What is God's providence and how does it manifest itself in our lives?

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

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

Thus, we see that the two-thousand-year experience of the Church, the experience of life in Christ, places the final criterion of good and evil not on the letter of the law, but on the fulfillment of the will of God (“the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” - 2 Cor. 3:6). And if there is the will of God to take the sword and go to defend your people, your loved ones, then fulfilling this will of God is not sin, but righteousness.
And so the question arises with all its severity: “How to know the will of God?”

Dmitry Belyukin. “His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II at Lake Gennesaret.”

Of course, knowing the will of God is a matter of life and cannot be exhausted by any brief rules. Perhaps, Metropolitan of Tobolsk John (Maksimovich) illuminated this topic most fully among the holy fathers. He wrote a wonderful book, “Iliotropion, or on the conformity of the human will with the Divine will.” "Iliotropion" means sunflower. That is, this is a plant that, turning its head behind the sun, constantly strives for light. Saint John gave this poetic title to his book about knowledge of the will of God. Although it was written more than a century ago, it is nevertheless a surprisingly modern book, both in language and in spirit. It is interesting, understandable and close to modern people. The advice of the wise saint is quite applicable in conditions of life that have radically changed compared to recent times. The task of retelling “Iliotropion” is not set here - this book must be read in its entirety. We will try to offer only the most general scheme for solving this most important issue for the salvation of the soul.

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

So, the first “point”, the first criterion is, of course, Holy Scripture, directly the Word of God. Based on the Holy Scriptures, we can quite clearly imagine the boundaries of God’s will, that is, what is acceptable for us and what is completely unacceptable. There is a commandment of God: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind...thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). Love is the final criterion. From here we conclude: if something is done out of hatred, then it automatically falls outside the bounds of the possibility of God’s will.

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

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

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

The third criterion is the voice of God in a person's heart. What is this? Conscience. The Apostle Paul said surprisingly and comfortingly that “when the pagans, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are a law unto themselves, they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience testifies... "(Rom. 2:14-15). In a sense, we can say that conscience is also the image of God in man. And although the “image of God” is a complex concept, one of its manifestations is the voice of conscience. Thus, the voice of conscience can to a certain extent be identified with the voice of God in a person’s heart, revealing to him the will of the Lord. So, it is very important for those who want to live according to the will of God to be honest and sober in hearing the voice of their conscience (the question is how capable we are of this).

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

The fifth criterion is the blessing of the confessor. Happy is the one whom the Lord allows to receive the blessing of the elder. Unfortunately, in our time - “the elders are taken away from the world” - this is an exceptional rarity. It’s good if you have the opportunity to receive the blessing of your confessor, but this is also not so easy, not everyone now has a confessor. But even in the first centuries of Christianity, when people were rich in spiritual gifts, the holy fathers said: “Pray to God to send you a person who will guide you spiritually.” That is, even then, finding a confessor was a definite problem, and then it was necessary to especially beg for a spiritual leader. If there is neither an elder nor a confessor, then you can receive a blessing from a priest. But in our time, a time of spiritual impoverishment, one must be quite sober. You cannot follow the principle mechanically: everything that a priest says is necessarily from God. It is naive to assume that all priests can be confessors. The Apostle says: “Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are everyone miracle workers? Does everyone have gifts of healing?” (1 Cor. 12:29). One should not assume that the charisma of the priesthood in itself is automatically the charisma of prophecy and clairvoyance. Here you must always be careful and look for such a spiritual leader, communication with whom would bring obvious benefits to the soul.

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

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

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

And another most important criterion, without which nothing else can exist - patience: “... with your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19). Everything is received by the one who knows how to wait, who knows how to entrust to God the solution to his problem, who knows how to give the Lord the opportunity to Himself create what He has provided for us. There is no need to impose your will on God. Of course, sometimes it happens that you need to decide on something in an instant, do something in one second, accomplish something, respond. But this, again, is some kind of special providence of God, and even in these circumstances there will definitely be some kind of clue. In most cases, the most optimal way is to give the Lord the opportunity to reveal His will in our lives through circumstances so obvious that there is no escape from it. Pray and wait, being, as long as possible, in the state in which the Lord has placed you, and the Lord will show you His will for the future of life. In practice, this means not to rush into making responsible decisions (for example, Fr. I.K. advises newlyweds to “see the four seasons of the year” in the state of the bride and groom) and not to change their everyday position without a clear need: “Everyone remain in the rank in which whom he was called” (1 Cor. 7:20).

So, we have outlined those criteria, “points” - Holy Scripture and Tradition, conscience, prayer, blessing and spiritual advice, a peaceful state of soul, sensitive attitude to the circumstances of life, patience - which give us the opportunity to know God’s providence for our salvation. And here a completely different, paradoxical question arises: “Are we aware of it - why do we need to know the will of God?” I remember the words of an experienced priest, a fraternal confessor of one of the oldest monasteries in Rus': “It is scary to know the will of God.” And there is a deep meaning in this, which is somehow frivolously missed in conversations about knowing the will of God. It is indeed scary to know the will of God, for this knowledge is a colossal responsibility. Remember the words of the Gospel: “That servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times; but whoever did not know and did something worthy of punishment will receive less punishment. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, from him will be required more” (Luke 12:47-48). Imagine: coming to the Court of God and hearing: “You knew! It was revealed to you what I expected from you - and you deliberately did the opposite!” - that’s one thing, but to come and humbly pray: “Lord, I’m so unreasonable, I don’t understand anything. I tried as best I could to do good, but things didn’t work out right.” What can we take from this! Of course, he did not deserve to be with Christ - but still, “there will be fewer beats.”

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

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

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

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

In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about prudence - without it, knowledge of the will of God is impossible. And indeed, we talked about the fact that in specific life circumstances, only spiritual reasoning can correctly interpret both the truths of the Holy Scriptures, and the experience of the holy fathers, and everyday collisions. Mechanical adherence to the letter of the law outside of spiritual reasoning - for example, giving away property for the sake of achieving perfection (without ripening the soul for achievement; in fact, outside of humility) - is a direct path either to spiritual delusion or to falling into despondency. But the spirit of reasoning is not a criterion, it is a gift. It is not “mastered” by consciousness (like, for example, the experience of the holy fathers) - it is sent down from above in response to our prayer and, like any gift of grace, rests only in a humble heart. Let us proceed from this - and enough is enough.
And again let us listen to the words of the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, from the day we heard about this, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you would act worthy of God, pleasing Him in everything, bearing fruit in every work good and growing in the knowledge of God..."
(Col. 1:9–10).

The providence of God is spoken of very often in Orthodoxy. But for many, especially beginners, the meaning of this term seems unclear. What it is? Is it different from the will of God? How to explain the fact that people get sick, grieve, and die hastily? Read on.

The most common definition

The definition given by Metropolitan Philaret in the Long Christian Catechism is considered classic:

the unceasing action in the world of the all-good, all-wise and all-powerful will of God, turning everything to good and directing each person individually and humanity as a whole to the eternal salvation

Each person can find in his own life examples of how “circumstances turned out well”, people met halfway, some miracles happened (they were late for “death” planes, survived after severe injuries, and so on). This was nothing other than God's providence. The Lord Himself does not want the death of the sinner; He thinks about the salvation of everyone. He is trying to help us as best he can. But this also requires a willingness to correctly understand and accept on the part of the person.

It happens that a person has distanced himself from God and has become spiritually blind because of sin. To regain his sight, he needs to go through trials and purify himself, to realize that without God we cannot do anything.

For this, God allows sorrow and illness for our own good. There are many examples of how people, having become seriously ill, completely changed. They learned to trust their lives to God. There are those who received healing and know exactly who it was from. There are also people who departed into eternity, but they also understood who sent it and why. An amazing example is schema-nun Anna.

