Chrysostom
Good and Faithful Servant
Your prayer reveals a soul weighed down by many cares, seeking relief from bodily afflictions and temporal needs. A stiffness in the shoulder from idle speech, a pain in the body, a desire for work, and a longing for protection. These are not to be dismissed, for our compassionate Lord attends to the sparrows. Yet I fear you are seeking the gifts while neglecting the Giver, pleading for the healing of the body while the soul’s far graver sickness goes unacknowledged.
You ask to be kept from an anti-Christ spirit that would cause you to fight against Him. Do you not know that the very clamor of these requests, the anxious accumulation of them, can itself be a form of fighting against God? It betrays a faith that is not yet fully confident that He knows what you need before you ask. You beg for a job with specific days, as if you would command the Lord’s providence. True faith does not dictate terms. When the blind men cried out, the Lord asked them, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” He required a faith that trusted His power and His will, without prescribing the manner or the hour. Do you believe He is able, or are you merely presenting a list of grievances?
You desire healing for your hemorrhoids, your sinus and chest congestion, the stiffness from your slang. I say to you, a far more dreadful illness than any bodily infirmity is the inflammation of the soul from unrepented sin, the congestion of a heart choked by worldly cares, the stiffness of a will that will not bow obediently to every word of God. You are concerned with an arm that is weak; I bid you to consider a soul that may be paralyzed in its zeal for holiness.
You pray for the Lord to bless and protect your marriage and your ministry. A noble petition. But hear this: what is the surest protection for your house, the surest foundation for your ministry? It is to hear the sayings of Christ and to do them. The word you preach is not your own; if you would have God bless the ministry given to you, you must receive the word not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works in those who believe. This is the only guard against an anti-Christ spirit, which is not merely a dramatic rebellion, but the quiet, daily resistance of a heart that refuses to abide in His doctrine.
You ask to be kept from taking His name in vain. A fearful danger indeed! The Pharisee spoke what was true, saying, “I am not as this publican,” yet he was condemned. How much more terrible the judgment for those who, like gossiping women, carry about a profession of faith that their lives deny? Taking the Lord’s name in vain is not just a curse word on the lips; it is professing to be His while living as a practical atheist, fretting over food and clothing and health as the Gentiles do.
The Lord did not entrust Himself to men because He knew what was in man. So do not think you can simply ask for protection while your heart remains unguarded. The ultimate protection from dangers seen and unseen is to dwell so closely in the shadow of the Almighty that sin becomes more terrifying than any earthly danger. For what does it profit a man to have his shoulders limber and his muscles strong, his body free of pain and inflammation, even to have his marriage safe and his ministry flourishing, if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?
Seek the healing of the inner man first. For there is a medicine that heals every sickness, a food that imparts eternal life. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. What is the stiffness in your shoulders, the pain of hemorrhoids, compared to a soul that is dead and without the life of Christ coursing through it? Draw near to that holy Table with a faith that has been sharpened by the physician’s knife of self-examination. Let the terror of that anti-Christ spirit drive you not to a mere request, but to a violent and thorough repentance, so that upon you may be a blessing, and not a curse.
You ask to be kept from an anti-Christ spirit that would cause you to fight against Him. Do you not know that the very clamor of these requests, the anxious accumulation of them, can itself be a form of fighting against God? It betrays a faith that is not yet fully confident that He knows what you need before you ask. You beg for a job with specific days, as if you would command the Lord’s providence. True faith does not dictate terms. When the blind men cried out, the Lord asked them, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” He required a faith that trusted His power and His will, without prescribing the manner or the hour. Do you believe He is able, or are you merely presenting a list of grievances?
You desire healing for your hemorrhoids, your sinus and chest congestion, the stiffness from your slang. I say to you, a far more dreadful illness than any bodily infirmity is the inflammation of the soul from unrepented sin, the congestion of a heart choked by worldly cares, the stiffness of a will that will not bow obediently to every word of God. You are concerned with an arm that is weak; I bid you to consider a soul that may be paralyzed in its zeal for holiness.
You pray for the Lord to bless and protect your marriage and your ministry. A noble petition. But hear this: what is the surest protection for your house, the surest foundation for your ministry? It is to hear the sayings of Christ and to do them. The word you preach is not your own; if you would have God bless the ministry given to you, you must receive the word not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works in those who believe. This is the only guard against an anti-Christ spirit, which is not merely a dramatic rebellion, but the quiet, daily resistance of a heart that refuses to abide in His doctrine.
You ask to be kept from taking His name in vain. A fearful danger indeed! The Pharisee spoke what was true, saying, “I am not as this publican,” yet he was condemned. How much more terrible the judgment for those who, like gossiping women, carry about a profession of faith that their lives deny? Taking the Lord’s name in vain is not just a curse word on the lips; it is professing to be His while living as a practical atheist, fretting over food and clothing and health as the Gentiles do.
The Lord did not entrust Himself to men because He knew what was in man. So do not think you can simply ask for protection while your heart remains unguarded. The ultimate protection from dangers seen and unseen is to dwell so closely in the shadow of the Almighty that sin becomes more terrifying than any earthly danger. For what does it profit a man to have his shoulders limber and his muscles strong, his body free of pain and inflammation, even to have his marriage safe and his ministry flourishing, if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?
Seek the healing of the inner man first. For there is a medicine that heals every sickness, a food that imparts eternal life. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. What is the stiffness in your shoulders, the pain of hemorrhoids, compared to a soul that is dead and without the life of Christ coursing through it? Draw near to that holy Table with a faith that has been sharpened by the physician’s knife of self-examination. Let the terror of that anti-Christ spirit drive you not to a mere request, but to a violent and thorough repentance, so that upon you may be a blessing, and not a curse.
