Our thoughts determine our lives

The Lord is the only One who bears our burdens and cares, all our infirmities and worries, both physical and of the spirit.  He can bear everything, for He is Almighty.  We must give over to Him all of our infirmities and those of our neighbors, through prayer.  That is what prayer is for.  We must be one with the Lord and we must not worry about tomorrow, for as He says, Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, Matt 6:34.  This teaches us not to worry about tomorrow.  But we do:  we worry not only about tomorrow but even further than that, and this is very stressful for us.  We are rational beings, created for one day of stress at a time.  Yet we torment ourselves much more than that, and therefore we suffer.  We are not obedient to the Lord when He tells us not to burden our hearts with food and drink and the cares of this world.  We burden our bodies and our souls.  Food and drink burden the body when we eat and drink more than we need.  Our bodies must work hard to digest all that food, and so they are burdened.  And if we also burden ourselves with thoughts, then the stress is doubled and so is our suffering.  That is why we must always be praying.

 

God doesn’t need our prayers—we do.  When we pray to God, we’re actually talking to Him just as we talk to one another.  God is our Father.  We have no relative or friend here on earth who understands us and loves us as the Lord does.  His love can’t be put into words; it can be neither understood nor imagined.  We’re too small to understand the depth of God’s love.  His mercies are indescribable.  He gives of Himself to us without reserve, and we can’t even begin to understand this!

 

— Elder Thaddeus of Serbia,

Our Thoughts Determine our Lives, pp. 108-9.

 

The seal of the Holy Spirit is in our heart, which bears the fruits of our life. Meekness, peace, a merciful heart, goodness, kindness, faith and abstinence are some of the fruits of tears offered to Christ from the heart. The results of such tears are love of one’s enemies and prayers offered up to the Lord for them. Tears give us strength to be joyful even in times of great suffering and tribulation and to look upon the sins of others as our own and repent for them. Tears make it possible for us to lay down our life for our brother.

— ibid., p. 135.

“Remember who your teachers were…”

2 Timothy 3:14