We are currently reading a lot of non-spiritual literature. We spend so much time reading artistic Orthodox books or books written by contemporaries that we completely leave the reading of St. Fathers, but it should be remembered that only through true tradition can one recognize and preserve the purity of Orthodoxy, without which it is impossible to please God. The holy fathers teach that even the slightest deviation from the dogmas of the church leads a person to death, but unfortunately many of us do not even know how they sound. It's scary not to know your faith. Ignorance is forgivable for a small child, but not forgivable for an adult who has the opportunity to know his faith.

Ignatius Brianchaninov writes:

Whoever wants to approach God and assimilate Him by constantly being in prayer, look around! Examine carefully your way of thinking: are you infected with any false teaching? Will you follow exactly and without exception the teaching of the Eastern Church, the one true, holy, apostolic? If anyone disobeys the Church, the Lord said to His disciple, be like a pagan and a tax collector (Matt. 18:17), strangers to God, enemies of God. What significance can the prayer of one who is in a state of enmity towards God, in a state of alienation from God, have?

ascetic experiences. Volume II (On Prayer. Article II)

Listening to the words of St. Ignatius, it is worth considering - maybe my prayer was not heard precisely because I do not believe in God in my idea of ​​Him, I do not communicate with the Bible, but with my idea of ​​it?

What to do in this case? The answer is obvious - study your faith.

Also, many indiscriminately pray prayers that were composed by heretics Protestants or heretics Baptists. I have recently been sent a lot of pictures and texts with such prayers. To this I would also like to quote Vladyka Ignatius -

The prayers composed by heretics are very similar to the prayers of the pagans: they contain many words; in them is the earthly beauty of the word; they have a heating of the blood; they lack repentance; in them is the striving for the marriage of the Son of God straight from the brothel of the passions; there is self-delusion in them. They are alien to the Holy Spirit: the deadly infection of the dark spirit, the evil spirit, the spirit of lies and destruction wafts from them.

Ascetic Experiences vol. II

We are often amazed and say - "How much you need to know in Orthodoxy, how much to observe!" “But if you look at everything from the outside, then such embarrassment comes from a lack of love for God. A woman, when she becomes a mother, is not embarrassed when she understands that in order to care for and raise a child, you need to know a lot of things, she is not embarrassed, because she loves her child.

So let's respond with love to God's love, let's keep the Orthodox faith pure and intact, but before we keep it, let's show a desire to know it and realize it in our lives.

Anatoly Badanov
missionary administrator
project "Breathe with Orthodoxy"

If, by nature, you are a people pleaser, then most likely you put the interests of others above your own. Perhaps you are always trying to get the approval of others. Most likely, your parents always taught you to sacrifice your interests for the sake of others. Of course, it will take some time to adjust in this regard. At the very least, start learning to replace your "yes" with "no" when necessary. Set reasonable boundaries. Do your best to make others consider your opinion. Take care of yourself first and then others.

Steps

Part 1

Learn to say "no"

Remember that you have a choice. If someone asks you to do something, you can choose from three possible responses: yes, no, or maybe. To you not required say yes if you think otherwise. When someone asks you for something, think about it and remember that you have a choice.

• For example, if someone asks you to stay late to finish a project, say to yourself, "I have the choice to say yes and stay, or say no and go home."

1. Learn to say "no" correctly. If you're used to always saying yes, even when you don't feel like it or when you're stressed out, start saying no. Of course, it will take time to learn this. However, others should understand that you have your own opinion, and you yourself have the right to decide whether to say “no” or “yes”. There is no need to make excuses or try to explain the reason for your refusal. It is enough to say “no” or “no, thank you”. This is all that is required of you.

   • Start small. Respond to a minor request with a firm "no." For example, if your partner asks you to walk the dog but you are very tired, say, “No. I cant. I would like you to walk the dog today.”
   • You can also role-play with your friend to learn how to say no. Ask your friend to come to you with a request. Answer "no" to any of his requests. Pay attention to your inner feelings when you say no.

