For the beginning Christian
Published 03.11.2017
Have you asked yourself the question - why doesn’t God help good people and answer their prayers? Have you ever read the Bible? Let's look at a few stories from the Bible to try to find an answer to this important question.
Example from the Gospel
One answer can be found in the New Testament. The disciple of Christ, the evangelist Matthew, described the case of a Canaanite woman. A pagan woman whose daughter was possessed by a demon came to Jesus. The mother asked for help, but Christ refused her; he said: “I did not come to deal with all people. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Despite the outright refusal, the woman continues to bow and call on him. The Lord remains adamant - does not answer, does not give her hope. The intercession of the apostles, who stood up for the poor woman, does not help either. But the desperate mother continues to strenuously ask for the Lord's mercy. Jesus, amazed at the woman’s persistence, says: “How great is your faith! I drive, I push you away, and you believe me? What a beautiful heart! Let it be done according to your will.” And that hour her daughter was healed.
Using the example of this woman, the Lord shows that no matter how sad the situation may be, no matter how it may seem that God is indifferent and does not hear the request, one must not weaken in faith and lose hope. Time spent in prayer teaches patience, humility, and diligence in trusting in God's mercy. The Lord hesitates to answer because He foresees this to be good for man. As soon as people understand and learn this lesson, humble their pride, learn to pray constantly and selflessly, God will respond to their requests.
Reason #2
A “creative” approach to doctor’s recommendations is often the main reason for treatment failure. The patient comes for a follow-up appointment and tells the doctor: “Nothing has changed.” The doctor asks: “Did you do such and such?” The answer puts the doctor into a state of “slight” bewilderment: “No.” The reasons may be different: there was no time, they did not understand why to do it, they did not agree with the proposed option, they hoped for a noticeable effect from the first visit, etc. But! Exactly following the doctor’s recommendations is an integral part of treatment. There is no other way. This is important to consider.
A variation of this option is selectivity: we do one thing and skip another. This won't do either. After all, all recommendations are interconnected (and with the procedures themselves during the session too), ignoring one link breaks the entire chain and negates the effectiveness of treatment.
God gives us time to think
Hegumen Nektary (Morozov) instructs: before lamenting that the Lord does not hear us and is unmerciful to us, we need to understand ourselves. Each person should think about whether he is asking for something that will benefit him, will be necessary, will serve for the good, and will not harm other people. Often people ask for something not out of great necessity, but out of passion or foolishness, and at the same time they expect an inevitable and quick fulfillment of their request.
Any passion that a Christian does not want, or cannot yet overcome, stands between him and the Lord and prevents the fulfillment of desires. Spiritual shepherd Nektariy suggests that by postponing the help he is asked for for a while, God gives a person time to think about whether what he is asking for is really vital. In some cases, after mature reflection, people renounced desires dictated by passions. Others independently found a way out of a difficult situation. But it is possible that in any case, conscious prayer plays a decisive role. Although it seems to a person that God left his request unanswered, nevertheless, the Heavenly Father, through prayer, reunites with the Christian and indicates the further path.
Lotusbluete/ Pixabay
Life is a process of ups and downs, ups and downs, successes and failures
And that's okay.
The only thing that is not normal is that when you stumble and fall, you begin to think that there is something wrong with you and consider yourself a failure.
But an even bigger problem is that when you are doing well, when you feel that you have changed and achieved some result, you think that you have finally stopped
be them. Because when this ascent ends and the descent begins, you will perceive this as further proof that you are a nonentity, have always been and always will remain, that everything was in vain, and that nothing will help you.
God knows best what a person needs
Archpriest of the Sergiev Posad deanery Dimitry Bezhenar says that the Lord, as a loving father, knows our own soul, secret desires and aspirations better than we do. He foresees all our needs in advance, but like a wise Father, He also knows what is more useful to us. People often think that they are aware of their needs, and based on them, they make requests to the Lord. But He knows about the urgent need of the human soul, and does not provide help not because He does not want or cannot, He simply knows that it is not useful or even harmful to us.
The highest good for the soul is constant unity with God through prayer. And in order to give us this opportunity, the Lord does not immediately respond to requests, but gives us the opportunity to show humility and submission. At this time, He looks at us with love, but will provide help and give us what we want, exactly at the moment when we really need it. God helps if human strength is lacking. In addition, a person must be prepared for the fact that the request may not be fulfilled in full accordance with his expectations.