God works in mysterious ways

But there are many such cases when it is simply impossible to explain why this happened to me. They say that God's providence is incomprehensible. It is impossible for a person to know the full depth of the Lord’s plan. Many saints and religious philosophers, not to mention ordinary people, puzzled over this. The story of Abba Anthony is illustrative.

This ascetic thought a lot about how God arranges everything in the world. He began to prayerfully address the Almighty: “Lord! This is why some people live to old age (often painful), while others pass away into another world in infancy? Why do some have everything, while others live poorly? Why do people who are far from moral often live prosperously and are content with everything, while decent, pious people grieve and lack the necessities of life?”

And what answer did Anthony receive? “Look at yourself and do not engage in consideration of the Lord’s providence, because this is harmful to your soul.”

Let this story be a lesson for each of us. It is not for nothing that the Apostle Paul says that the ways of the Lord are mysterious.

God's providence = the will of the Lord?

In spiritual literature, in parallel with the concept of providence, the phrase “the will of God” is used. Is it so? There is no clear answer. Many saints and clergy identify them.

Professor Alexey Osipov still suggests making a distinction.

If the first refers to the classic definition of Metropolitan Philaret, then the second refers to the commandments of God, which the Lord Himself gave to humanity. That is, He expressed how a person needs to live in order to achieve holiness.

But no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to completely get rid of sin. So that a person does not drown in the sea of vices, the merciful Creator guides Him with His hand. But only within such limits that they do not harm human freedom. This is God's providence.

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

Providence of God

Archpriest Alexander Glebov

Is it possible to compare the Orthodox teaching about God's providence with the concept of human destiny? Today we will talk about this with a candidate of theology, teacher at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest Alexander Glebov.

K: Father Alexander, what is God’s providence?

A: A conversation about God’s providence opens up a very important topic – the topic of God’s responsibility for his creation. So we usually talk about our responsibility before God, that we will have to answer to God. Such a concept as God's providence speaks of God's responsibility for the human race and for the world He created. There is a religious and philosophical doctrine called “deism” - in it the concept of God’s providence is absent! Deism speaks of God as the creator of the world, but does not speak of God as the provider of the world. Yes, God created the world, God created man, endowed man with reason, free will, and, as it were, distanced himself from any participation in the further fate of this world. Figuratively speaking, he doesn’t care what happens in this world. Why did I mention deism? Because today many people, perhaps even without realizing it, share exactly this point of view. They see in the creative act of God the justification for the existence of this world, because to imagine that this world, so intelligently structured, so complexly organized, developing according to some specific laws, simply arose on its own out of nothing. This is quite problematic for many people to imagine. But at the same time, they do not see any intelligent presence of God in this world. In this world there is a lot of evil, a lot of injustice, people get sick, suffer, die. That is, on the one hand, they recognize that God created the world, because this world as a creation is beautiful and intelligently designed, but, at the same time, they refuse to recognize God’s providence, because what happens in our world is often not intelligent , illogical, cruel and chaotic.
In Christian revelation, such concepts as God the creator and God the provider are inextricably linked, because God’s very decision to create the world was made inextricably together with His decision to save this world. This dual decision of God about salvation and the creation of the world was called the “Eternal Council of the Holy Trinity.” Eternal means before time, before this age, before the creation of the world. And this eternal council was absolutely brilliantly depicted by the Monk Andrei Rublev on his icon, which is called “Trinity”. Since God in his trinity is impossible not only to depict, but even to somehow imagine, in the Orthodox tradition the Holy Trinity is depicted in the form of three angels who were revealed to Abraham at the oak of Mamre. But Rublev’s Trinity does not describe this historical episode, when three angels came to Abraham and announced to him the death of Sodom and Gomorrah. He takes the only possible image of the Holy Trinity mentioned in the Bible and fills it not with historical content, but with prehistoric, pre-eternal, he seems to depict this council of the pre-eternal Holy Trinity. Three angels are sitting at the table, on the table there is a bowl, in the bowl you can see the head of a sacrificial animal and the angels look at each other, as if consulting, conferring among themselves, which of them will become this sacrifice - the Lamb of God. And when the decision is made that the second Person of the Holy Trinity will go into the world in order to become this sacrifice, in order to save this world, then after this the decision is made about the creation of the world itself, that is, God’s providence is, as it were, primary, and the act of creation is secondary .

K: How to correlate human freedom and God’s providence, since man is free and can do whatever he wants? How to recognize what happens as a result of our achievements and mistakes, due to the evil or good will of other people, and what happens according to the will of God?

–A: This is a rather difficult question and it is probably impossible to give any comprehensive answer to it! There seems to be an obvious contradiction here, there just isn’t enough logic to cover it. On the one hand, we believe that the Lord guides every person, starting from his birth through life, but, on the other hand, you absolutely rightly said that a person is absolutely free and can do whatever he wants. He plans his life himself, although practice shows that our plans often remain plans and life goes according to a completely different scenario, not the way we planned it, and you have to do in life not what you want, but what you are forced to do circumstances for you. But still, freedom of choice always remains with a person. Moreover, we come under the influence of other people, sometimes this influence is good, sometimes it is evil, and if state law and criminal law somehow limit the evil will of people, punishing them for a crime, then the Lord does not limit anyone. You don’t have to look far for examples: now our TV viewers will watch this program, switch to the news program, and what will they hear there? News! What's the news? The same as yesterday! There are wars, terror flourishes, blood is shed, innocent people suffer, violence of one against another, and yet the Lord does not stop anyone, because such is the evil, but free will of people. But more than that, there are laws of nature, the law of this world, and we, living in this world, fall under the influence of these laws. Therefore, something comes into our lives according to our will, something according to the good or evil will of other people, somewhere we obey the laws of the universe, but in both cases, and in the third case, there is a place for God’s providence. It is probably impossible to somehow draw such a clear line in this kaleidoscope and say where God’s providence is and where it is not! True, some people solve this problem for themselves in the following way: they say something like this: if something came into my life, something that does not depend either on my will or on the will of other people, but completely unexpectedly, as if unpredictable, something so unusual. You know, as the late Metropolitan Nikodim said: “Everything that is unexpected is from God.” And in fact, of course, it is very difficult to disagree with this, but still, I would not limit God’s providence only to some special events in our lives. We believe that the Lord guides a person through life through His providence, without violating human freedom, but it is impossible to say what the mechanism for combining these seemingly incompatible realities is.

–K: You said that many people refuse to recognize God’s providence because they do not see God’s reasonable action in the world, but it is impossible to disagree with this, because there is a lot of suffering in the world, people do what they want, they commit crimes and the Lord does not stops. Others, going through trials, ask God for help, but the Lord does not often hear them, and if he does, he only intensifies these trials. How to combine God's love for his creation, God's providence for the world with the reality that is happening around us?

