takes us away from God, unfortunately. After all, they themselves described that the doctor is an Angel. And without God there are no Angels). When the Lord prayed for 40 days on the mountain, he was without food and water, only prayer. The demons sent him a strong wind, heat, cold, pain - everything the Lord did not experience during these 40 days. And on the 40th day the devil sees that the Lord stood, endured, did not give up, then he came up to Christ and said - “This is why you are enduring all this torment, this is how God loves you, why is he sending you all these lawsuits? - I will give it to you.” you have gold, I will give you the universe, all the treasures of the world - give up God. To which Christ said to him, “Go away Satan , for you will never know the Kingdom of Heaven, which the Lord has prepared for people . Your place is in hell.” And then Satan departed from him. The sun came out in the sky, it became warm, birds flew in, animals surrounded Christ with kindness. The Lord rewarded Christ for his humility and devotion to God the Father...... At one time, the Lord also gave you a baby who was scraped out during an abortion - you yourself know, this is a mortal sin and God punishes many for life, like me, for example. On the 40th anniversary of health (if a person dies, then Sorokoust is already spiritually read about the health and salvation of his soul in the Kingdom of Heaven. As for your friend, that she prayed and asked is good, God will count her prayers in Heaven, but apparently her time has come , go to God. Not everyone is taken away by the Lord at the age of 90. Some people simply fall asleep and do not wake up, while for others the Lord forgives their sins; they must live through illness and this difficult period of life and accept it. For the most part, we are not a grateful people. When God gives us life, work, home, love, prosperity, good mood, our relatives, for some reason we don’t thank him and don’t say, “God, why did you give me all this, why such condescension?” As soon as illnesses come upon us, and through our own fault, then immediately why and why and that’s it, I don’t believe it, goodbye... I know one friend who imprisoned his sick mother, who gave him her whole life, in a hospice, there she died. And then his troubles began... I also had a chance to become a happy mother at the age of 20, God gave. But I wanted to go for a walk and twirl my ass, why lie in confinement, give birth and ruin my youth. So now I’m sitting childless, I’m crying, and I’m throwing hysterics. She also said, why God, after all, I’ve been wanting a child for so many years, I’ve been praying to you for so many years... But the Lord doesn’t want it, then I don’t accept it. And apparently, I’m not praying like that, I need to say, “God forgive me, my worthless self, for ruining my baby.” , when you gave. And give me patience and strength to pull through this fruitless cross... and if I ever earn Your forgiveness and mercy, send me a smart doctor so that I can find the cause of infertility and cure it, and with your blessing, I became a mother " And you need to pray not with madness and beating your head on the floor, but with humility and meekness, and with lightness in your soul, and not with a stone. I also went to holy places 3 years ago, there was 3BHB that year, which had never happened before. And thanks for that. So there is hope. And God gives you, all you have to do is find a competent doctor and everything will work out for you! Be sure to give birth and you will be the happiest mommy!
“Help those who have a harder time than you”
(hieromonk Dimitri (Pershin))
We experience cooling in faith every minute. For example, when I woke up, I decided it was time to read the morning rule. However, thoughts immediately come about a long-arrived letter that needs to be answered, about the accumulated dust... and the determination to perform the prayer rule has disappeared. Vanity consumed the soul. It’s already the middle of the day, and I suddenly realize that I haven’t read my morning prayers. Or I came to church for a service, turned to the Lord, and suddenly I remembered how Fyodor Petrovich quarreled with Ivan Semyonovich, and instead of praying, I thought about how to reconcile them. The thought flashes that oil has risen in price again, and the euro has fallen in price.
Why is this happening? Because I am absent-minded and prone to evil. Similar and constant small substitutions gradually give rise to an inclination to sin, then passion and dependence. A person has no control over himself, he is guided by his desires.
One of the Athonite elders believed that our passions are demons that cover the Sky. Growing into human nature, they distort it. Having realized this, we can only pray to God, asking him for mercy.
It happens that faith weakens when a person gets tired of fighting with external circumstances that, as it seems to him, hinder his Christian life. But we should remember that God’s Providence exists and the Lord takes care of us. Therefore, when we perish in lukewarmness, sorrows come that shake us, prompting us to return to the path of salvation.
If you are offended or have become cold, then from my experience I advise helping those who find it more difficult.
When our care, kind words and all possible help are converted into quiet joy, then spiritual uplift occurs.
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Return
And still something needs to be done. Question - what?
Maybe you need to pray more, or start a Bible study group, or go to church more often. Or maybe it’s not necessary. After all, God is not only found in “spiritual things.”
Maybe today you just need to look around, look at familiar shapes, listen, touch, breathe and taste. Maybe the best thing you can do is simply revisit the things and activities you know so well and re-accept them with gratitude.
When you accept these beautiful, pure, visible gifts and appreciate them, you cannot help but recognize the Giver. This may be all the faith you can muster right now, but that's okay. Simply living and being grateful for life is already a spiritual quest; this is a sacred attitude.
“Christians need to gather and share experiences”
(priest Konstantin Parkhomenko)
In faith, as in marriage, cooling comes when a person gets used to it. To preserve family and faith, effort and work are necessary.
