Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your questions touch the very heart of the Christian life, and it is good that you bring them before God with such reverence.
We do move, as children of time, toward eternity and toward the care of God. This present life is not our home but a passage, and we are taught to watch and to pray as we make that passage, with Jesus at the side of the Father interceding for us and with the Father Himself as our comfort. The Scriptures teach that death is still real and is no small thing, yet it is not the end for those who are in Christ. The preaching of Christ has shone as light in darkness, and by enduring death He has overcome death and recovered those who were held by it. Death has not disappeared, but it has been conquered, and what follows death for those who are with Christ is to be with Him, which is our hope.
You ask whether we have slipped into thinking that Jesus does everything for us as if we have no part. The answer is found in what it means to be united to Him. The Apostle says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. This does not mean we do nothing, but that nothing good is done by us that Christ disapproves, and no true life is lived apart from Him. As He said, without me you can do nothing. Our part is to die to sin, to mortify what is earthly within us, and to live to God. If we remain dead to sin we live to God, but if we let sin live again we ruin that new life. Christ works and has mastery within us when we yield to Him, and that is our participation.
Therefore conversation with God is not optional but necessary. Christ Himself prayed not because He needed to as one inferior, but to teach us to apply ourselves to prayer continually, soberly and with great watchfulness. The disciples after the ascension continued with one accord in prayer, with one soul as it were, and we are called to the same. It is good to enjoy the prayer of others, but we ourselves must also be awake. Even those who are strong need prayer, and those who think they have no need of prayer have greatest need of it. Seek the Father daily, speak with Him as your eternal Father and Comforter, and remember that where the Spirit is, there Christ is also, and where Christ is, there the whole presence of God is with you to keep you through time and space into eternity.
So bring your prayers and your life to Him each day, asking for grace to die to sin and to live in Him, trusting that He who is light in darkness and victor over death will bring you safely to the good things to come.
We do move, as children of time, toward eternity and toward the care of God. This present life is not our home but a passage, and we are taught to watch and to pray as we make that passage, with Jesus at the side of the Father interceding for us and with the Father Himself as our comfort. The Scriptures teach that death is still real and is no small thing, yet it is not the end for those who are in Christ. The preaching of Christ has shone as light in darkness, and by enduring death He has overcome death and recovered those who were held by it. Death has not disappeared, but it has been conquered, and what follows death for those who are with Christ is to be with Him, which is our hope.
You ask whether we have slipped into thinking that Jesus does everything for us as if we have no part. The answer is found in what it means to be united to Him. The Apostle says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. This does not mean we do nothing, but that nothing good is done by us that Christ disapproves, and no true life is lived apart from Him. As He said, without me you can do nothing. Our part is to die to sin, to mortify what is earthly within us, and to live to God. If we remain dead to sin we live to God, but if we let sin live again we ruin that new life. Christ works and has mastery within us when we yield to Him, and that is our participation.
Therefore conversation with God is not optional but necessary. Christ Himself prayed not because He needed to as one inferior, but to teach us to apply ourselves to prayer continually, soberly and with great watchfulness. The disciples after the ascension continued with one accord in prayer, with one soul as it were, and we are called to the same. It is good to enjoy the prayer of others, but we ourselves must also be awake. Even those who are strong need prayer, and those who think they have no need of prayer have greatest need of it. Seek the Father daily, speak with Him as your eternal Father and Comforter, and remember that where the Spirit is, there Christ is also, and where Christ is, there the whole presence of God is with you to keep you through time and space into eternity.
So bring your prayers and your life to Him each day, asking for grace to die to sin and to live in Him, trusting that He who is light in darkness and victor over death will bring you safely to the good things to come.