A: As for the goodness of God and the evil that is present in the world, two considerations are usually expressed about this. The first is that evil can only be destroyed with its bearer, that is, with man, and God, precisely by his goodness, wants man’s correction, his repentance, and not his death. You and I address God as our father – “Our Father”, “Our Father”. We do not call God a judge, a prosecutor, law or justice, we call him father. And so, if we transfer our relationship with God to intra-family relationships, if a child has done something wrong before his father, then what - the father immediately beats him, destroys him? Even if the child is sick, even if the child spreads evil around him, even if this child has grown up and become a criminal. Yes, society will condemn him, the law will condemn him, but his father will still love him, because the father treats his child not from the position of the legal law, not even from the position of the law of justice, he treats him from the position of the law of love. The same thing happens in our relationship with God. Actually, why the Lord tolerates evil, and until what point this will continue, He explained quite clearly when He told the parable of the wheat and the tares. Well, the second consideration: since there is evil in the world, the Lord turns it around for the sake of saving people, for correcting lost people, sinful people and for strengthening faith and testing the righteous. This was well noted by Goethe in the phrase of Mephistopheles, in the famous phrase: “I am part of that force that always wants evil, but always does good.” The devil sows evil, but the Lord uses this evil as a bitter medicine to save people and thereby turns evil into good.
But, in general, this question that you asked me, I probably will not be mistaken if I say that from an apologetic point of view, this is, of course, the most difficult question. There is an attempt in theology to resolve this issue, which is called “Theodicy,” which means “justification of God.” This name may also seem strange to us, because we are looking for justification from God, and here we are talking about the fact that God must be justified. God, indeed, sometimes has to be justified, but I’ll give you an example that is probably well known to every priest. For example, a mother comes to church and says that her child has died. So she approaches the priest and asks him approximately the following set of questions: “What is this? For what? Why? Why is she or her child worse than others, and what crime did they commit? How can one even understand this action of God, who took her child away from her and doomed her to such suffering, ruined her life?” The priest, of course, is trying to somehow console this person, although it is impossible to talk about any consolation here, but at the same time he is trying to somehow protect God, justify His actions, so that this person does not lose faith. In other words, this is an attempt to reconcile all the contradictions that you mentioned in your question: that God really is love, that his providence is aimed at the good of people. All these provisions are subject to very serious doubts, because absolutely every person, with very varying degrees of church involvement and generally religious feeling, asked similar questions: what if God loves the world so much that he did not spare Himself for the sake of saving this world and, if He is omnipotent, then where is the manifestation of this omnipotence and love in our world. But sometimes completely innocent people go through such a crucible of suffering that simply because of the horror of what is happening, it is not possible to accept it as the good will of God, as some kind of good. And then people correlate what happened and God’s providence, they are left with few options for an answer. Either God really doesn’t care about us and all the stories about his love are greatly exaggerated, or He does not have omnipotence, He is simply forced to watch powerlessly as evil reigns in the world. Or He doesn’t exist at all, and these are all fables. We find the answer about the suffering of the innocent, about the suffering of the righteous, in the New Testament, in the suffering in the death of the innocent Christ. If a person defines eternal salvation for himself as the goal of his life, if he goes to this goal through righteousness and the path of holiness, then it will be the way of the cross, only the way of the cross, there is no way around it! This will be a narrow path and a narrow gate leading to the Kingdom of God. And the Lord does not deceive anyone, He does not give any false promises! Anyone who has read the Gospel should lose all illusions about what it means to follow Christ. The Lord says quite clearly that if you want to follow me, then forget about yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. And the more righteous a person is, the stronger his spiritual life, the heavier this cross will be for him. And if a person meaningfully accepts the Sacrament of Baptism, then he must understand that he thereby expresses a desire to share the earthly fate of Christ. Not only His eternity, not only His Resurrection, but His earthly destiny. Well, everyone knows well how the Lord ended His life.

Divine superperfection knows everything before it happens and before it ends. To us, due to the numerous changes that are caused in us by the Fall, together with the imprudent and criminal behavior of man, all this seems unknown, changeable and incomprehensible.

Despite the fact that everything is subject to Divine Providence and Care, depending on the circumstances, time, place, persons and the cunning of Satan, changes in the established order of things are possible.

But nothing can hinder the Providence of God or cancel its actions in relation to creation. By our evil actions we can only contribute to changing the way the various elements function or operate.

The Divine will or Divine counsel, considered in turn, appears in four forms.

First, Divine favor or favor, the benevolent will, that is, what God primarily wills.

Secondly, economy, economic will, according to which, due to our weakness, God gives in to us as a father.

Thirdly, the concession, the yielding will, according to which God intervenes and admonishes.

And, fourthly, much-lamentable abandonment by God: when a person lives in unrepentant stubbornness and insensibility, thereby causing this state when God abandons him.

Through the Divine will, the all-saving Divine Providence is realized even despite the fact that our own fall has distorted the balance, disrupting the very good conditions of its existence. “Whoever is wise will notice this and understand the mercy of the Lord” (Ps. 107:43).

God, since he foresaw everything, could prevent the misfortune that befell man, but thereby the personal freedom of the latter would be abolished. It was precisely out of respect for her that He left the final choice to the person himself, and thus he himself bears responsibility for his life, full of worries and labors, either due to darkness of the mind, or due to his passionate depravity and neglect of reasoning.

In this deplorable situation in which man finds himself after he has separated himself from a loving God, there are attacks and influences of Satan, who has power in this valley of tears where we live. We ourselves conceded this right to him, leaving paradise and following him.

Being, according to the Apostle Paul, “the prince of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), the serpent of hell never ceases to attack and deceive a person with shameless offers. We need to be more attentive and pray more, and especially in our time, when a bad example has become the norm and is transmitted instantly using existing means.

Consequently, Divine Providence is the all-saving care and care with which God embraces bodily and spiritual creatures, now living and having to be, now and in eternity.

The truth of God is also realized in the sphere of Divine Providence. It interferes in a person’s life when it is dominated by an unreasonable principle. Thus, the Truth of God, being absolute, holds back this unreasonable principle for the common benefit in man’s achievement of his destiny. Everything that exists, from the beginning of its creation, is destined for some purpose. And this Divine plan cannot change, because God “created all things with wisdom.”

If, through human naivety or demonic cunning, the original goal is violated, then due to the subsequent repentance of the person and depending on the degree of repentance and correction of the sin, the place of Divine favor is taken by Divine economy.

God, “who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), ordains all things according to His gracious will, which is nothing less than the absolute and infallible way for us to achieve our goal, and He can give us “incomparably more than all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).

When a person errs or neglects his duty, God, instead of changing His mind, depriving him of the mercy he had bestowed and rejecting him as guilty, intervenes for the purpose of admonition to lead him to correction. These, according to the holy fathers, represent intelligible or conciliatory misfortunes. The saying is justified in practice: “Whom the Lord loves, he punishes, and favors him as his son” (Proverbs 3:12).

Instead of rejecting the offender, God, in his humane economy, heals the disease of betrayal with appropriate temptations. Most of the deepest judgments of God, by which real life is governed, relate precisely to this type of reconciliation. “Blessed is the man whom You admonish, O Lord, and instruct in Your law” (Ps. 93:12). And again: “before my suffering I was mistaken” (Ps. 119:67) and “the Lord punished me severely; but he did not give me over to death” (Ps. 117:18).

The main reasons for the current disorder of fallen man are his fickle state in which he remains, and his thoughts, which are “evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21).

Because we cannot convince ourselves to be consistent in the performance of our duties, we violate the plan of Divine Providence and force God, in order to maintain balance, to subject us to conciliatory misfortunes that are quite painful. But this is our cross and we must bear it.

God sees in advance the life of a person as a whole... and decides - this one should be among the believers and saved, and this one should not be... The definition of God is a conclusion from the whole life of a person; life itself flows according to the inclinations of will, and according to the influence of Divine Providence on it, both inside and outside...

Saint Theophan the Recluse

...Always trust only in God, but never in man. Then all evil will fall away from you like a cut off branch.

Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina

The great Pimen said: “Our will is a copper wall between us and God, and does not allow us to get close to Him or contemplate His mercy.”We must always ask the Lord for spiritual peace, so that it would be more convenient to fulfill the Lord’s commandments; for the Lord loves those who strive to do His will, and thus they find great peace in God.

Venerable Silouan of Athos

Conduct yourself simply and with complete trust in God. By placing our future and our hope on God, we, in some way, oblige Him to help us. Do you know how everything changes if you trust God? Is it a joke to have God as your ally? There are no difficult situations for God; it is not difficult for Him to find a way out of any situation. For God everything is simple...

