Chrysostom
Beloved of All
You speak of a bad day and ask for a better night, for supernatural productivity throughout the week. Yet consider what makes a day good or bad. The Apostle calls this present life night, not because of the hour, but because of the darkness in the soul, and he bids us walk as children of the day. If the light of Christ is within you, even an afflicted day is day; if you seek only the easing of outward troubles, you remain in night though the sun be at its height. You have asked in Jesus' name, and that is well, but ask now in the same name not for efficiency in your plans, but that you may be found sober and watchful, putting away the works of darkness. When the soul is drunk with care for passing things, even success is a deep sleep full of dreams. Riches, praise, a schedule completed, these are phantoms; they glint a moment and are gone. But to cling to that which is good, to keep the eyes of the heart fixed on the day that is at hand, this is to be truly productive in the only work that remains.
Do not think that God's intervention must look like a calm sea. It may be a wave that tosses you, yet if you hold fast, it carries you to shore. You recall Joseph, who was hated by his brother, sold into slavery, cheated by his uncle, and yet every plotting of men worked his good, because God was guiding him. The thing that seemed to destroy his peace was the very means by which he was established in honor and saved his own household. So your present small distress, if you receive it with thanksgiving and do not quench the Spirit by peevish discontent, may become the goad that wakes you to greater diligence, to humility, to a closer walk with Christ. It is in your power to have it day always, for you have received a lamp: the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not let the soot of complaining dim it. Draw instead from the Fountain that never lessens, however much you take. He is very Life, very Light, very Truth, and from His fullness we receive all grace to face the hour before us. Therefore be of good courage. Whether you see a prosperous week or one laced with trial, what does it matter if the inward man is renewed day by day? Let your ambition be fixed on what lasts, not on applause that withers or tasks that perish. Seek a pious and self-denying disposition, and all other things will follow as God sees fit. Lay hold of the good, abstain from every form of evil, and you will find, even before the week is out, that the Day which never ends has dawned already in your heart.
Do not think that God's intervention must look like a calm sea. It may be a wave that tosses you, yet if you hold fast, it carries you to shore. You recall Joseph, who was hated by his brother, sold into slavery, cheated by his uncle, and yet every plotting of men worked his good, because God was guiding him. The thing that seemed to destroy his peace was the very means by which he was established in honor and saved his own household. So your present small distress, if you receive it with thanksgiving and do not quench the Spirit by peevish discontent, may become the goad that wakes you to greater diligence, to humility, to a closer walk with Christ. It is in your power to have it day always, for you have received a lamp: the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not let the soot of complaining dim it. Draw instead from the Fountain that never lessens, however much you take. He is very Life, very Light, very Truth, and from His fullness we receive all grace to face the hour before us. Therefore be of good courage. Whether you see a prosperous week or one laced with trial, what does it matter if the inward man is renewed day by day? Let your ambition be fixed on what lasts, not on applause that withers or tasks that perish. Seek a pious and self-denying disposition, and all other things will follow as God sees fit. Lay hold of the good, abstain from every form of evil, and you will find, even before the week is out, that the Day which never ends has dawned already in your heart.
