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A DEADLY SIN AND HOLY ZEAL
How do we overcome LAZINESS..??
LAZINESS IN PRAYER, IN DEEDS, IN ALL ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.
monks work for hours everyday with labour work, then they stay up all night praying, abouna abdel messieh el manahre use to tie a rope on his waist, attached to the celling so that he's doesnt sleep, but stands and prays, some monks even to there beards so that if there head falls they will immediatly awake and pray.
how is it that for us, 10 mins of prayer is so hard? to have full concintration in our words that we say midlessly. that i say mindlessly.
how did they overcome there laziness?
how can we reach that level?
how can we train ourselves?
how can we obtain this holy zeal and passion?
what is missing in our lives?
George
pope Shenuda wrote a book about "the holy zeal", but i couldn't grasp it, i need more...
LAZINESS IN PRAYER, IN DEEDS, IN ALL ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.
monks work for hours everyday with labour work, then they stay up all night praying, abouna abdel messieh el manahre use to tie a rope on his waist, attached to the celling so that he's doesnt sleep, but stands and prays, some monks even to there beards so that if there head falls they will immediatly awake and pray.
how is it that for us, 10 mins of prayer is so hard? to have full concintration in our words that we say midlessly. that i say mindlessly.
how did they overcome there laziness?
how can we reach that level?
how can we train ourselves?
how can we obtain this holy zeal and passion?
what is missing in our lives?
George
pope Shenuda wrote a book about "the holy zeal", but i couldn't grasp it, i need more...
Comments
i often find myself asking the same question..im not exactly sure of the answer, but i think one of the most important things we can do to try and grow closer to God and overcome this laziness is fasting. i also think we need to find a renewed faith in God...something to pull us back to Him and want us to actually know God. this can be a good spiritual book, the Bible, etc. i know watching the passion of Christ touched me and made me want to strengthen my spirtiual life. we can also say the Jesus Prayer (My Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me a sinner) whenever we find our mind wanderin off during prayer.
well im sorry i couldnt answer ur question, and hopefully sum1 else will have an answer...good question thou :)
Forgive me a sinner,
Marian
is there any more u can tell me?
Pray for me the sinner.
-“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7, 8
-“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16
-“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” Ephesians 6:18
-"Trust in Him at all times, o people; pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge” PSALM 62:8
Well first to achieve/reach this "holy zeal", will not happen all at once, it has to happen gradually, by taking one step at a time, as we keep on growing more and more spiritually. We have to ask ourselves why do we pray..does God need our prayers? we are the ones in need of God, not the reverse. This holy zeal is a fire that burns inside our hearts, and longs for God and His great love. How can we say that we are truly Christians, but we don’t have a relationship with God, how can we communicate with God if we don’t speak to Him? We speak to God through prayers and He answers us by His word, in the holy Bible. God loves us and He never left us, never has He forsaken us, but yet, we are the ones who when God keeps trying to draw nearer to us, instead, we keep on going further and further away, till we go astray as lost sheep. Why don’t we want to pray, look how much God has done for you in your life, think of the many blessings that He gives you each and everyday, but yet sometimes to just stand up and pray for 10 minutes is hard for us, when it comes to read our Bible, we forget or we don’t care, or we are too lazy, why, why, why? Maybe sometimes all you need to wakeup from your laziness is a reminder, look at a picture of your beloved savior hung on the cross, “how could you forget the one who died for you? How could you forget His side that had to bleed? He who saw you in your misery, so He came running to you, He who bought you and redeemed you broke your chains and set you free?”
We are in need of prayer, and not just 10 min a day, but do the best you can, we are all in need of many prayers. When you pray, pray from all your heart and tell God all what’s in your heart, pour out your heart to Him, He said “come to Me all you who weary and I will give you rest”, go to Him and cast all your burdens upon Him, for He cares for you, no one cares about you as much as Jesus does. Why is prayer so important? Well, sometimes maybe we say to ourselves why even bother praying God isn’t answering our prayers, we pray in vain, but we are so mistaken, God listens to the voice of His children, He listens to the prayers of His servants and He will hear us from above, He hears our cries and He will answer them in the right time in His eyes (not when we think is the right time).
In this world that we live in, we are in a great war, a great battle between good and evil, though as Christ’s children we want to walk in His righteous ways because we love Him so much, yet at the same time our flesh is struggling against our spirit, and good and evil are in a severe conflict together. How do we expect to win this war? A soldier in an army cannot go to war with no weapons, can he? Can a soldier go to war to fight the enemy, while he is unprepared? Certainly not! We are the same; we are all good soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ, but we cant expect to fight and win without being prepared. So how do we prepare ourselves? we pray…pray, fast, read your Bible, take communion, repent, confess..etc,. This war is a very harsh war because we are just humans, we are so weak by our human nature and we are fighting against the powers of darkness and evil, satan, so don’t expect to defeat satan and sin if you are not armed with many weapons that you will need.