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets

...Do not rush to reach out to tomorrow, live today, today learn to see the will of God for yourself at the present moment, and not only see it, but you must also have an unshakable determination to fulfill it, so you will live by the guidance of God. We must forget our “like it or not”, we must accept God’s.

Archimandrite John Krestyankin

The will of God is holy and good. Divine Providence - How to know and see the will of God? — Cutting off one’s will and trusting in God — About everyday life —About the benefits of small acts of virtue - Holy Scripture about trust in God

The will of God is holy and good. Providence of God

Venerable Anthony the Great (251-356) taught his disciples: “A truly intelligent person has one concern, to wholeheartedly obey and please God in every possible way. This and the only thing he teaches his soul is how to please God, thanking Him for His good providence, no matter what the circumstances of life may be. For it is inappropriate for doctors, even when they give us bitter and unpleasant medicines, not to give thanks for the healing of the body, but to God, because of what seems not joyful to us, to remain ungrateful, not realizing that everything happens according to His providence and for benefit us. In such understanding, and in such faith in God, there is salvation and peace of the soul.”

Venerable Isaac the Syrian (550) writes: “If you have once entrusted yourself to the Lord, who is all-sufficient to protect you and look after you, then do not worry about anything like that again, but tell your soul: “For me, He is sufficient for every task, to whom I once gave my soul.” I'm not here; He knows it." – Then you will actually see the miracles of God, you will see how God is close at all times to deliver those who fear Him., and how His Providence surrounds, although invisible. But because the Guardian who is with you is invisible with your bodily eyes, you should not doubt Him, as if He does not exist; for He often reveals Himself to the eyes of the body, so that He may be pleased with you.

Those in whom the light of faith shines no longer reach such shamelessness as to again ask God in prayers: “Give us this,” or: “Take that from us,” and do not care at all about themselves; because with the spiritual eyes of faith they see every hour the Fatherly Providence with which that true Father overshadows them, Who with His immeasurably great love surpasses all fatherly love, more than anyone else can and has the power to assist us to an excess of greater extent than we ask, think and imagine .

Be sure that your Guardian is always with you and that, together with other creatures, you stand under one Lord, Who with a single wave sets everything in motion and arranges everything. Stand courageously and be complacent. Neither demons, nor destructive beasts, nor vicious people can fulfill their will to harm you and destroy you, unless the Ruler allows this to happen and does not give this place to a certain extent. Therefore say to your soul: “I have a Guardian who protects me; and not one of the creatures can appear before me, unless there is a command from above. If it is the will of my Lord that the evil ones prevail over creation, then I accept this without being upset, as I do not want the will of my Lord to remain unfulfilled.” Thus, in your temptations you will be filled with joy, as one who knows and understands exactly that the Master’s command controls and disposes of you. So strengthen your heart with trust in the Lord.”

Venerable Abba Dorotheos of Palestine (620) writes what God’s good will is: “God wants us to desire His good will.

To love one another, to be compassionate, to give alms and the like—this is God’s good will.”

Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1783-1867) writes that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, and teaches in all sorrowful circumstances and disasters to see the good Providence of God: “Poverty, illness, hunger, death come to people: is this the way of the Lord? Where is the mercy? These calamities befall many, evil and good, without discernible distinction: is this the way of the Lord? Where is the truth here? Natural evil is born from natural causes, but it is often averted by natural means: where is the way of God here? Don’t we notice how perplexities of this kind are readily invented and preached by the people of this century, as if they were new discoveries, as if they were knowledge of the laws of nature? Truly, the pure, sublime gaze of the Prophet is not superfluous here in order to discern the path of God in the affairs of nature, in order to reveal the mercy and truth of the Lord through the confusion of human innocence and guilt. And David sees this and warns our later wise men long ago so that they do not make inappropriate exceptions from the laws and authority of both the all-good and all-encompassing Providence. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth(Ps. 24, 10).

Since God is infinite, omnipresent and omnipotent, there is no state of creatures in the universe that would be inaccessible to Him, through which some path of the Lord would not lie: there is no event that would not be led by the path of the Lord, however, so that the path The Lord never restricts the paths of freedom for moral beings. Since God, who is omnipresent and governs everything, is also a wise, righteous and all-good God, then all the actions of His conduct, all the events of the world concerning moral beings, are conducted in such a way that everything is a means to good and against evil; so that what is called evil because of its unpleasant sensation and destructive actions in visible nature, this, so to speak, superficial manifestation of evil, was a medicine or antidote to a deeper and more genuine evil which, born from the abuse of the freedom of moral beings, damages them internally and becomes the source of countless and endless evil consequences, internal and external, if its paths are not stopped by the ways of the Lord. All the ways of the Lord including those named so paths of wrath(Ps. 77, 50), or punitive actions of Providence, and disasters, apparently randomly found, apparently indiscriminately striking, are mercy and truth, relating primarily to those who seek His covenant and His witness;- truth, when a sinner is struck and the multiplication of sins and the spread of sinful infection is prevented; the truth when a righteous person is saved in a common disaster; mercy, when a sinner is spared, in whom repentance has either already been initiated, or is foreseen to be initiated; mercy and truth together, when by the calamity which threatened many and befell few, many were brought to the knowledge of their sinful condition and stirred up to reform.

Heard by Job and still heard today comforters of evil(Job.16:2), (that is, those comforters who, thinking to console in evil, produce new evil with false consolation) say: be calm - a destructive disease is not at all the wrath and punishment of God. So what is she, my friends? Is favor and reward from God? It is likely that such a comforter would not wish for such a reward; but it is true that philanthropy will not allow us to wish it for him.

When a rod appears in the temple of a good father, the one who sees it will immediately think: apparently there are guilty ones among the children. The Universe is the home of the Heavenly Father. He protects people, especially children of faith, more than the mother of her children(see: Is.49, 15). Social disaster is, without a doubt, not a wreath, but a rod. So, when I see this rod, I cannot think otherwise than that the children of the earth apparently deserve punishment from the Heavenly Father.

If they think that disaster did not come through the path of truth and the mercy of the Lord, punishing evil and turning to good, then I ask: how did disaster come into the world? Stealthily? - It is forbidden. God is omniscient. Forcibly? - It is forbidden! God is omnipotent. By the blind movement of the forces of nature? - It is forbidden. They are ruled by the all-wise and all-good God. No matter where you turn with your guesses, you will be forced to return to one indisputable truth: If somehow disaster brought into the world, then it is allowed only as a means of Providence, punitive and corrective, and sometimes testing and perfecting, - as the truth and mercy of the ways of the Lord.”

Venerable Macarius of Optina (1788-1860) in one of his letters he writes about firm faith in the Providence of God and about surrendering all of himself and his loved ones to His holy will - then all our bewilderments are dispelled, that God does not hear our prayers and does not help in the sorrowful circumstances that befall us, etc. : “The bewilderment and confusion that trouble you concern you and your children not only in temporary life, but extend to eternity. You, although you want to get rid of inconveniences in life, resort to material means and ask God to send them to you; If you don’t receive it soon, you reach despondency and despair. I offer you what you yourself know: destinies of God inscrutable! Your destinies are many abyss(Ps.35:7), and Thy destinies, O Lord, throughout all the earth(Ps. 104, 7). And the Apostle Paul exclaims: O the depth of the wealth and wisdom and mind of God! who has tried the mind of the Lord, or who has been His adviser(Rom. 11:33-34)?

From this we can conclude that God’s providence is over all of us, and even a bird does not fall without His will and the hair of our head will not perish (see: Luke 21, 18).

And isn’t your present position in the will of God? Believe firmly that God is looking out for you; don't give room for doubt lest the word of the Scripture come true against you: Your destinies are taken away from before him(Ps. 9, 26).

But you ask and don’t receive, which confuses you even more.

