We must build our endurance and confidence
“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise (Hebrews 10:35-36)”
When we find ourselves caught up in what we want, or what we think we need, we become despondent that things are not going the way we’d hoped. Disappointed, we start to wonder why God has failed to give us that which we’ve so sought after, that thing, or situation, that became the dominate theme of our prayers. Caught up in trying to reach a goal, and failing, we forget that it may not have been God’s will for us from the very beginning. Relying on our own notion of what we need, we end up disappointed, or even disillusioned, and we blame God.
Much of what we think we need is born from our own immaturity, for as we’ve focused on what we think we need, we fail to quietly surrender to the will of God, and fail to trust in the knowledge that God knows what we really need. We fail during such times to trust God, and surrender to His will for us. We forget that God knows what we really need, and fail to consider the long term good.
When we quit struggling against the will of God, we find the grace sufficient to prayerfully enduring our trials, knowing that God gives us that which is salvific. Like a loving earthly father, our God allows us to endure that which will make us strong, and He will lead us to victory over our fallen nature. Prayerfully enduring trials will, in God’s time, make us stronger, and we will become more faithful children of the Most High.
This kind of faithful living leads us to know the truth of the words, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).” When we trust God, those moments of disappointment make sense, and the bigger picture is clearly set before us.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: We’re displaying this early American flag representing the two parts of Imperial Russia (the Tzar and the Patriarch), as our way of honoring the early Russian missionary monks who first brought Orthodoxy to the American land.
Saturday August 15, 2020 / August 2, 2020
10th Week after Pentecost. Tone eight.
Dormition (Theotokos) Fast. Food with Oil
Translation of the relics (428) of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen (428) and Translation of the relics (415) of the Righteous Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and Abibus.
Blessed Basil of Moscow, fool-for-Christ (1552).
New Martyr Athanasius (1918).
New Hieromartyr Platon (1937).
Blessed Basil of Kuben Lake (1472).
Hieromartyr Stephen, pope of Rome (257).
Achair Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (21 c.).
St. Marco of Belavinsk (Vologda) (1492).
St. Friardus of Vindumitta (573) (Gaul).
Translation of the relics of Martyrs Maximus (286), Dada, and Quinctilian at Dorostolum in Moesia (Greek).
New Martyr Theodore of the Dardanelles (1690) (Greek).
Martyr Phocas (Greek).
The Scripture Readings
Romans 15:30-33
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, 31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. 33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Matthew 17:24-18:4
Peter and His Master Pay Their Taxes
24 When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”
25 He said, “Yes.”
And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”
26 Peter said to Him, “From strangers.”
Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find apiece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”
Who Is the Greatest?
18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The longer I live, in surveying the landscape of my life, I can see much of what my prayer amounted to was “Oh God, bless my mess”. Oh, how it would unbearably grieve the human heart to learn what we’ve missed being out of His will! Oh what it takes at times to bring one to the full realization that truly “Father Knows Best”….
A blest day to you , Father.
Thank you so much for your word of encouragement. This really spoke to me.