2. Be persistent and sensitive. If you associate the word “no” with excessive strictness, refuse with persistence, but do not forget about sensitivity. Show the person that you understand their needs, but stay firm on your decision.

   • For example, say, “I understand that you really want me to make a cake. I would really like to help you with this, but, unfortunately, I cannot do this.

   Part 2

   Set reasonable boundaries

   1. Take time to think about this. The boundaries you set are your values. They help determine what you like and what you don't. You should not answer the person immediately, as soon as he turned to you with a request. Say, “I need to think. We will return to our conversation later." Thanks to this, you will be able to think, assess your condition in this situation, reflect on the possible consequences, for example, conflicts.

      Set your priorities. If you prioritize your life, it will be easier for you to determine where you need to say yes and where you need to say no. If you find it difficult to make a decision, choose what is more important to you. If you're unsure, make a list of possible options and prioritize them.

      • For example, caring for your sick dog is likely more important to you than attending a party.

   2. Talk about your needs. There is nothing wrong with expressing your opinion. Remind people that you are unique and that you have your own preferences. This will help you take a big step forward. If you're used to pleasing people instead of stating your preferences, try changing yourself and doing things differently.

      • For example, if your friends want to go to an Italian restaurant and you like Korean food, say that next time you want to go to a Korean restaurant.
      • Even if you agree with something, you can still state your preferences. For example, you could say, "I like another movie, but I'd love to see this one."
      • Don't get defensive. State your preferences, don't get angry or blame others. Do your best to remain confident, calm, firm and polite.

   3. Set time limits. If you agree to help someone, state the time frame. You don't have to make excuses if you want to leave early. Just say that you need to leave without explaining the reason for your leaving.

      • For example, if someone asks you to help with a move, say, "I can help you between 12 noon and 3 pm."

   4. be ready compromise when making decisions. Thanks to this, others will hear you, and you will be able to come to a common denominator. Listen to the other person's point of view and then express your own. Make a decision that satisfies both of you.

      • For example, if your friend wants to go shopping and you want to go hiking, complete one task and then move on to another.

   Part 3

   Take care of yourself

   1. work on increased self-esteem . Your self-esteem should not depend on the opinions or approval of other people. Only you can influence your self-esteem. Surround yourself with positive people and pay attention to situations where you feel insecure. Notice how you feel about yourself (for example, calling yourself a loser or unattractive). Stop beating yourself up for your mistakes.

      • Learn from your mistakes and treat yourself the way you treat your best friend. Be kind, compassionate, and forgive yourself.
      • Notice your tendency to please others. This is often a sign of low self-esteem.

   2. Practice healthy habits. If you neglect your needs, then chances are you don't love yourself enough. Taking care of yourself and your body is not a sign of selfishness. If you tend to neglect taking care of yourself because you have to take care of others, try setting aside time every day to improve your health. Eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and do things that will benefit your body. First of all, make sure you get enough sleep so that when you wake up in the morning, you feel refreshed.

   3. Take care of yourself. This is essential to feel good and manage stress effectively. Spend time with friends and family. Pamper yourself from time to time: go for a massage, visit the spa, and choose other relaxing activities.

      • Do what you enjoy. Listen to music, keep a diary, volunteer, or make time for daily walks.

   4. Remember that it is impossible to please everyone. The only approval that should be important to you is the approval of yourself. No matter how hard you try, people can still be unhappy with something. You cannot change their mindset and attitude towards you. They have the right to think as they please, and make those decisions that they consider correct.

      • If you're trying to get the approval of your friends or want your grandmother to think of you as a good person, be prepared for the fact that you may not achieve your goal.

   5. Get professional help. In some cases, the help of a specialist is indispensable, since human-pleasing is a serious problem. If you have tried to change the situation, but you have not been able to achieve the desired result, visit a psychotherapist. A psychotherapist will help you cope with this problem and teach you how to properly respond to people's requests.

      • Find a specialist who can help you. Ask your doctor, friend, or relative about this.

