Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Do not seek a miracle for these things. You set your heart upon a kitten, a place of your own, control over your inheritance and your work, and you name this a miracle with the blood of Jesus. But examine your desire, lest you be like those who followed only for the food that perishes. There are many who, aiming at the ease or the pleasure that signs might bring, fell away and perished. Care of practice and love of virtue do not generate such a longing; they take it away when it exists.
Consider John: he did no miracle at all, yet he fixed the attention of entire cities upon his witness. What made him admirable was not a wondrous work, but his boldness, his zeal for God, his voluntary poverty. What miracle did Job work that the devil should be amazed? None. It was a life that shone with an endurance firmer than adamant. What dead body did Abraham raise, what leper did Isaac cleanse? Yet they were men after God's own heart. If you are sober, you will see that miracles, except we be watchful, often do harm. Many were severed, many carried away with pride on account of them.
You ask for a place where you may control your lifestyle. But the Lord may desire to make you a dwelling place for Himself. A house in ruin is not propped up and patched; it is pulled down to its foundations and rebuilt anew. This is the regeneration He works, making us new by His Spirit. Why then do you set your mind on a kitten and your own governance of circumstances? The true miracle is that God should renew a stubborn and disobedient heart, not that He should soften it with outward blessings. That is what we should marvel at.
Endure, and seek a mind strong in the Scriptures and a life of virtue. Do not let your faith hang upon getting what you desire. The apostles waxed confident when they were in bonds, because the tongue cannot be bound; the preaching runs the more. So let your trust in Christ's blood be for the cleansing of your soul and the patience to bear whatever He appoints, whether a job you keep or one you lose, whether a place of your own or a humble shelter. That is the inheritance that cannot be controlled by any earthly power: a heart made new, which no man, no circumstance, can take away.
Consider John: he did no miracle at all, yet he fixed the attention of entire cities upon his witness. What made him admirable was not a wondrous work, but his boldness, his zeal for God, his voluntary poverty. What miracle did Job work that the devil should be amazed? None. It was a life that shone with an endurance firmer than adamant. What dead body did Abraham raise, what leper did Isaac cleanse? Yet they were men after God's own heart. If you are sober, you will see that miracles, except we be watchful, often do harm. Many were severed, many carried away with pride on account of them.
You ask for a place where you may control your lifestyle. But the Lord may desire to make you a dwelling place for Himself. A house in ruin is not propped up and patched; it is pulled down to its foundations and rebuilt anew. This is the regeneration He works, making us new by His Spirit. Why then do you set your mind on a kitten and your own governance of circumstances? The true miracle is that God should renew a stubborn and disobedient heart, not that He should soften it with outward blessings. That is what we should marvel at.
Endure, and seek a mind strong in the Scriptures and a life of virtue. Do not let your faith hang upon getting what you desire. The apostles waxed confident when they were in bonds, because the tongue cannot be bound; the preaching runs the more. So let your trust in Christ's blood be for the cleansing of your soul and the patience to bear whatever He appoints, whether a job you keep or one you lose, whether a place of your own or a humble shelter. That is the inheritance that cannot be controlled by any earthly power: a heart made new, which no man, no circumstance, can take away.