Normal brain programming
Imagine a mushroom picker walking through the forest picking mushrooms and suddenly he saw a bear. The image of a bear entered the sensory zone of the brain through the eyes, through the ears the mushroom picker heard the roar of a bear, and maybe he even smelled the smell of a bear. This event is an “ activating event” (setting or stimulus). Next, all information from the senses enters the brain, where it is processed and analyzed according to our “ Beliefs ” (attitudes, conditioned reflexes, neural networks), which were formed during our previous experience. In this particular case, we have before us a simple mushroom picker, a city dweller, who from early childhood was taught to fear bears using the example of children's fairy tales and scary stories from real life, when a bear killed someone. Therefore, the information received, having been processed in the head of the mushroom picker, will produce a red flag at the output - a danger to life, and the hormone of fear - adrenaline and norepinephrine - will begin to be released. The neurotransmitter adrenaline is released from the neuron into the synaptic cleft and connects with adrenergic receptors of the heart, blood vessels, and muscles, and the sympathetic nervous system is activated to combat stress and threats to life. As a consequence , the mushroom picker will experience the emotion of fear and either freeze in place or begin to run away.
Now imagine a situation where it is not a mushroom picker walking through the forest, but a hunter who has lived in the forest since early childhood and constantly went hunting with his father. And he, too, suddenly noticed the bear. The sensory zone of the brain also received the image of a bear through the eyes, through the ears the hunter heard the roar of the bear, and maybe he even smelled the bear, i.e. The external circumstances, the “Activating Event” and the setting in these two examples are exactly the same, but the hunter will react to this situation completely differently. Instead of fear and panic, excitement will awaken in him, and he will chase the bear until he kills it. Why are the external circumstances absolutely the same, but the emotions and behavior of a hunter are so strikingly different from the emotions and behavior of a mushroom picker? Because “ Beliefs ”, the hunter’s conditioned reflexes have a program for responding to a bear that is diametrically opposite to the mushroom picker. Since childhood, he was taught not to panic at the sight of a bear, to handle a gun correctly and to rejoice at a successful hunt. Consequently, the output in the brain will be not adrenaline (the hormone of fear), but dopamine (the hormone of motivation, excitement, desire and anticipation of reward).
To contents
What requests does God leave unanswered?
There are requests that the wise Heavenly Father will not fulfill under any circumstances. The Lord does not answer:
- to selfish, vain requests;
- to prayers that lack love for one’s neighbor;
- on desires that will harm others;
- to a request to be spared from trials;
- to a call to punish someone.
The abbots of the church believe that one cannot ask the Almighty for material benefits, since these requests are offensive to Him. You can ask for spiritual benefits, salvation, deliverance from passions, health, prolongation of life, if His holy will pleases and it is useful for us.
If a person thinks that God does not help him, he thereby expresses distrust in the Lord, in his wisdom and mercy. In the case when people did not get what they wanted, but through prayer they found peace of mind and tranquility, then the appeal to the Lord did not go unanswered.
Why doesn’t God help, why doesn’t he hear?
Why doesn’t God help, why doesn’t he hear?
Peace be with you, our dear visitors!
Sometimes a person feels abandoned by God. Why does this feeling arise? It happens that you pray and pray, but your soul still feels bad... Why doesn’t God help, why doesn’t he hear? And if you don’t have patience, how can you find it?
Archimandrite Ambrose (Fontrier) answers these questions:
“ What does it feel like to be abandoned by God? The Lord is the Fullness of Life, the Fullness of Love; He never leaves anyone. Through our sins we move away from Him and we ourselves abandon the Lord. The soul feels that we are away from Him; we think that it was He who left us. Therefore, the soul suffers, suffers, and falls into despondency, melancholy and despair.
– I pray a lot, but I don’t feel well, God doesn’t help me well...
“That means we’re living badly, incorrectly.” The Lord hears our every word, every breath. If a person feels that the Lord does not hear us, it means his connection with God is interrupted, which means he has sins. For example, we like to judge, get irritated, slander, gossip... Because of this, communication is interrupted, and that’s why our souls are heavy. We need to repent of all secret and obvious sins.
– I’m tired of life: everything is so bad. Why doesn't God hear me?