And as you know from the history of human life and from the examples that happen before our eyes, what accidents people are struck by: a family is sometimes deprived of its father, a husband of his wife, a wife of her beloved husband, parents of their only begotten son - all their hope and joy; children remain orphans, without care; another is deprived of all wealth, becomes a beggar, another suffers various misfortunes, sorrows of illness, is deprived of honor, and so on.

Who manages all this if not The providence of the Almighty, allowing everyone sorrow, according to his measure, strength and structure in order to punish him, or to test and strengthen his faith, or to protect him from falling into sin?

Those who suffered misfortune rightly asked for deliverance and relief from sorrows, but did not receive it soon; and why? The One Almighty Creator and Provider of all knows this. We know that He we demand their news before our petition(Matt. 6:8) and that He gives us benefits that we do not expect from Him; that He is always a timely helper in sorrows.

One church teacher says: “The Lord, although invisibly, is really close to us, so that He can hear all our groans and give us His help. He knows and sees all our needs and misfortunes, and His loving heart is filled with goodness and readiness to help, which He showed when He lived on earth, full of grace and truth. But the Lord does not deliver me from misfortune for a long time! Yes, beloved, but He has placed the time and method of deliverance in His power».

Surrender yourself to His holy will and pour out your sorrow before Him, with the psalmist: I will pour out my prayer before Him; I will declare my sorrow before Him. My spirit will never disappear from me, and You have known my paths(Ps. 141, 4). My heart has always been sad, I have cried from the ends of the earth(Ps. 60: 3). God is our refuge and strength, our helper in the sorrows that have come upon us(Ps.45:2).

And expect His all-generous and merciful right hand to help you in your sorrows; but if you do not receive what you want and ask for for a long time, then strengthen yourself with the above reasoning; - and believe that it should be this way and not otherwise.

Perhaps this is testing your faith and love for God, or the place you are asking for might not be useful to you morally or physically. The Lord is able to comfort you in others, in the only way known to Him.

Your sorrow, of course, is not forgotten before God, who tests hearts and wombs. If this is punishment, then Holy Scripture tells us: The Lord loves him, punishes him, beats every son who accepts him(Proverbs 3:12). And in the very sorrows, the mercy of God appears and spiritual consolation is given. Cast your sorrow upon the Lord, and He will nourish you(Ps. 54, 23).

You think that it is better for your son to always be with you, but who knows? And in your presence, if God allows it, it can deteriorate, and in the hands of others it can survive without harm.

But, wherever your children are, whether with you or in some institution, instill in them Christian rules and entrust them to God and the intercession of the Mother of God...”

about God’s determination, about His Providence and about human will in our lives, he writes: “God sees in advance the life of a person as a whole... and decides - this one should be among the believers and saved, and this one should not be... The definition of God is a conclusion from the whole life of a person; life itself flows both according to the inclinations of will, and according to the influence of Divine Providence on it both inside and outside... God does everything to enlighten man. If, after all the care for him, he sees him not wanting to improve, then he leaves him, as if saying: “Well, there’s nothing to do, stay.” God does not want the sinner to die; but he does not force the will, and only does everything to incline the will towards good. He foresees all such things about everyone, and as He foresees, so He determines.”

Here's what he writes about it (1910-2006): « God has no predestination for man, but man is certainly a co-creator of his life with the Lord.

And the Lord, looking over our lives, sees is life extension beneficial to us? Are we living our days for good? is there still hope for repentance?

There is no arbitrariness in life. And the state of our soul affects the timing of earthly life.

...Life itself teaches us about life. But if we deliberately sin, then we will not transfer this sin onto others. The other one is responsible for his own, and we are responsible for ours.

Do not forget that We are not pawns in life, but co-creators with God.”

Elder Arseny (Minin) (1823-1879) about God’s Providence in our lives he says: “We must be attentive and reverent to the ways of God’s Providence, through which our mind is enlightened by the light of truth, according to the word of the Lord: I am the way and the truth and the life(John 14:6). In the Holy Scriptures, not everything is revealed to man, due to the limitations of his mind. A person will receive complete insight upon his transition to eternity. In real life, as much is revealed to a person as he can accommodate and as much as is necessary for him, according to God’s vision, for this life in which he lives by faith. He stands on faith, as on an unshakable foundation.”

Hegumen Nikon Vorobyov (1894-1963) in one of his letters to his spiritual children he writes: “You seem to be upset that the years are passing by. You are not built... This is all from this world and from its prince. He scares you. He confuses your thoughts, inspires all sorts of fears and lies, and lies endlessly, and thereby betrays himself in all areas.

What is the essence of Christianity? The fact that the Almighty, Omniscient Creator of the universe so loves and pities man, cares so much about him and his salvation that he gave His Only Begotten Son to shame, the Cross and death. The Lord cares not only about humanity as a whole, but also about each person individually, holds him in His hand every minute, protects him from invisible and visible enemies, admonishes him through people, and through books and life circumstances. If it is necessary to punish a person for admonition and protection from greater trouble, then he punishes with mercy, and then, if the person can accept without harm, he rewards purely, as if regretting that he punished. Anyone whose inner vision has opened somewhat sees this amazing providence of God for man in both the great and the small. And indeed: if God for the sake of man sacrificed the most precious thing - His Son - then how can he regret anything, for the whole universe is nothing before this Sacrifice. The Lord does not spare anything, especially for those who strive for Him, who try to fulfill His word, who lament in their hearts over every sin committed, as a violation of His will, as if inattention to Him, ingratitude and dislike for Him.

He who comes to Me will not be cast out! The Lord rejoices over everyone who reaches out to Him, immeasurably more than a mother rejoices over her child’s love for her.

That's why don't be afraid of the future. God is with us today and tomorrow and forever. Just be afraid of offending Him with any sin. If through weakness we fall into something wrong, we will repent, and the Lord will forgive us; we just don’t need to consciously choose evil (sin), justify ourselves, or grumble against God. Don't be afraid of anything. Be bold, cast all sorrows, bewilderments, fears, resentments from demons and people on the Lord, and He wants and knows how to free you from them when it will be useful to you.

Don't trust yourself and people. Believe the Word of God, the Gospel. Study the Gospel through life and experience. Life in Christ will give you such fullness, such an understanding of everything, spiritual joy, firmness - that the life of worldly people will seem (as it really is) insignificant, uninteresting, poor, pitiful, vain, full of petty squabbles, troubles, and often great sorrows."

(1910-2006) writes about the good Providence of God in our lives (from letters to laymen and clergy): “God has no forgotten people, and God’s Providence sees everyone. And the world is ruled by God, only God, and no one else…

God does not consult with anyone and does not give an account to anyone. One thing is certain that everything He does is good for us, one goodness, one love.

...You can and should only change your inner man, who has been in the Church for so many years and has not yet begun to believe that the world is ruled by God’s Providence...

Learn to thank God for everything. And with gratitude accept from His hand both days of prosperity and days of sorrow. AND the basis of our consolation is that God’s Providence rules the world...

God, in the city, in the village, in Russia, and abroad, is One. And God’s Providence builds the destinies of nations and each person separately...

Life is difficult now, a barrage of frightening information is shaking the already fragile balance. So that we do not react so painfully to these storms excited by the enemy, one must firmly believe that God rules the world, and try, as much as possible, to live according to God’s commandments.

Faith that saves a person is not only faith in the existence of God in heaven and in the abstract... No, faith is real submission to the Living God on earth, unconditional trust in His entirety in His Revelation, striving and following the paths He indicated and interpreting absolutely everything for the glory of God.”

How to know and see the will of God?

(1788-1860) in one of the letters he writes: “You ask how to do everything not according to your will and how to know and see the will of God? The will of God is visible in His commandments, which we must try to fulfill when dealing with our neighbors, and in case of non-fulfillment and crime, bring repentance. Our will is corrupted, and we need constant compulsion to fulfill the will of God, and we must ask for His help.”

