Chrysostom
Beloved of All
You ask for sleep, for health, for safety upon your household, for your husband’s purity, for your daily quota, for release from debt. These are the ordinary anxieties that press upon every soul, and the Apostle has told you plainly that no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. The escape He gives is not always the immediate removal of the trial, but the strength to bear it and a heart that learns to flee to Him continually.
Consider your husband and the temptation you fear. You are not mistaken to be vigilant, but hear the Apostle: let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Your anxiety, however, must not become a spirit of suspicion, for that is a worm that devours peace. Pray, yes, but pray as our Lord commanded, using the plural word: forgive us our debts, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. You cannot command your husband’s will by your prayer as though God were a servant to override what is free. But you can entreat the One who makes the way of escape, and you can yourself become a sanctuary of such meekness and quiet dignity that the way of escape is made more visible to him. The wife who is anxious and fretful drives a man toward the storm; the wife who is serene and prayerful builds a harbor.
For your children, again, the command is to trust and to teach them to flee to God. When a loving mother sees her little children playing far off, she sometimes permits fearful things to appear, that they may run back to her arms. So God often holds out a kind of threat, not to bring ruin upon us, but to draw us closer unto Himself. You ask to keep them from all harm. The greater harm is not the body’s injury but the soul’s sickness. Strive that they learn to desire holiness, for many who seemed strong have grown infirm through remissness, and many who were sick have become whole through humility.
You speak of your quota for the shop and your debts. This presses upon you like a heavy chain, and I do not dismiss it. But observe how the Lord teaches us to ask for daily bread, nothing more. The luxury and excess that men chase give pleasure that goes no further than the tongue; when the table is removed, you are like one who has not partaken, or worse, bearing headache and sleeplessness and a sleep like death. But the sleep of the laborer who has eaten with moderation is sweet. So too with wealth: the man who is always grasping for more cannot sleep, for his cares sit on his eyelids like demons. If you hit your quota, will your heart then be still? Or will a new number rise up to torment you? Seek first to do the work honestly, to deal kindly with customers, to be free of fraud and grasping, and leave the outcome to God. He sometimes delays to give, not out of neglect, but that by such delay you may learn to persevere and to cling to Him more tightly.
As for sleep itself, you command eight hours as though it were a medicine you could measure out. But sleeplessness often comes from repletion, from the agitation of the mind, from the gall of unforgiveness. Search your heart before you lie down. Has any one grieved you? Consider how often you have done such things to others, and even to the Lord Himself, and forgive. If you do not forgive, you cannot say with confidence, “Forgive us our debts.” A heart swollen with resentment cannot find rest; it tosses on a sea of its own making. Pour out your complaint to God in simplicity, then commit your bed and your waking alike to His care. Even if sleep does not come, let your soul lie quiet in His hand, and that quietness is itself a gift greater than slumber.
Above all, do not mistake the nature of what you seek. You plead for your husband to stay from temptation, for your children to be safe, for your shop to prosper, for your body to sleep. All these are things. The one thing needful is that your soul cling to God and not let go. If He grants the sleep, give thanks. If He withholds it, give thanks still, for He is contriving by that very wakefulness to teach you to persevere. The night watch can become a time of such sweet communion with Him that you will almost dread the return of slumber. Cast yourself upon His faithfulness, for He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, and He will make the way of escape. That way is Christ Himself, who is your peace, your health, your safety, and your true and inexhaustible treasure.
Consider your husband and the temptation you fear. You are not mistaken to be vigilant, but hear the Apostle: let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Your anxiety, however, must not become a spirit of suspicion, for that is a worm that devours peace. Pray, yes, but pray as our Lord commanded, using the plural word: forgive us our debts, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. You cannot command your husband’s will by your prayer as though God were a servant to override what is free. But you can entreat the One who makes the way of escape, and you can yourself become a sanctuary of such meekness and quiet dignity that the way of escape is made more visible to him. The wife who is anxious and fretful drives a man toward the storm; the wife who is serene and prayerful builds a harbor.
For your children, again, the command is to trust and to teach them to flee to God. When a loving mother sees her little children playing far off, she sometimes permits fearful things to appear, that they may run back to her arms. So God often holds out a kind of threat, not to bring ruin upon us, but to draw us closer unto Himself. You ask to keep them from all harm. The greater harm is not the body’s injury but the soul’s sickness. Strive that they learn to desire holiness, for many who seemed strong have grown infirm through remissness, and many who were sick have become whole through humility.
You speak of your quota for the shop and your debts. This presses upon you like a heavy chain, and I do not dismiss it. But observe how the Lord teaches us to ask for daily bread, nothing more. The luxury and excess that men chase give pleasure that goes no further than the tongue; when the table is removed, you are like one who has not partaken, or worse, bearing headache and sleeplessness and a sleep like death. But the sleep of the laborer who has eaten with moderation is sweet. So too with wealth: the man who is always grasping for more cannot sleep, for his cares sit on his eyelids like demons. If you hit your quota, will your heart then be still? Or will a new number rise up to torment you? Seek first to do the work honestly, to deal kindly with customers, to be free of fraud and grasping, and leave the outcome to God. He sometimes delays to give, not out of neglect, but that by such delay you may learn to persevere and to cling to Him more tightly.
As for sleep itself, you command eight hours as though it were a medicine you could measure out. But sleeplessness often comes from repletion, from the agitation of the mind, from the gall of unforgiveness. Search your heart before you lie down. Has any one grieved you? Consider how often you have done such things to others, and even to the Lord Himself, and forgive. If you do not forgive, you cannot say with confidence, “Forgive us our debts.” A heart swollen with resentment cannot find rest; it tosses on a sea of its own making. Pour out your complaint to God in simplicity, then commit your bed and your waking alike to His care. Even if sleep does not come, let your soul lie quiet in His hand, and that quietness is itself a gift greater than slumber.
Above all, do not mistake the nature of what you seek. You plead for your husband to stay from temptation, for your children to be safe, for your shop to prosper, for your body to sleep. All these are things. The one thing needful is that your soul cling to God and not let go. If He grants the sleep, give thanks. If He withholds it, give thanks still, for He is contriving by that very wakefulness to teach you to persevere. The night watch can become a time of such sweet communion with Him that you will almost dread the return of slumber. Cast yourself upon His faithfulness, for He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, and He will make the way of escape. That way is Christ Himself, who is your peace, your health, your safety, and your true and inexhaustible treasure.
