Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer has been heard and we join you before the Lord with thanks for your honesty. To desire to be free from gluttony and pride and to care for your body in a healthier way is a good desire that God honors, for the body is given to us to serve Him and not to master us.
Scripture teaches that gluttony does not simply fill the body but enslaves it. When we go beyond what is sufficient, we are no longer master of appetite but its servant. Excess wears away health and dulls the soul, bringing sloth and heaviness, while frugality and a plain table are the mother of health. What is sufficient is both nourishment and pleasure and health, but excess is injury and unpleasantness and disease. So we pray that God will help you to make provision for the flesh for health and not for indulgence, to take away what is superfluous and to receive what is sufficient and can be well digested, not loading the body but nourishing it so that you may be clear minded and able to give yourself to spiritual things. Ask Him to change your will where it is cold and unsettled like water into something with strength and gladness, so that you are no longer carried away by fleeting cravings but steady in self command.
And concerning pride, remember that pride is the fountain of all wickedness while humility is the mother of all self command. The one who prays with an arrogant heart cannot be heard, but God draws near to the humble. Pride is extinguished not by thinking of our own strength but by knowing God, by remembering our sins and how much we need His mercy, by considering our human frailty and that all present things pass like a shadow, and by looking at those who suffer and remembering to be thankful. Humility is the groundwork of all good, and God gives grace to the humble.
So we pray for you now.
Heavenly Father, we bring this brother before You in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom alone we have salvation and access to Your throne. Grant him a humble heart that seeks to know You more and to turn from pride. Show him his need of Your mercy each day and teach him to walk with all humility of mind. Give him victory over gluttony and help him to use food as a gift for health and strength and not for excess. Teach him to be satisfied with what is sufficient, to find pleasure in moderation, and to keep his body as a servant for Your purposes. Strengthen his will, make him steadfast, and fill him with thankfulness. Guard him from being mastered by appetite or lifted up by pride, and lead him in self command and contentment. We ask this for his good and for Your glory. Amen.
Continue to seek the Lord daily, eat with thankfulness and measure, and practice humility by prayer, confession, and remembering His mercy toward you. God is able to help you and to form in you a steady and humble heart.
Scripture teaches that gluttony does not simply fill the body but enslaves it. When we go beyond what is sufficient, we are no longer master of appetite but its servant. Excess wears away health and dulls the soul, bringing sloth and heaviness, while frugality and a plain table are the mother of health. What is sufficient is both nourishment and pleasure and health, but excess is injury and unpleasantness and disease. So we pray that God will help you to make provision for the flesh for health and not for indulgence, to take away what is superfluous and to receive what is sufficient and can be well digested, not loading the body but nourishing it so that you may be clear minded and able to give yourself to spiritual things. Ask Him to change your will where it is cold and unsettled like water into something with strength and gladness, so that you are no longer carried away by fleeting cravings but steady in self command.
And concerning pride, remember that pride is the fountain of all wickedness while humility is the mother of all self command. The one who prays with an arrogant heart cannot be heard, but God draws near to the humble. Pride is extinguished not by thinking of our own strength but by knowing God, by remembering our sins and how much we need His mercy, by considering our human frailty and that all present things pass like a shadow, and by looking at those who suffer and remembering to be thankful. Humility is the groundwork of all good, and God gives grace to the humble.
So we pray for you now.
Heavenly Father, we bring this brother before You in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom alone we have salvation and access to Your throne. Grant him a humble heart that seeks to know You more and to turn from pride. Show him his need of Your mercy each day and teach him to walk with all humility of mind. Give him victory over gluttony and help him to use food as a gift for health and strength and not for excess. Teach him to be satisfied with what is sufficient, to find pleasure in moderation, and to keep his body as a servant for Your purposes. Strengthen his will, make him steadfast, and fill him with thankfulness. Guard him from being mastered by appetite or lifted up by pride, and lead him in self command and contentment. We ask this for his good and for Your glory. Amen.
Continue to seek the Lord daily, eat with thankfulness and measure, and practice humility by prayer, confession, and remembering His mercy toward you. God is able to help you and to form in you a steady and humble heart.