Archimandrite John (Peasant) (1910-2006) writes in his letter: “...Everything is by Him, everything is from Him, everything is to Him” - this is how we live. And now, at the end of my life’s journey, I testify that there is no better and truer path than to live according to the will of God. And the will of God is revealed to us so clearly by the circumstances of life.”

Cutting off your will and trusting in God

“The most valuable thing is to learn to surrender yourself entirely to the will of God”

Archimandrite John (Peasant)

Saint John Chrysostom (347-407):“Take heed, brother, when something unexpectedly befalls you and saddens you, do not resort to people and do not rely on human help, but, leaving all people, direct your thoughts to the Doctor of souls. The only one who can heal the heart is He who alone created our hearts and knows all our deeds; He can enter our conscience, touch our heart and comfort our soul.

If He does not comfort our hearts, then human consolations will be useless and in vain; just as vice versa, when God calms and consoles, then, even if people bother us a thousand times, they will not be able to harm us in the least, because when He strengthens the heart, then no one can shake it.”

Venerable Isaac the Syrian (550):“As soon as a person rejects all visible help and human hope and follows God with faith and a pure heart, grace will immediately follow him and reveal its power to him in various help. First, he opens this visible thing concerning the body, and helps him with providence about it, so that in this he can most of all feel the power of God’s Providence about him. By understanding the help in the obvious, he is assured of help in the hidden - in the reasoning of which grace reveals to him the intricacy of difficult thoughts and thoughts, as a result of which a person can easily find their meaning, their mutual connection and their charm, and how they are born one from the other - and destroy the soul. At the same time, grace puts to shame in his eyes all the wickedness of the demons and, as if with a finger, shows him what he would have suffered if he had not recognized this. Then the thought is born in him that every thing, small and great, he should ask his Creator in prayer.

When the grace of God confirms his thoughts so that in all this he trusts in God, then little by little he begins to enter into temptation. And grace allows temptations to be sent to him, corresponding to his measure, in order to inflict their power on a person. And in these temptations, help is tangibly approaching him, so that he may be in good spirits until he gradually learns and gains wisdom, and in trusting in God begins to despise his enemies. For It is impossible for a person to become wise in spiritual battles, to know his Provider, to feel his God and to be intimately established in faith in Him, except by the strength of the test he has passed.”

Venerable Abba Dorotheos of Palestine (620):“Nothing brings such benefit to people as cutting off one’s will, and from this a person prospers more than from any other virtue.

Only then does a person see the immaculate path of God when he leaves his own will. When he obeys his own will, he does not see that the ways of God are blameless, and if he hears any instruction, he immediately condemns and denies it.

Cutting off your will is a real battle with yourself, to the point of bloodshed, and to achieve this a person must work until death.”

Venerable Elder Paisiy (Velichkovsky) (1722-1794):“The Holy Fathers cared about the present day; about tomorrow, regarding every thing and need, they entrusted care to God, committing soul and body into the hands of the Lord, and He Himself provides for their lives and takes care of every need. Cast your sorrow upon the Lord, and He will nourish you(Ps. 54, 23); Be constantly occupied with Him alone; for He always hears day and night those who cry to Him; especially looks at their unceasing prayer. If we take care of ourselves, then God does not take care of us; if we ourselves take revenge, then God does not avenge us; If we free ourselves from illnesses, then God does not heal us.

If someone does not cast all of himself on God, both in necessary bodily needs and in all sorrow he does not say: "As God pleases"- cannot be saved... When we are sick, we get wounds, or we approach death and die, or we suffer a lack of necessary needs and have no one who would have mercy on us; and if we say: “As God wills, so let him do with us,” then by this alone the devil, our enemy, will be put to shame and defeated.”

Elder Moses, Archimandrite of the Bryansk White Coast Hermitage (1772-1848) said that in everything we must seek God’s help, and not rely on ourselves, and resort to God in everything.

Place yourself in everything on the will of God in all circumstances and say: it will be the will of God.

This is how the father instructed his children and thus always remained in peace of mind, without embarrassment, and taught the brethren that they should always rely in everything on the will of God and remain in peace and tranquility of soul and not be embarrassed about anything, but would submit everything that happens to the will of God .

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894) writes about renouncing one’s will: “The beginning of all sins is in the disobedience of the first man to the command of God the King, and now What is every sin but the fruit of disobedience?. Ask, why do the zealots of piety suffer most of all? From the waywardness of your will. What did the holy ascetics primarily arm themselves against? Against your will. What prevents a sinner from leaving sin and turning to God - on the path of righteousness? Persistence and corruption of one's will. How therefore should it be beneficial to destroy, or at least diminish this evil in us - our will, to crush this iron neck(Is.48, 4)! (Neck - neck; Here: self-will). But how and what is the most convenient way to do this? Nothing more than obedience, renunciation of one’s will, surrendering oneself to the will of another...”

About surrendering yourself to the will of God, Saint Theophan writes: “When things come from the heart, there is living life... and when it is dedicated to the Lord, then it is divine: for then God is working in you. Thinking about yourself and your fate, you decide: be the will of God. There is no wiser decision than this. He who is like this in his heart is like a quiet refuge, although before your eyes is the troubled sea of the world... Keep the boat of your life at this anchor, and the waves will not drown you, the splashes will only sprinkle you a little.

Keep it like this: always belong to the Lord. This requires a lot: always carrying the Lord in your thoughts; in the heart - always have a feeling for the Lord; in the will - do everything you do for the Lord. Three points, but ones that combine everything in themselves - they embrace your whole life.”

Venerable Macarius of Optina(1788-1860): “Faith does not consist only in believing that there is a God, but also in His all-wise Providence, which governs His creatures and arranges everything for their benefit; times and seasons the Father has set in His power(Acts 1:7) and for each of us he determined the limit of life before our existence, so that no bird will fall to the ground without the will of your Father, no hair will perish from your head (see Matt. 10, 29; Luke 21 , 18)".

A person who has such faith sees God in everything, trusts in Him, seeks His help and protection, loves Him and tries to be pleasing to Him in everything. Sin has no power over such a person, because the greatest thing he fears is separation from the Lord his God.

Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina (1845-1913):

« Do not trust in princes, in the sons of men, for in them there is no salvation.”(Ps. 145, 3). ...Always trust only in God, but never in man. Then all evil will fall away from you like a cut off branch.”

Venerable Silouan of Athos (1866-1938): « Great good - surrender to the will of God. There is only one Lord in the soul then, and there is no other thought, and she prays to God with a pure mind, and feels the love of God, although she suffers in body.

When the soul has completely surrendered to the will of God, then the Lord Himself begins to guide it, and the soul directly learns from God, and previously was instructed by teachers and Scripture.

The proud person does not want to live according to the will of God: he loves to govern himself; and does not understand that man lacks the intelligence to control himself without God. And I, when I lived in the world and did not yet know the Lord and His Holy Spirit, did not know how much the Lord loves us, I relied on my own reason; but when by the Holy Spirit I came to know our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then my soul surrendered to God, and everything that sorrowful happens to me, I accept and say: “The Lord is looking at me; What should I be afraid of? Before, I couldn’t live like this.

For someone who has surrendered to the will of God, life is much easier, because in illness, in poverty, and in persecution, he thinks: “This is how God pleases, and I must endure for my sins.”

The best thing is to surrender to the will of God and bear sorrow with hope; The Lord, seeing our sorrows, will never give us too much. If sorrows seem great to us, this means that we have not surrendered to the will of God.

He who has surrendered to the will of God does not grieve for anything, even if he were sick, and poor, and persecuted. The soul knows that the Lord graciously cares for us.