The following recommendations will help prevent cooling:
- Make sure that the prayer remains alive and not formal (soulless proofreading).
- Constantly “grow” in faith.
- Be creative – develop Christian “hobbies.” For example, embroidering icons, working in an icon shop, reading and singing in the choir, practicing military-industrial complex with children, and so on.
- Gather with other Orthodox Christians and share experiences in overcoming difficulties, talk about pilgrimage trips, provide support, etc.
“My life began anew”: How I gave up faith
Vitaly Bormotov
In my case, there was no turning point, no unexpected event - neither when I came to religion, nor when I left it. The first happened in high school. I came across books by a Christian preacher and read them: the first with research interest, and the others avidly, feeling like I agreed with the author. The harmony and depth of Christian teaching, as I saw it, attracted me.
An active religious life began later, when I graduated from school. The intensity of my faith was changing. For some time I seriously wanted to become a celibate priest and devote myself to the church, but I changed my mind. And in the last year of my faith, I did not feel any emotional support from religion and continued religious practices only by force of will. I was a Christian for seven years, four of which I led an active religious life.
I was savvy in the natural sciences, so I did not deny evolution and considered the biblical accounts of the creation of the world and the events of the Old Testament to be allegorical. Instead, I found ways to combine religion with science and come up with solid explanations for my views. I consciously agreed with the Creed, the historicity of the events of the New Testament, I believed that God was involved in our lives and that we could pray to Him. Acceptance of religion is spoken of as a matter of choice and adherence to the decision made, and believers can be heard to say that literally nothing could dissuade them from their faith. This is not a perception of beliefs about reality, but rather of group membership or self-identification. For me at that time, and for many Christians, faith is not so much about God as it is about one’s own image.
I noticed more and more details in church practice and rhetoric that seemed incorrect and incorrect to me, and I attributed more and more things to the “earthly” dimension of the Church as opposed to the “heavenly” one. One day, while reading thoughts about religion on a forum of former Christians, I realized that I did not believe in God. This was not some moment of truth, surprise, trauma or blow; on the contrary, I was surprised by the everydayness of this awareness.
At that time, I had already been interested in thinking and systematizing ways of understanding the world for three years. I had long known and understood everything that would require me to reject the idea of God, but it was as if I forbade myself to do this. If anything freed me from illusions, it was not some stunning scientific argument, but a growing inner understanding that I had nothing to value in religion, and there was nothing terrible and limited in the secular approach. When the feelings felt that it was quite normal not to believe, the mind brought to the surface the thought that he no longer believed.
Having dropped my Christian identity, I felt relieved, but I was afraid of the reaction of others, although I knew that there would be no overt aggression. The fears were not justified, but they showed me how social religion is.
After leaving the faith, I realized the irreversible mortality of people and realized how important it is for us to fight aging and death. And there is no guarantee that humanity will not die out due to some stupid mistake. And the main thing that I saw is that it is not enough just to do good things from some list and not do bad ones for everything to be good in the end; people are responsible for the way their actions make the world, on a global level and in small matters.
Basically, religion is attractive for two things: the sense of basic, ontological meaningfulness of life and the fact that it gathers people around itself, gives a sense of group belonging, and creates a common space. I think both of these things can be replaced without resorting to belief in the illusory. Contrary to the words of preachers, life, pleasure, work and knowledge do not lose meaning in a world where there is no God (although, by abandoning false statements, we will no longer close our eyes to some unpleasant truths). Communities that are able to provide the joy of communication and joint activities, creating a group identity, may not be based on false ideas. Often atheists and skeptics are overly individualistic and fear strong communities: that they will become “sects” and will cultivate conformity and intergroup enmity. These dangers indeed exist, but by rejecting the building of communities with a strong group identity, we deny an important need and lose a lot.
I think it is the growth and development of movements and groups, united within and dedicated to different things (tourism, playing “Mafia”, rationality skills, Chuvash folk dances, charity, urban orientation) that can not only take the place of religion, but work better. Doing something concrete with a verifiable result in the real world is more interesting than talking about the invisible, and safer on the subject of becoming a “sect.”
Another thing that is useful in the struggle for common sense is education and the development of the ability to think, solve problems (and not just memorize material). I am not close to atheist activism, which is often limited to derogatory criticism of religion and only provokes stronger defense of faith. Many atheists make stupid mistakes, such as declaring that if there were no religion, there would be no wars and violence; or that all believers believe that everyone else will go to hell; or that all Christian denominations reject evolution. A prominent part of atheist polemics is beating up the opponent's straw man, and it does not help believers get rid of their mistakes.
Instead, enlightenment and community building offer positive content, which, if you accept it, you will no longer need religion so much. This is not a panacea, and it is only possible in relatively prosperous places where people can get education and do interesting things, they have free time to participate in diverse communities and reflect. But in Russia this can work, especially since the majority of believers here are not distinguished by conviction, have a vague idea of Christian teaching and adhere to a certain religiosity, mostly for reasons of tradition and conformity.
