Metropolitan Anthoniy (Pakanich) advises how not to become hostage of false beliefs.

Life presents us with thousands of challenges. And we are trying in every possible way to resist them: we try to be strong and staunch brave people or we strive to find strong defenders and patrons. At the same time, we forget about the main force, we bypass the only correct source, we do not look for what is so necessary where it should.

We need to look for strength in God, and not in ourselves and other people.

Relying on the Lord, fully trusting Him, at every moment of our life we receive the help and support we need through acquaintances and strangers, through close and distant people, through an incredible combination of circumstances, through unimaginable and unforeseen events and situations.

But in order to fully rely on God, in order to use the fortress that belongs to Him, you need to own to become weak and infirm, and not flaunt your imaginary strength and power.

Some people misunderstand the phrase «being weak».

It does not mean being lazy and passive, indifferent and apathetic, powerless and spineless.

A weak person is able to assess him/herself critically, and therefore objectively, in order to ask the Creator, who loves us, for what is missing.

This is the ability to catch in time a stormy, squally impulse of God’s power, blowing and carrying away into the distance, completely surrendering to it; and the ability to rebuild overnight, when complete serenity, calmly staying at rest, without movement, in one place; and trust in the sudden fresh breath of wind that suddenly arose, deftly catching its light streams, followed by marching with it under sails, when, gaining momentum, you are already rushing forward, cutting through the endless sea at full speed.

Flexible, weak, obedient to the Creator, the human soul is filled with the grace and strength of God. By the blow, the breath of the Holy Spirit, she is led by Him to victory, to the shore where eternal life.

If you take a closer look, then a lot around us, wisely arranged by the Lord, tells us about obedience, everything, as it were, silently teaches us to be flexible and obedient, like nature, humbly changing its outfit every time from year to year, welcoming the inevitable changes of seasons: to crumble in autumn leaves, to wrap up in winter snow, revive green in spring, triumph in summer with color.

The wife, for example, first learns flexibility in the family, obedience to her husband, complete trust and submission, striving to give the reins of government to him, so that later she will also rely on God.

At work, the subordinate acquires the skills to trust the manager in order to be receptive to his/her new ideas, visions, changes, realizing that he/she is responsible for the final result, sees the situation wider and deeper…

And so practically everything in our life teaches us to trust and be weak before the power of God.

You need to believe the Lord just as He believes a person. The Savior endured torment for us, the Innocent endured with the hope that His suffering will resonate in every heart, change our life.

We must know that it is only by our weakness that we become invincible. No earthly power will save us.

Only those who are clothed with His grace, supported by His love, led by His Spirit have nothing to fear.

Only when we fall in love with God, we will crave for one thing – reunification with Him, we will begin to look for Him in a tender bud in the spring, in snowflakes that cover the furry paws of spruces in winter, in the blue of the summer sky, in the sounds of the first autumn rain.

We will learn to understand beauty and perceive it as a wonderful gift given to us personally by the Creator in a fit of great love.

«If God is for us, who can be against us?» (Romans 8:31). God is with us; He is in each of us through the communion of the Holy Mysteries. We are strong by Him individually.

We are strong by Him together in the Church of Christ, the irresistible Body.

Our strength is measured by the strength of God, the hope in the Living God.

There is no greater strength than our feeble trust in Him. 

Recorded by Natalia Goroshkova