Great Pimen said: “Our will is a copper wall between us and God, and does not allow us to get close to Him or contemplate His mercy.”

We must always ask the Lord for spiritual peace, so that it would be more convenient to fulfill the Lord’s commandments; for the Lord loves those who strive to do His will, and thus they find great peace in God.

He who does the will of the Lord is pleased with everything, although he is poor and perhaps sick and suffering, because he is gladdened by the grace of God. And whoever is dissatisfied with his fate, grumbles about illness or about the one who offended him, let him know that he is in a proud spirit, which has taken away his gratitude to God.

But if so, then do not be discouraged, but try to firmly trust in the Lord and ask Him for a humble spirit; and when the humble Spirit of God comes to you, you will love Him and will be at peace, although there will be sorrows.

A soul that has acquired humility always remembers God and thinks:

“God created me; He suffered for me; He forgives my sins and comforts me; He nourishes me and takes care of me. So why should I care about myself, or what should I be afraid of, even if I was threatened with death?

The Lord admonishes every soul that has surrendered itself to the will of God, for He said: “Call Me in the day of your tribulation; and I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me” (Ps. 49:15).

Every soul that is troubled by something should ask the Lord, and the Lord will give understanding. But this is mainly in times of trouble and embarrassment, and usually you should ask your confessor, because it is more humbling.

All people on earth inevitably bear sorrow; and although the sorrows that the Lord sends us are small, they seem overwhelming to people and overwhelm them , and this is because they do not want to humble their souls and surrender to the will of God. And those who have surrendered to the will of God, the Lord Himself guides them with His grace, and they courageously endure everything for the sake of God, Whom they have loved and with Whom they are glorified forever.

The Lord gave the Holy Spirit to earth, and in whom He lives, he feels heaven within himself.

Perhaps you will say: why is there no such grace with me? Because you have not surrendered to the will of God, but live according to your own.

Look at the one who loves his own will. He never has peace in his soul and is always dissatisfied: this is not right, this is not good. And whoever has completely surrendered to the will of God has pure prayer, his soul loves the Lord, and everything is pleasant and sweet to him.

We must always pray that the Lord will enlighten us on what needs to be done, and the Lord will not leave us to be mistaken.

Adam was not wise to ask the Lord about the fruit that Eve gave, and therefore lost paradise.

David did not ask the Lord: “Will it be good if I take Uriah’s wife for myself?”, and fell into the sin of murder and adultery.

Likewise, all the saints who sinned sinned because they did not call on God for help to enlighten them. St. Seraphim of Sarov said: “When I spoke from my mind, there were mistakes.”

So, only the Lord is omniscient, but we all, no matter who we are, need to pray to God for admonition and ask our spiritual father so that there are no mistakes.

The Spirit of God instructs everyone in different ways: one is silent alone, in the desert; another prays for people; another is called to shepherd the verbal flock of Christ; to another it is given to preach or console the afflicted; another serves his neighbor from his labors or estates - and all these are gifts of the Holy Spirit, and all to varying degrees: some for thirty, some for sixty, some for a hundred (Mark 4:20).”

Schema-Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896-1993):“In the act of rejecting his will and reason for the sake of remaining in the ways of God’s will, which surpasses all human wisdom, a Christian, in essence, renounces nothing else but passionate, selfish (egoistic) self-will and his little helpless mind-reason, and thereby demonstrating both genuine wisdom and rare strength will of a special, higher order.”

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets (1924-1994) about trust in the will of God he says this: “Behave simply and with complete trust in God. By placing our future and our hope on God, we, in some way, oblige Him to help us.

Do you know how everything changes if you trust God? Is it a joke to have God as your ally? There are no difficult situations for God; it is not difficult for Him to find a way out of any situation. For God everything is simple. He does not use more power for the supernatural and less for the natural; He uses the same power in everything. If only a person cleaves to Him - that’s the most important thing.

If we humbly ask for God's mercy, then God will help».

Archimandrite John (Peasant) (1910-2006) He writes about the will of God in our lives (from letters to lay and clergy): « Will God's concern for us is that while living on earth, we learn to know God and with joy and desire to follow the will of God - the only saving one that fills life with true content.

And a person can do any work - from the most insignificant to the greatest - and be saved or perish.

You will live for God, for the sake of God and for the glory of God - that is salvation, this is the true, and not ephemeral, meaning of life...

…On our part it is necessary and important to have an inner spiritual aspiration to desire to fulfill the will of God in life. And believe me, the Lord will accept and justify the sincerity of our feelings. He, in addition to our understanding and comprehension, will guide our fragile boat through life with His firm hand.

I am 91 years old, and I now testify to myself and others that the Lord knows our innermost, and according to our faith and striving for the truth, he rules our lives, often healing and correcting that which, due to ignorance and misunderstanding, may hinder the fulfillment of God’s will in ours. life...

Let us pray that our being will be tuned to accept from the Lord everything that He sends. But we need hope and faith, but again we will not wait for longed-for grace, but with hope and faith we will accept that the Lord is leading us precisely along that path, the end of which is salvation of the soul and peace in the Lord...

...With time and experience you will understand that complete good for us only in what is done according to the will of God. Read spiritual books, lives of saints. Start with Dostoevsky. Read and comprehend.”

About everyday life

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”(1 Cor. 10:31)

« Live not as you want, but as God commands»

Archimandrite John (Peasant)

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894) writes: “Needs and worries are truly destructive for the spiritual system, but this destructive power of them can be cut off surrendering oneself to the will of God. This doesn’t mean sit with folded hands and wait for God to give, but come up with ways and put them into action, leave the success of everything to God’s dispensation…

There is one solution for all everyday affairs, in order to adapt them to a single need, and not to lead them to the detriment of it.

Household affairs They can only excuse short standing in prayer, but they cannot excuse the impoverishment of inner prayer. The Lord does not desire much, but at least a little from the heart.”

Archimandrite John (Peasant) (1910-2006) in his letters he writes: “The Lord always leads us precisely in our paths; He cannot make mistakes and knows something that we don’t know about ourselves, and therefore our idea of the desired happiness or unhappiness does not correspond to the truth. There are people who, by all human standards, are completely unhappy, one of them lies motionless for thirty years, but God grant us all the happiness in which he lives.

We must pray and thank the Lord, learn to endure and humble ourselves, and for this we must learn, first of all, to tolerate ourselves . So we will live, suffer, and sometimes through suffering we will feel the nearness of the Lord. But living everyday life is difficult. We must work and accustom ourselves to pray. Not by standing in front of icons all day, but in the memory of God in the usual doing of everyday concerns, briefly, easily and even cheerfully turning to the Lord: “Lord, have mercy, Lord, forgive.”

Try to live in the presence of your guardian angel - and you will see how wonderfully He will arrange everything. Be more attentive to yourself and stricter. Don’t worry about following all the rules. Fulfilled - thank God! Didn't fulfill it - forgive me, Lord! Comply everything not only with the requirements, but also with your physical and spiritual well-being. Our Savior saves us, not our exploits and labors.

So continue to live: work in moderation, pray in moderation, and you and your loved ones will be saved...

About the benefits of small acts of kindness

Archimandrite John (Peasant)(1910-2006): “Many people think that living by faith and doing the will of God is very difficult. It's actually very easy. You just have to pay attention to the little things, the trifles, and try not to sin in the smallest and easiest things. This is the simplest and easiest way to enter the spiritual world and get closer to God.

Usually a person thinks that the Creator demands very great deeds from him, the most extreme self-sacrifice, the complete humiliation of his personality. A person is so frightened by these thoughts that he begins to fear getting closer to God in anything, hides from God, like Adam who sinned, and does not even delve into the word of God. “All the same,” he thinks, “I can’t do anything for God and for my soul, I’d rather stay away from the spiritual world, I won’t think about eternal life, about God, but I’ll live as I live.”