Praise God for another opportunity to learn from Him.
Today I would like to talk to you about a very important topic, namely faith.
Each of us wants to please God with our lives. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Faith, namely biblical faith, is cooperation with God. God will not do everything for you. He will not do for you what you do not want to do for yourself.
You don't have to sit with your hands folded in passivity, hoping that God will put bread on your table. The proof that you have faith in God is that you follow the instructions that you already know.
This is the whole point of prayer and reading the Bible - to know His will and understand His thoughts, to understand what God wants and apply it in all your life situations.
As soon as God reveals to you His desire for any area of ​​your life, He expects you to act accordingly. It is your actions based on His Word that are the evidence of your faith.

The Word of God says that faith without action is dead.

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).

Throughout the Bible, we see that faith has always been associated with the actions and deeds of believers. Peter told Jesus that he would cast his nets at His word.

“Simon answered Him, “Master! we toiled all night and caught nothing, but at your word I will cast down the net” (Luke 5:5).

This was a turning point in Peter's business and life.

Do you want to experience a divine breakthrough in your life? Faith will play a key role in this. However, faith is about concrete works, not a passive expectation of a miracle from God. Prove to God today that you believe in Him through your actions and acts of faith.

Remember that faith is a partnership between man and God. God does his part, and man does his.

May the Lord richly bless you today! See you soon!
Pastor Rufus Adjiboye

What distinguishes a weak, insecure person from a mentally strong character? The latter does not waste his strength and time on useless experiences, tormenting and throwing, he knows how to concentrate, weed out the excess and effectively solve any problem. And this is achieved by following a list of important rules.

You can't ignore your mistakes

It’s not scary to stumble, but you need to carefully analyze why this happened. Draw conclusions and prevent the recurrence of similar situations in the future. Work on yourself.

You don't have to wait for the result here and now.

The phone does not ring, and the post office is empty? They didn't get my message, they forgot about me, they ignore me?! Maybe yes, but maybe it's much more complicated. Rather than rushing from corner to corner and winding yourself up, it is better to focus on other things.

A strong man does not allow himself to be controlled

A subtle point - it is important not only to know your real abilities, but also to understand where and when to use them. It's not enough to get wings, you also need to know where to fly.

Regret has no place in life

What happened is already in the past. It was possible to do otherwise or not - a reason for a constructive dialogue, but not for self-flagellation. What is done is done. You and the responsibility is also on you.

Don't be afraid to change

If life goes on as usual and nothing changes, then nothing new will appear in it. And vice versa - strong people who crave progress and success, constantly looking for opportunities to become better, to become different, and not to remain in a “canned” state.

The past shouldn't weigh on you.

The lesson has been learned, the events have taken place, the experience has been gained. It's time to move forward, into the future, only occasionally looking back at the past, and not drowning in nostalgia for the old days.

Envying other people's success is counterproductive

If you don’t have what others have, but you can achieve it, go for it. It is better to devote time to honest work than to spend it tormented by envy.

If something is out of your control, don't worry about it.

There will always be events in the world and there will be things that we a priori cannot influence. Is this a reason to fall into a black depression? Not for the strong man, oh no!

If the risk is reasonable, it is justified

Almost everything new, unknown and complex is submitted to a person far from the first attempt. On the contrary, quick success is a gift of fortune, nothing more. And strong people know to always experiment, try different ways, and take risks if the goal is worth it.

Failure can't stop a person

If the path to the cherished goal was easy and simple, its value would have slipped to zero. Real success, victory and achievement is always achieved in struggle. Mistakes and failures are inevitable, but a strong person perceives them not as an obstacle, but as a new task, for which you just need to find your solution.

Don't be in debt

Accepting help is not shameful, but building a career on handouts, becoming dependent on other people is dangerous. And unworthy. A strong personality achieves everything by itself.

It's impossible to please everyone

In many situations, the best thing we can do is to ensure our own comfort and the realization of our goals. Healthy selfishness, based on the fact that it is impossible to make one person happy without harming another. So why waste your energy on them?