What is missing in our lives? Sometimes.. its love? Yes, we all many times we have said to ourselves we love God, but do we really? If you love someone so much you would enjoy talking to them endlessly without ever getting bored, because this love for them inside of you fills your whole heart, with great love, do we enjoy talking/praying to God, our father? God is our father, im sure if we don’t talk to our “earthly fathers” just for 1 day they will get so upset, imagine not ever standing up to pray to God, imagine staying many days without talking to Him, without praying or reading your Bible? Do you really love God, or do you love the worlds and its pleasures more than Him? Also at times we say we love God, and may be we think we do, but we don’t love others around us, and the love of God is not perfected in us, We have to love one another just as He has loved us, and we have to completely fill our hearts with His great love
Pray to God, seek God, and He wont leave you alone ever, He will be with you every step of your life to guide you and protect you, He will hold your right hand and He will never ever let go. Grow in your spiritual life, and learn how to love God from all your heart all your mind, all your soul, and then you will find that you are praying much more, and your relationship with God is much stronger than before.
thnx again, u've lifted u my spirit, both of you.
i cant explain the joy im feeling from ur responses
u guys have guided me well, and for that i will pray everynight that God rewards you both openly.
please pray for my many weaknesses,
u r in my prays
ur brother in christ
George
i think you can try to make your prayer ours longer bit by bit.And it's preferable to use the "Agpyea" because it's prayers are written by the old fathers of the church, and it gives you longer time to have with God.I've tried it.
Pray for me.
I just have one comment: I notice that if i am praying something from memory, i sometimes concentrate on saying it right instead of contemplating on what i am actually saying... this makes my prayer nothing but repitition of words! :(
So even when i know the prayer, the Agpeya is very useful because as you see the words you can think about what they mean, and you can really PRAY to God as you mean what you are saying.
Sometimes, though, i prefer to pray without the Agpeya because i can think about my prayer and 'talk' to God, without reciting psalms or prayers!
I don't know if anyone else feels the same way? ???
Both ways, when we pray, we should really FEEL what we are saying instead of praying for the sake of convincing ourselves that we prayed! ;)
Please pray for my weakness!
God Bless You all.
God Bless You All
-Mark
It's nice to know that i'm not alone! :).
God Bless You!
"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. " Matthew 6:7
The replies here are all very good and helpful! :)
I notice that if i am praying something from memory, i sometimes concentrate on saying it right instead of contemplating on what i am actually saying... this makes my prayer nothing but repitition of words! :(
So even when i know the prayer, the Agpeya is very useful because as you see the words you can think about what they mean, and you can really PRAY to God as you mean what you are saying.
Sometimes, though, i prefer to pray without the Agpeya because i can think about my prayer and 'talk' to God, without reciting psalms or prayers!
I don't know if anyone else feels the same way? ???
Both ways, when we pray, we should really FEEL what we are saying instead of praying for the sake of convincing ourselves that we prayed! ;)
I feel the same and I thing a lot of people do, but we ought to memorize our prayer bec. Sometimes you don't have the Agpyea with u to read it. Then you can say it slowly so that you concentrate on its meaning not only on saying it right.
#And God doesn't want u to say the prayers exactly right, but He wants u to concentrate in it and say it with spirit.
#Also u can pray at any time not just when u stand in the church or at home, u can pray at any place.
Pray for me.
Jesus Christ is the same: yesterday, today, and forever: in one hypostasis: we worship Him and glorify Him.
- Chris
We shouldn't be concentrating on making our prayer sound nice, instead we should conentrate on making our prayer sincere and faithful!! :)
Even a short prayer like:
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"
can have alot of meaning if you really believe in what you are praying and WHO you are praying to!
Sometimes, we convince ourselves that we are too busy to pray or we make it short... but if we considered all the spare time we have (like you said - not just at home)! It could be on the way to school, or work (or anywhere). It could be waiting in line for something... We can find a lot of time to pray to God and perhaps we can get closer to following St. Paul's wisdom in saying:
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1Thessalonians 5: 16-18)
God Bless You!
I need your prayers...
That's exactly what i meant, to pray everywhere.
And the prayer mentioned "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!"
is a very good prayer and the fathers have talked too much about it and wrote a lot of books about it.
Also some people abbreviate that prayer to be a lot easier, i've read a book that says that you can pray only by saying Jesus only the name is a prayer but if you said it with you soul.
God bless you,
Pray for me.