At the very entrance to the religious realm, there is a certain “hypnosis of big things”: you have to do some big thing - or nothing at all. And people do nothing for God and for their souls. It’s surprising: the more a person is devoted to the little things in life, the less he wants to be honest, pure, and faithful to God in the little things. Meanwhile, every person who wants to get closer to the Kingdom of God must go through the correct attitude to little things.

“He who wants to draw closer”—herein lies the whole difficulty of man’s religious paths. Usually he wants to enter the Kingdom of God completely unexpectedly, magically, miraculously, or, by right, through some kind of feat. But neither one nor the other is the true location of the upper world.

Man does not magically miraculously enter God, remaining alien on earth to the interests of the Kingdom of God; he does not buy the values of the Kingdom of God by any of his external actions. Actions are necessary for the good inculcation in a person of a higher life, a heavenly psychology, a bright will, a desire for good, a just and pure heart, and unfeigned love. It is through small, daily actions that all this can be instilled and rooted in a person.

Small good deeds are water on the flower of a person’s personality. It is not at all necessary to pour a sea of water onto a flower that requires water. You can pour out half a glass, and this will be enough to make a big difference in your life. A person who is hungry or has been starving for a long time does not need to eat half a pound of bread - it is enough to eat half a pound, and his body will perk up.

...I would like to focus every person’s close attention on very small, very easy for him and, however, extremely necessary things.

Whoever gives one of these little ones to drink only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, will not lose his reward.(Matthew 10:42). This word of the Lord contains the highest expression of the importance of small good. A cup of water is not much. Palestine at the time of the Savior was not a desert, as it is today, it was a flourishing, irrigated country, and the cup of water was therefore a very small quantity, but, of course, practically valuable at a time when people traveled mostly on foot...

If people were wise, they would all strive for a small and very easy task for them, through which they could obtain eternal treasure for themselves. The great salvation of people is that they can be grafted onto the trunk of the eternal tree of life through the most insignificant cutting - an act of goodness. Good... the smallest things can have a huge impact. That is why you should not neglect the little things in goodness and say to yourself: “I can’t do great good - I won’t care about any good.”

...Truly, small good is more necessary and vital in the world than great good. People can live without big things, but they can’t live without small things. Humanity perishes not from a lack of great good, but from a lack of precisely small good. The great good is only a roof built on the walls - the bricks of the small good.

So, the Creator left the smallest, easiest good on earth for man to create, taking upon Himself all the great things. The Creator creates our small things with His great things, for our Lord is the Creator, who created everything out of nothing, much less can he create great things out of small things. But the upward movement itself is opposed by air and earth. Every good thing, even the smallest and easiest, is opposed by human inertia. The Savior revealed this inertia in his short parable: And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately wants new, for he says: old is better.(Luke 5:39). Every person living in the world is attached to the ordinary and familiar. A person is accustomed to evil - he considers it his normal, natural state, and goodness seems to him something unnatural, shy, beyond his strength. If a person is accustomed to goodness, then he no longer does it because he needs to do it, but because he cannot help but do it, just as a person cannot help but breathe, or a bird cannot help but fly.

A person with a good mind strengthens and consoles himself first of all. And this is not selfishness at all, as some unfairly claim, no, this is a true expression of selfless goodness when it brings the highest spiritual joy to the one who does it. True good always deeply and purely comforts the one who unites his soul with it. One cannot help but rejoice when emerging from a gloomy dungeon into the sun, to pure greenery and the fragrance of flowers... This is the only non-selfish joy - the joy of goodness, the joy of the Kingdom of God. And in this joy a person will be saved from evil and will live with God forever.

For a person who has not experienced effective good, it sometimes appears as a vain torment, unnecessary for anyone... There is a state of false peace from which it can be difficult for a person to get out. Just as it is difficult for a child to emerge from the womb into the world, so it can be difficult for a human infant to get out of his petty feelings and thoughts, aimed only at delivering selfish benefit to himself and cannot be moved to care for another person who is in no way connected with him.

This conviction that the old, known and familiar state is always better than the new, unknown, is inherent in every unenlightened person. Only those who have begun to grow, to embark on the path of hunger and thirst for the truth of Christ and spiritual impoverishment, cease to regret their inertia, the immobility of their dreams acquired in life and warmed by life... It is difficult for humanity to break away from the usual. In this way, perhaps, it partly preserves itself from thoughtless insolence and evil. The stability of one's legs in a swamp sometimes prevents a person from throwing himself headfirst into the abyss. But more often it happens that a swamp prevents a person from ascending the mountain of vision of God or at least reaching the strong ground of obedience to the word of God...

Through small deeds done with the greatest ease, a person becomes more accustomed to goodness and begins to serve it reluctantly, but from the heart, sincerely, and through this he more and more enters into the atmosphere of goodness, puts down the roots of his life in the new soil of goodness. The roots of human life easily adapt to this soil of goodness and soon can no longer live without it... This is how a person is saved: from small things come great things. He who is faithful in the small is faithful in the great.

That is why I am now singing a hymn not to goodness, but to its insignificance, its smallness. And not only do I not reproach you that you are busy with good only in small things and do not make any great self-sacrifice, but, on the contrary, I ask you not to think about any great self-sacrifice and in no case neglect the little things in good. Please, if you want, become indescribably angry on some special occasion, but do not be angry with your brother over trifles in vain (see: Matt. 5, 22).

If necessary, invent any absurd lie you like, but do not tell lies to your neighbor in everyday life. This is a trifle, but try to do it and you will see what comes of it. Leave aside all considerations: is it permissible or impermissible to kill millions of people - women, children and the elderly; try to show your moral sense in a trifle: do not kill the person of your neighbor even once with a word, a hint, or a gesture.

After all, there is goodness and to keep yourself from evil...

And here, in the little things, you can do a lot easily, imperceptibly and conveniently for yourself. It is difficult to get up to pray at night. But in the morning, if you can’t at home, then at least when you go to your place of work and your thoughts are free, delve into the “Our Father,” and let all the words of this short prayer resonate in your heart. And at night, having crossed yourself, surrender yourself with all your heart into the hands of the Heavenly Father... It’s very easy... And give, give water to everyone who needs it, give a cup filled with the simplest sympathy to every person who needs it. There are whole rivers of this water in every place - don’t be afraid, it won’t run out, draw a cup for everyone.

Wonderful path of “small deeds”, I sing a hymn to you! Surround yourself, people, gird yourself with small deeds of goodness - a chain of small, simple, easy, good feelings, thoughts, words and deeds that cost you nothing.

Let us leave the big and difficult, it is for those who love it, and for us, who have not yet loved the big, the Lord, by His mercy, prepared, poured out small love everywhere, like water and air.”

Holy Scripture about God's Providence and b trust in God

“I know, Lord, that a man’s way is not in his will, and that it is not in the power of a man who walks to direct his steps.”(Jer.10, 23)

“Commit your deeds to the Lord, and your undertakings will be accomplished.”(Proverbs 16:3)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding..In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”(Proverbs 3, 5-6).

“Blessed is the man who puts his hope in the Lord and does not turn to the proud or to those who turn aside to lies.”(Ps.39:5);

"Cast sorrow upon the Lord"(Ps. 54, 23);

“I trust in God; I will not fear; what will man do to me?”(Ps. 55, 12);

“My soul rests only in God: my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock, my salvation, my refuge: I will not be shaken any more. How long will you lean on the person? You will be cast down, all of you, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence” (Ps. 61: 2-4);

“Trust in Him at all times; pour out your heart before Him: God is our refuge.

The sons of men are but vanity; sons of husbands - lies; If you put them on the scales, all of them together are lighter than emptiness.”(Ps. 61, 9-10).

“Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.”(1 Pet.5, 7)