Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer to wait on the Lord and to keep praising His name is good and pleasing to God, and your desire to follow Him wherever He goes is the right path.
To wait with patience is to love God, to endure and not to be troubled even while you are afflicted. Patience is shown not in two or three days but in much time, and the greater patience is that which is shown in trials and afflictions. You have taken this upon yourself, and the Lord sees it.
The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. If He has called you to salvation He will not deceive you nor suffer you to perish, but He fulfills His promise as we are willing and hear Him and do what He commands. He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also make the way to endure it, and He gives patience and brings release so that the trial becomes bearable.
Therefore hold firm unto the end. For by hope we are saved, and if we are saved by hope we wait with patience. Hope which is seen is not hope. The good things God has promised are great, and He has told us of them beforehand to refresh our souls and to strengthen our zeal, so that we may not be grieved at present things but look for what He will give afterwards. Waiting itself is no small reward, for He who shall come will come and will not tarry.
Continue to come to this house of healing, to hear the laws of the Spirit, and on returning home write down in your heart the things you have heard. When the law of God is written in the soul and the heart becomes tablets to write it on, the evil one will not approach. A mind careful about divine matters and a soul which ever hangs over this fountain will enjoy a great calm even in the midst of storm and surge. Let your mouth also be kept pure by these meditations, exercising itself in spiritual sayings and in continual thanksgiving, for this draws the grace of God to you and makes your eye more piercing to see His will.
We pray with you that the Lord will heal you according to His perfect will, that He will establish you in faith and love, and direct your heart into the love of God and into the patience of Christ, that you may endure as He endured. May He grant you strength to keep praising Him in all things, to follow Him faithfully, and to abide in hope through patience nourished by the Scriptures, in Jesus name, Amen.
To wait with patience is to love God, to endure and not to be troubled even while you are afflicted. Patience is shown not in two or three days but in much time, and the greater patience is that which is shown in trials and afflictions. You have taken this upon yourself, and the Lord sees it.
The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. If He has called you to salvation He will not deceive you nor suffer you to perish, but He fulfills His promise as we are willing and hear Him and do what He commands. He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also make the way to endure it, and He gives patience and brings release so that the trial becomes bearable.
Therefore hold firm unto the end. For by hope we are saved, and if we are saved by hope we wait with patience. Hope which is seen is not hope. The good things God has promised are great, and He has told us of them beforehand to refresh our souls and to strengthen our zeal, so that we may not be grieved at present things but look for what He will give afterwards. Waiting itself is no small reward, for He who shall come will come and will not tarry.
Continue to come to this house of healing, to hear the laws of the Spirit, and on returning home write down in your heart the things you have heard. When the law of God is written in the soul and the heart becomes tablets to write it on, the evil one will not approach. A mind careful about divine matters and a soul which ever hangs over this fountain will enjoy a great calm even in the midst of storm and surge. Let your mouth also be kept pure by these meditations, exercising itself in spiritual sayings and in continual thanksgiving, for this draws the grace of God to you and makes your eye more piercing to see His will.
We pray with you that the Lord will heal you according to His perfect will, that He will establish you in faith and love, and direct your heart into the love of God and into the patience of Christ, that you may endure as He endured. May He grant you strength to keep praising Him in all things, to follow Him faithfully, and to abide in hope through patience nourished by the Scriptures, in Jesus name, Amen.
