Chrysostom
Beloved of All
I hear in this outpouring the voice of one who loves the Lord and trusts His mercy. That is good, for faith is the foundation of all prayer. Yet I perceive also a heart weighed down by many cares, reaching out for relief in every earthly trouble. Let us consider together what the Lord would teach us through these very trials.
You give thanks for the improved grades of your son. That is right and pleasing to God, for every good gift comes from above. But do not let gratitude fade when the skies darken. The same Lord who granted him understanding also permits weariness, financial strain, and a hostile workplace. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive adversity? The blessed Job, stripped of health, wealth, and children, did not sin with his lips; he said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked shall I return.” You did not enter life clothed in riches or ease, so do not demand them now as payment. Give thanks not only for comfort but for affliction, for God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. The Apostle Paul pleaded three times for a thorn to be removed, yet the Lord answered, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Will you then demand immediate rescue from every pain, when even the great Apostle was refined by his?
You pray for the weary woman, that her body be strengthened during her time of natural weakness. It is not wrong to ask for restoration, but beware lest the desire for bodily ease become a snare. Many women enfeeble themselves with luxury and soft living, seeking constant relief, and find instead low spirits and a host of diseases. The bloom of the body often fades when the soul is pampered. Teach her to bear this burden patiently, offering it up as a sacrifice, and she will find a deeper strength. Cheerfulness of mind, born of trust in God, makes even a fair countenance more radiant than any ointment.
Her mother’s health weighs upon you, as well as the mountain of debt. It is right to bring these before the Lord, for He is the Great Physician and the owner of all silver and gold. Yet remember that He often delays outward healing to heal the soul. As a medicine applied once that cures completely needs no repetition, so if worldly ease were truly our good, He would grant it swiftly. But since we remain needy after so many blessings, it is plain that our deepest sickness is within. Do not murmur if the money does not appear at once or the job offer tarries. Christ was daily in the temple teaching, and no one laid a hand on Him until He Himself permitted the hour of His passion. So every door that remains shut, every paymaster who does not call, is under His permission. Your task is to will what God wills, and all is accomplished.
You mention a toxic workplace, and I do not dismiss that pain. But hear the remedy: forgiveness. Consider how often you have grieved the Lord and He has borne with you. You say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” If you do not forgive your persecutors, you cannot pray that prayer with confidence. But if you forgive, you open the door to demand mercy as a debt, not because you deserve it, but because the lovingkindness of the Creditor has bound Himself to that promise. Do not wait for the environment to change; change your own heart first, and you will see the hand of God. It may be that He leaves you amid thorns to teach you patience, as He left Paul without Titus and still sent him to Macedonia with a heavy spirit. Even then a great door was opened.
You ask for a genuine remote job, stability, and breakthrough. These are not evil requests, but let your first prayer be: “Let Your perfect will be done.” Do not be like the wife of Job, who urged him to curse God and die when relief did not come. Bad advice in calamity can thrust the soul into a pit. Instead, say with the patriarch, “Shall we not accept adversity?” If the Lord opens a door, enter it with thanksgiving. If He leaves you waiting, do not imagine He has forsaken you. The silence is a call to cling more tightly. I have seen many who seemed unmoved after ten sermons suddenly bear fruit at the eleventh. The delay prepared the soil. So it may be with your finances and your work: the repeated disappointments are not wasted, but are strokes that weaken the root of worldliness until at last a single word of Providence brings the whole tree of your trust into full bloom.
Therefore, do not seek as a great prize to be set free from every trial. Paul took pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities. Let this mind be in you. Give thanks for the son’s progress and the daily bread you have. For the weariness, the debts, the harsh colleagues, give thanks also, for they are the school of holiness. And go on crying to God, not with anxious desperation, but with the quiet confidence of a child. He who healed Malchus’s ear in the garden could in an instant heal every leg, fill every purse, and silence every slanderer. But He chooses to do something greater: to heal your unthankful heart and make you partaker of His own strength.
Persevere in prayer and the hearing of the word. Even when you perceive no relief, the medicine is working. And on that day when the King shall say, “I was hungry and you fed me, I was a stranger and you took me in,” every faithful endurance of these small afflictions will be acknowledged before the whole world. Then you will see that He was with you in every closed door and every sleepless night, preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Let that hope give you cheer, and go forward in peace.
