Orthodox Thought for the Day

ORTHODOX THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Friday, July 5, 2013

On stress, prayer & God's love

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! 

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