“AS FOR ME, I TRUST IN YOU, O LORD” Psalm 31:14.

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

"AS FOR ME, I TRUST IN YOU, O LORD" [Psalm 31:14]

"Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His kindness" [Psalm 31:21] throughout my life. A believer feels God’s presence and His limitless agape no matter what happens or what he or she experiences in life. Not only is the Almighty God our Heavenly Father and Fashioner, but He is also our best, wisest, and most faithful Friend. Those who remain loyal to Him and love Him will naturally trust in Him in everything.

Life is a vast and bottomless ocean which when calm is awesome and beautiful. However, that same ocean can become treacherous and deadly in an instant. We all know that life is unpredictable and anything can happen at any time without any warning. There are troubles that one can manage but there are adversities, however, that can be overwhelming and threatening to us which cannot be dealt with by us and we need help. Where does a person turn to for help? God of course! We depend on His mercy and kindness to deliver us from all adversity and grief.

Mankind, however, is fickle and untrustworthy and ungrateful. People turn to Him only when in trouble or when we need something from Him. We treat our Lord and Savior as our servant and not as our Master and Creator. If we pray, our prayer becomes a list of items that we expect from Him to deliver to us. We neglect to glorify God as our Lord and Creator. To praise and magnify His Holy Name and for our prayer to come out of humble and contrite heart. Every prayer must be one of thanksgiving and sincere gratitude. We should admit to ourselves and say, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me. And delivered me from all my fears" [Psalm 34:4].

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, FOR I AM GENTLE AND LOWLY IN HEART, and you will find rest for your souls" [Matthew 11:29]. Meekness is the mother of agape, the foundation of discernment and the forerunner of all humility. Our LordGod Jesus finds rest in the hearts of the meek and humble, while the wicked spirit is home to the evil one. Our Savior Jesus Christ deals with us with gentleness and patience waiting for us to repent of our sins, ego, and pride. One must examine his/her life and to truly and honestly evaluate his behavior, attitude, and thinking to see how unworthy he/she is. And yet, our Merciful God continues to love us and to forgive us our sins and transgressions.

A "yoke" may be the symbol of hardship, burdens and responsibilities and it may feel heavy due to our sins, Christ’s yoke is easy and light. In Him the soul is refreshed and sees that the Lord is gracious. All the Lord’s actions towards us are gracious, comforting, and healing. Due to our sinful actions we have injured our souls severly and we are now ailing. There is no one else but our Merciful Physician of our souls and bodies, Jesus Christ, that can bring healing and restore us to health. When Jesus says to us "your sins are forgiven" forgiveness comes to mean cleansing and healing. It means restoration and salvation.

Knowing all that we have come to understand about our Heavenly Father and Savior, how can we not trust Him? How can we not appreciate His all-encompassing and Life-Giving agape? How can we doubt His promises to us and His goodness? Trust is founded on faith. It is imperative that we have true faith and complete trust in Our Savior Who died on the Cross to save us. Saint Paisios said, "Completely have trust in God, leave everything in His hands, and believe that His love will act for your own benefit, because there is nothing He cannot do; everything is easy for Him. The difficult thing is for man TO DECIDE TO HUMBLE HIMSELF AND LEAVE EVERYTHING TO GOD’S PROVIDENCE AND LOVE."

Saint John Chrysostom said, "Glory be to God for all things!." Saint John accepted everything in his life, including slandere, imprisonment, persecution, false accusations, and martyrdom. He trusted our Savior Christ completely and even during his exile never questioned why me Lord? He never had any regrets and stood prayerfully, humbly, and accepted his cross gratefully, for he trusted Him Who also suffered the Cross unjustly. There are reasons why our All-Loving Redeemer Christ permits certain events to take place in our lives and everyone of them is to our benefit and salvation. Our faith becomes stronger at times of adversity, pain, suffering, grief, persecution and even illness. There was a parishioner of mine at Saint John’s in Tampa, Florida who had lost his way for a long time and lived a very sinful life and never thought of God. One day he became very ill and his physician informed him that he had cancer and very little time to live. The news of his impending death brought him to me, to Saint John’s church, and most of all to God. He reminded me of the Prodigal Son in Christ’s Parable who after he had spent all that he had in loose living, came to his senses, repented, and began his return journey to his father and home. He confessed to me that he thanked God for his illness, not that he blamed Him, but he felt that it was through his cancer that he found God once again and considered his illness a blessing. He fell asleep in the Lord rejoicing and glorifying his Savior.

I don’t believe there is a person that goes through this earthly and temporal life without experiencing pain, sorrow, disappointments, injustice, slander, illness, betrayal, loneliness, and unfounded hatred. Some may have it more severely than others, but everyone has similar experiences no matter who one is or what he does. However, a believer, a person of faith, has greater strength to meet adversity head on, to have hope, to trust in God during his struggles and dangers storms, than one who has no faith, no hope, or trust in God at all. The pagans for example who persecuted the Christians, inflicted horrific pain and torture on them, however, the faithful believers went on to their martyrdom rejoicing and praising God. Our Lord of love was always with them and gave them the strength to endure their torments and bestowed upon them heavenly crowns and His Eternal Kingdom.

Our Most-Compassionate and forgiving God and Savior is always with us. His love for us is never diminished because of our way of life. We are His children, His creation, and friends. God is not like us who are not dependable, erratic, unstable, unreliable, unfaithful, vengeful, mean spirited, prideful, obstinate, corrupt, sinful and deceitful, among other things. God is AGAPE! Divine Love, the purest form of love, perfect love. For humans this kind of love is incomprehensible and a mystery. How can a believer not trust God Who has given him/her life and has made it possible for him or her to inherit His Heavenly Kingdom and Eternal Life? How can we not trust God Who gave us His Only-begotten Son and Whose Son sacrificed His life on the Cross to save all of mankind from evil and death? What more proof do we need of His unconditional and limitless love for us?

God the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit have given us everything. Now it is our duty to truly pledge to Him that we will be His obedient, good and faithful servants and children. To worship Him not only in words but with our actions and uncompromising fidelity to Him. It is understood by all that God can never be deceived by us. He knows what we think, what we feel, and how we act. He knows our past, our present and our future. God has seen it all and yet, He still loves us. Don’t be frightened or despair for God is near to pick us up and embrace us lovingly and to shed tears of joy upon our necks and to celebrate our return home where we belong. No matter how broken our life seems to be, don’t despair. God has the power to mend it with His own Divine hands and make it perfect once again. "Trust in God is a constant secret prayer that silently brings God’s power where and when they are needed." [Saint Paisios]

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Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George