A strong man at heart is often lonely

Family, friends, significant other. All these are attributes of a successful and happy life, but their momentary absence does not mean that everything is bad and sad. If there is an inner core, will and desire to achieve the goal, the rest will follow. But your personality, your "I" always remain in the first place.

1. My brothers and sisters, first of all I would like to express to our God huge thanks. He created us, put His Essence, His image and likeness into us. He gave us the land to manage, put in us gifts and talents to manage the land.

Surrounded us with various blessings of the earth. The sun is shining, life is going on in us, everything useful for us is growing on the earth. We are supplied with oxygen for breathing every day. In us and for us, every second, billions of cells and molecules work, and all this in order to we lived and glorified our Creator.

Moreover, we are not worthy, we are sinners, we have turned away from Him.

"4 But He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our sicknesses; and we thought [that] He was smitten, chastened and humiliated by God. 5 But He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the punishment of our world [was] on Him, and by His stripes we were healed. 6 We all wandered like sheep, turned each one to his own way: and the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all." (Isaiah 53:4-6)

1. And therefore, we, the people, have no choice but to praise Him and live a life that pleases Him. Every day thinking how to please Him.

But how can we please Him?

Many, trying to please God, do some religious deeds, thereby trying to please Him, but does He like it?

Does He expect mere religious deeds from us?

Yes, if our works that we do for God, is the fruit of our faith, then we. thus, we please Him. And if we do them somehow differently, then no.

1. Look at Abel and Cain, both did things for God, but God only accepted Abel's works. Why? Because He saw faith in them. There are many interpretations on this topic, but one thing is clear that Abel's sacrifice came from his faith and trust in God.

"4 And Abel also brought from his first-born flock and from their fat. And the Lord looked at Abel and at his gift, 5 but at Cain and at his gift he did not look. Cain was very upset, and his face fell." (Gen. 4:4,5)

Look God first looked up to Abel and then on the gift of it. God is a heartbreaker. And He, first of all, looks at the heart, and not at external actions. And in the eyes of God, Abel looked righteous, that is, God saw faith in him, that is, trust in Him.

We cannot say exactly how Abel showed faith, but he showed it by offering a sacrifice to God.

The best sacrifice ... - the most excellent, most worthy. He did, - says Chrysostom, - a righteous deed, not seeing an example in anyone. Indeed, looking at whom, he so honored God? For father and mother? But they offended God for His favors. For a brother? But he did not honor Him either.

Perhaps he had doubts, difficulties in his relationship with God. Abel name - Vanity .

And this is understandable, he had no one to take an example from, since his parents stumbled, betrayed God, were expelled from paradise and fuss began around. But he, despite this, managed to somehow show faith. He managed to overcome difficulties by faith, and as a fruit of this, he brought the right gift to God, and God noted this.

1. It was even harder to trust the God of Enoch, because he, firstly, lived among a corrupt race, since sin was already multiplying, and secondly:

Although he lived after Abel, but what happened to Abel could turn him away from virtue ... Abel honored God, and God did not deliver him.

Probably Enoch had a lot of questions - "why". Why, God, did You do this, why do good people die so early, and evildoers live long? Why is there so much evil in the world and You don't do anything? he could reason.

1. In principle, today we ask God the same questions, and we have thousands of "why" to him. Some questions God will answer later, but some will only be answered in Heaven. And we need, no matter what, to continue to trust Him with our lives, as this Enoch did.

And Enoch, in spite of everything, in spite of no one, still lived every day by faith in God, faith in His goodness, completely trusting Him in everything. That is why it is written about him:

"22 And went Enoch before God three hundred years after he begat Methuselah, and begat sons and daughters.23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.24 And walked Enoch before God; and he was no more, because God took him." (Gen. 5:22-24)

For three hundred years, Enoch lived, trusting God every moment of his life. Despite difficulties, disappointments and problems, he managed to keep the faith

Enoch walked before God in an age of debauchery and sin. Precisely because he walked with God while other people were moving away from Him. ,

Enoch drew closer to Him every day, and the rapture was a step that brought him into the immediate presence of that God, before whom he walked all the time..

And he, not seeing death, came to God, this is his reward!