“Faith is impossible without prayer”
(Priest Valery Dukhanin)
Faith must be embodied in life - by visiting church, praying, treating people around you, and so on. Otherwise, it fades into the background. Faith is the feeling of the presence of the Lord when you feel that He is nearby. It is supported by prayer - conversation with God.
If a person tries to live following the truths of the Gospel and repent of sins, then God will strengthen his faith.
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Losing faith is more than weakness of will.
But what to do if, despite insomnia, intense prayers, endless questions and exertion of willpower, you realize that you no longer believe in anything? What do you do when the very reality of God (or the fact that God is good) becomes an unaffordable luxury for you? How to survive in the epicenter of a spiritual catastrophe?
Do not give up. God is strong enough to handle your doubts.
Most often, the point is not to become even more stubborn or “religious.” In most cases, people begin to doubt, despite constant Bible reading, prayer, regular church attendance, participation in church services and a desire to believe with all their hearts. They never shied away from all these right things. They are truly God-fearing and active Christians, but all these activities no longer provide the clarity, confidence and comfort that they usually did.
Almost everyone who comes to me in this state of spiritual emptiness and dryness says that they feel guilty. They lament, realizing that no one can help them regain what they have lost, and they scold themselves for not being able to bring themselves to believe as before, when it was easy and simple.
If you are currently in the midst of such a spiritual storm, I will not tell you that there is a quick and easy way to regain your faith. I can’t even say that you will ever return it, at least in its previous form. Perhaps something awaits you that is completely different from what you have experienced before.
Why is this happening?
Many people believe that once faith has appeared, it cannot be lost. In the case when someone loses it, they hide behind the words of the apostle: “They went out from us, but they were not ours” (1 John 2:19). However, anything can happen, including doubts in faith, loss of faith. Why does this happen? The reasons can be very different.
A person may have their priorities wrong. I had friends who focused all their attention, the whole meaning of their going to church, on beautiful priestly clothing, expensive utensils and the splendor of the temple. That is, they went to admire and nothing more.
Those who still have it at the level of a child easily lose faith. Any adult can easily destroy it; it will tremble under the onslaught of ordinary scientific facts.
Loss of faith can occur from a spiritual crisis or in the process of searching for God.
Often those who say: “I already know everything about it!”, but in fact have not even begun to study it, lose faith. These people are superficial, naive, don’t read much—perhaps just young.
Now the Orthodox faith is not as interesting to people as some eastern religions and cults. This is probably not surprising, because in church shops there are few works of the holy fathers and literature that adequately tells about our Church. Because of this, Christian teaching may seem insufficiently deep to some.
Faith is lost when we stop praying. We can continue to go to church, regularly read the morning and evening rules, add something else to this rule, but at the same time lose the living presence of God, forget that we can talk to Him as with a friend, as with someone closest. The same problem arises when a person prays, goes to services, but does not partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
It happens that a person thinks that he is losing faith, but in reality it turns out that he never had it. He took it for granted that God exists, but he did not have a meeting with Him. I remember for myself what I had to go through before I met the living Christ. I remember how I was sitting, drinking tea - and suddenly I realized that I was not a Christian at all, although I go to church, take communion and even become a sexton. At that moment, the desire arose to talk honestly with God.
How to believe in God?
To believe in God, you need to look inward .
If you can plant even a small seed of faith that there is more inside you than just organs and bones, you have the chance to discover a new life. If you don't look inside yourself at least sometimes, you won't see anything. You expect that the Lord should manifest himself in the world of things, should create some kind of miracle that would prove to you His existence. But the fact that He gave you life is not enough for you.
Maybe you feel like your parents gave you life?
But in my opinion, your parents just made love. But what did they have to do with the fact that this activity made it possible to create you? And they also have nothing to do with the fact that the spirit of life with reason and feelings entered a small embryo in the womb. They are only conductors of the manifestation of the incredible miracle of the creation of life. But not its creators themselves.
You will not see a miracle, you will not see God in buildings, monuments, pillars, roads, cars, professions and positions. Any building, even the most incredible, with the most complex shape and design, is just a dry calculation of a person or a group of people. This is their hard, painstaking work, but it can still be broken down into its components and explained how they did it.
But you will not be able to do this with the phenomenon of life, mind, with the subtlest balance in nature and inside every living organism with the most complex systems of neural connections. You will not be able to do this with Space and the Universe.
If you can doubt that you are just a piece of meat and bones, that you live for a very short period of time on Earth and disappear into nowhere, and because of this life, in principle, loses all meaning, then there is hope that you can rediscover yourself.
Let's get back to the questions.
How does a non-believer answer the questions: How to believe in God, Why don’t people believe in God?
He will say: Where is he, God? Who will solve problems for me, God? I can’t see him, I can’t hear him, what good is he to me? From faith in him.
A person sees external life in constantly overcoming problems, and their solution through the application of one’s own efforts.
Craving towards rationalism
The more people turn away from the religious idea of creation, the more rational their thoughts become. Now they will not trust in the Savior, but will rely on their own strength. Any difficult situation will not be accompanied by questions: “Why am I doing this?”, but will force you to act.
On the other hand, rational thinking also has its drawbacks. It cannot provide the feeling of security and happiness that irrational thinking has.