– The Lord loves us, and He constantly expects prayer from us, turning to His Father. Once a man came to the priest and said: “Father, my soul is so restless, so heavy...” - “And you try to devote at least one minute to God in 24 hours.” - "Like this?" - “Stand in front of the icons, or at the window, or on the street and say: “Lord, how beautiful the world is, so great that the human mind cannot comprehend it. What are you like, Lord? And how wisely you arranged everything! There are so many people, all with different faces and characters, and all unique. Even everyone's fingerprints are different! How many animals, birds, insects, flowers, plants... And all this is unique... Nothing is permanent, everything changes, grows, wears out, ages, dies, is born... How great is Your wisdom, Lord! You gave us not only flesh, you also gave us soul! We have so many feelings: reason, free will, love, fear, and for many, faith. Here I stand before You and do not recognize You as the Creator. You are everything to me, and I am everything to myself. Lord, forgive me, for I am worse than any ungrateful beast. Any animal fulfills the commandment given to it by God. Nobody says anything to the dog, but he knows his job: he sits at the booth, guards the house, even the geese give a sign when strangers come into the yard... Everyone serves their master... But man, a rational being, does not recognize his Creator, has gone wild, has left, lost... Lord! Give me strong, reasonable faith, give me repentance, sight of my sins, grant me wisdom, if You want me to glorify Your Holy Name all the days of my life.”
– I don’t have patience, how can I find it?
– You have to learn patience. Now, if we have bruised our leg until it bleeds, we must calmly rise, cross the sore spot, saying: “In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen...That’s what you need for your sins. Let this pain remind you of the torments of hell.” They were driving a nail with a hammer, but they hit their finger - there is no need to throw the hammer and get angry at someone. Calmly put the hammer down, cross your finger, blow on it and say: “Nothing, calm down. This is good for your patience. It will pass, everything will change.”
And this is how it happens: the driver starts the car, but it doesn’t start, he pulls out the handle and lets it hit and beat the car, and throw obscenities at it. Here, of course, the demons will help - the car will start when the driver is already losing his temper. And we need to be patient. We are standing at the bus stop, waiting for the tram, but it still isn’t there; and no car, no bus... And we have a train ticket in our pocket. No need to worry, be calm and even. Even if we don't have money for a second ticket. What will you do? Thank God, that means it’s necessary. And at this time you need to maintain peace of mind, not worry, endure...
If someone scolds us or cleanses us, we must internally rejoice: the cleansing of our soul is underway. Always judge yourself, so you will gain patience. If you don’t want to get up in the morning, you have to jump up immediately. Do not want? Get up, quickly! So you need to jump up so that laziness remains under the blanket. Don't feel like working? This means the demon is sitting astride you, his legs dangling. Do you have no health? Young, but not healthy? This means you have to work hard.
Then one day an eighteen-year-old novice in our monastery said: “Father, I’m sick.” - "What is hurting you?" - “Head, arms, legs, stomach, everything hurts...” I looked at dinner and she was eating so much! For ten. The reason why everything hurts is clear. I called her and said: “Come on, dear, do 100 bows.” - “Oh, father, it’s hard.” - "Nothing. You go to the monastery, you work, and there all your “illness” will go away in an instant.” She worked for a month and arrived: “How good! “I eat with gusto and feel great.” The body is filled with strength, and nothing hurts.”
And some people say that there is no God...
Why is there so much evil in the world? Where is God?
<< To the main page Questions for the priest >>
I asked: save the love!
“I loved him so much, I thought he loved me too.” We got married and started living together... He had a shift job, and he left often. He didn’t forget, he sent text messages, funny and warm... When they told me that where he goes, he has another, I didn’t believe it: this simply cannot be. But a black doubt settled inside... And many facts that I had not previously attached importance to began to form a terrible picture: it is true, he changed it.
That evening when I sorted things out with my husband still haunts me in nightmares. I sobbed and screamed: explain how this happened, why?! He jokingly denied, then, apparently, he realized that there was no point in lying, he fell silent, only smiled wryly with his boyish, so familiar smile, but his eyes became cold and bored. Just as silently he turned around and left. Forever…
I went to church before, but then I prayed day and night, desperately, as if in a feverish delirium: Lord, help, save, save love! You know, I felt His mercy, His grace so clearly, I had no doubt that it would help. I painted pictures: when the door opens, the husband returns, falls at his feet, asks for forgiveness, and everything bad remains behind, like a bad dream...
He didn't return. And a few days later I realized that I was pregnant. Why, why do I need this pregnancy, why everything in the world when I asked to save love?!
Seven months passed like hell, I even tried to take pills, but a friend came to see me and prevented me. Seven months later I was cesareaned. Now I have a daughter. She is sick, with cerebral palsy... No, I love her, of course, I live for her.
The husband never showed up, and now, probably, there’s no need: the pain somehow subsided, life somehow got better, work, friends, church... But I still can’t understand: I asked for one thing and I was so I’m sure that God will give - but He gave something completely different, why is that?.. She asked: keep the love! He seemed to have saved it - but not at all the same and not the way I saw it.