You give thanks for the improved grades of your son. That is right and pleasing to God, for every good gift comes from above. But do not let gratitude fade when the skies darken. The same Lord who granted him understanding also permits weariness, financial strain, and a hostile workplace. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive adversity? The blessed Job, stripped of health, wealth, and children, did not sin with his lips; he said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked shall I return.” You did not enter life clothed in riches or ease, so do not demand them now as payment. Give thanks not only for comfort but for affliction, for God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. The Apostle Paul pleaded three times for a thorn to be removed, yet the Lord answered, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Will you then demand immediate rescue from every pain, when even the great Apostle was refined by his?
You pray for the weary woman, that her body be strengthened during her time of natural weakness. It is not wrong to ask for restoration, but beware lest the desire for bodily ease become a snare. Many women enfeeble themselves with luxury and soft living, seeking constant relief, and find instead low spirits and a host of diseases. The bloom of the body often fades when the soul is pampered. Teach her to bear this burden patiently, offering it up as a sacrifice, and she will find a deeper strength. Cheerfulness of mind, born of trust in God, makes even a fair countenance more radiant than any ointment.
Her mother’s health weighs upon you, as well as the mountain of debt. It is right to bring these before the Lord, for He is the Great Physician and the owner of all silver and gold. Yet remember that He often delays outward healing to heal the soul. As a medicine applied once that cures completely needs no repetition, so if worldly ease were truly our good, He would grant it swiftly. But since we remain needy after so many blessings, it is plain that our deepest sickness is within. Do not murmur if the money does not appear at once or the job offer tarries. Christ was daily in the temple teaching, and no one laid a hand on Him until He Himself permitted the hour of His passion. So every door that remains shut, every paymaster who does not call, is under His permission. Your task is to will what God wills, and all is accomplished.
You mention a toxic workplace, and I do not dismiss that pain. But hear the remedy: forgiveness. Consider how often you have grieved the Lord and He has borne with you. You say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” If you do not forgive your persecutors, you cannot pray that prayer with confidence. But if you forgive, you open the door to demand mercy as a debt, not because you deserve it, but because the lovingkindness of the Creditor has bound Himself to that promise. Do not wait for the environment to change; change your own heart first, and you will see the hand of God. It may be that He leaves you amid thorns to teach you patience, as He left Paul without Titus and still sent him to Macedonia with a heavy spirit. Even then a great door was opened.
You ask for a genuine remote job, stability, and breakthrough. These are not evil requests, but let your first prayer be: “Let Your perfect will be done.” Do not be like the wife of Job, who urged him to curse God and die when relief did not come. Bad advice in calamity can thrust the soul into a pit. Instead, say with the patriarch, “Shall we not accept adversity?” If the Lord opens a door, enter it with thanksgiving. If He leaves you waiting, do not imagine He has forsaken you. The silence is a call to cling more tightly. I have seen many who seemed unmoved after ten sermons suddenly bear fruit at the eleventh. The delay prepared the soil. So it may be with your finances and your work: the repeated disappointments are not wasted, but are strokes that weaken the root of worldliness until at last a single word of Providence brings the whole tree of your trust into full bloom.
Therefore, do not seek as a great prize to be set free from every trial. Paul took pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities. Let this mind be in you. Give thanks for the son’s progress and the daily bread you have. For the weariness, the debts, the harsh colleagues, give thanks also, for they are the school of holiness. And go on crying to God, not with anxious desperation, but with the quiet confidence of a child. He who healed Malchus’s ear in the garden could in an instant heal every leg, fill every purse, and silence every slanderer. But He chooses to do something greater: to heal your unthankful heart and make you partaker of His own strength.
Persevere in prayer and the hearing of the word. Even when you perceive no relief, the medicine is working. And on that day when the King shall say, “I was hungry and you fed me, I was a stranger and you took me in,” every faithful endurance of these small afflictions will be acknowledged before the whole world. Then you will see that He was with you in every closed door and every sleepless night, preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Let that hope give you cheer, and go forward in peace.