" By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death; and he was no more, because God translated him. For before his exile he received a testimony, what pleased God." (Heb. 11:5)

For the believer, to please God is the highest happiness. But we can only please God by faith. , which was with Abel, and with Enoch, and with other heroes of the faith, about whom it is written in this message.

And so the next verse says:

"And without faith it is impossible to please God; for it is necessary that he who comes to God believe that He exists, and reward those who seek Him." (Heb. 11:6)

For belief in the existence of God implies not merely knowing that He exists, but consecration to Him of all life, every minute expecting grace from Him.

Many people, even those who say they are believers, live as if God is not in their lives. While they are doing well, they say: "God exists, thank God."

But from the moment small difficulties come into their lives, they begin to grumble, worry, fuss, instead of trusting Him.

After all, true faith in God manifests itself and grows precisely when difficulties come into our lives. . And it is in them that we can please God by showing our trust in Him.

In fact, the more difficulties in our lives, the more suffering and disappointment, the more we have the ability to please God by faith, entrusting your life to Him and believing in His retribution.

This is what this entire chapter is about, describing people who were placed in very difficult circumstances, but who, in these circumstances, continued to trust God.

1. Look at Noah he built the ark just when there was no mention of a flood at all. Many considered him crazy, but he built.

Many at that time were "doing business", building their own houses, living for their own pleasure, and he built the ark day and night.

Did he have doubts and difficulties? Did he want to give it all up? Did his family have doubts about the whole construction process?

I think there were. I think the sons also approached him more than once and said: dad, our friends are laughing at us, can we live like all normal people.

Maybe his wife told him more than once: “Noah, everyone is resting, going to “beauty salons”, going to resorts, and you and I are building it is not clear what and it's not clear why." But Noah continued to build, and therefore received a reward from God in the end..

Thanks to his obedience, the whole house was saved, and the rest perished. His neighbors thought what he was doing was stupid, but he by his faith proved the whole world wrong.

1. And then we will talk about who, for the sake of God, had to leave his usual culture, his business, and his familiar place. And for what?

He didn't even know where he was going. And the promise from God He received a little strange: that he will be a blessing to others.

Imagine, God says to you: "Go, I'll take you somewhere, give up your life and business, and culture, and in return for this, I will bless others through you, that is, thanks to you, everyone else will live well and richly, and you In your life, you may not even see this."

It's hard to obey this command

Therefore, quite deservedly, Abraham occupies the most honorable place in the Jewish tradition, as father of the nation, but he also occupies a no less honorable place in the New Testament teaching, as father of all believers.

But despite this, she remained faithful, she continued to trust God in this matter, and therefore she pleased Him and received a reward - a long-awaited son.

But the test in their family did not end there, they, together with Abraham, experienced tremendous stress when they heard the command from God to sacrifice their son to Him: dear, dear, only.

How can this be? God, why did You do this in my life? How can we live without it? I think they had hundreds of questions of indignation towards Him in those minutes. But having overcome everything, they trusted God in this matter as well.

And this is what the Bible says about these people

" 13 All these died in faith, having not received the promises, but only saw them from afar, and rejoiced, and said of themselves that they were strangers and strangers on the earth; 14 for those who say so, show, that they are looking for a fatherland. 16 but they strove for the best, i.e. to heaven; therefore God is not ashamed of them, calling himself their God: for he has prepared a city for them." (Heb. 11:13-16)

My brothers and sisters, but we, Christians of this age, in our lives have seen the greatest promise of God to us, this is Jesus Christ, who died for us and gave us the future.

And so we have many more reasons to please God by faith in this life:

Faith, contrary to all worldly things.

By faith, despite your feelings, circumstances and problems.

Faith in the future, contrary to the present.

Questions

1. Why should we Christians live a life that pleases God?
2. How did Abel please God?
3. Why did Enoch please God?
4. Without what is it impossible to please God, and why?
5. How did Noah show his faith by pleasing God?
6. Why was the life of Abraham and his family pleasing to God?
7. How should we live to please God?