15. Царь и его подданный, просящий у него милости

When a person stands before his King and asks for mercy, he looks at him with humility and reverence, kneels and falls before him, has all his mind and thoughts collected, tries to bend the king to mercy and get what he wants. You see, Christian, how a man asks for mercy from a man! What attention, humility and reverence he shows when he wants to receive what he asks for! From this example we learn how we should stand in prayer before the Lord God and our King, look with tenderness at His Most Holy Face, bow our knees with humility and fall before His Majesty and ask for what we want. O man! Remember in your prayer that you are standing before God, talking with God, saying to God: “Lord, have mercy! Lord, be generous! Lord, hear! Lord, save me!” – and so on. And whether you read psalms, or sing church songs, you sing to God, you extend your speech to God: “You, Lord! To you, Lord! – and so on. Who are you? Earth, ashes and sinner. Who are you standing in front of and talking to? Before the Holy and Terrible God, before Whom all creatures, visible and invisible, are as nothing. You, a small and poor worm, and also a sinner, stand before the Eternal God, the incomprehensibly Almighty, praying. Judge for yourself what kind of humility and reverence you require here! We stand with humility before the King of the earth and ask him, and even more so before the King of Heaven! It follows from this: 1) Reading prayers as fast as the tongue can handle does not bring any benefit. 2) Hastily recited poems and sung songs only make noise, but not only are they not useful to those reading and singing, but they also turn into sin. 3) Hence it happens that priests, clergy and other people who read and sing like this not only do not improve, but also become worse, because they never pray, although they often go to church and pray. Prayer is our intercessor for all good things. Therefore, without prayer it is impossible to correct oneself, live like a Christian and do good. Every good thing must be asked from God. Being evil, we cannot be good without God. 4) Since prayer is the cause of all good things for us, Satan, our enemy, knowing this great benefit that comes to us from prayer, hinders us in every possible way, either suggesting thoughts about worldly things, or bothering us with evil thoughts, or causing despondency. Therefore, the pious need to be careful in prayer, to resist the enemy, not to allow thoughts to scatter, and to listen to God alone, so that both in body and in spirit we stand before God, both in body and in spirit we fall before Him, and in spirit we fall before Him, so that what the tongue says, the mind and heart would not be silent about that - in a word, so that the inside of the person praying would agree with the outside. We all approach a kind and merciful person, although of high rank, conveniently, for his goodness and mercy attracts everyone to himself, and the hope of his mercy makes it convenient to approach him. Everyone thinks about him this way: “Although he is great and high in his rank, he is accessible to all the poor who approach him and ask for mercy from him and opens the doors of mercy.” All the more should we reason this way about the Lord our God, Christian! Although He is Great and terrible, and His majesty is incomprehensible, yet as Great as He is, so Good and Merciful, and as His greatness is, such is His mercy. “The Lord is generous and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are in all His works” (Ps. 144:8-9). And all His holy word preaches nothing to us so much as His goodness and mercy, to our hope and consolation. Without a doubt, let us approach Him and knock on the doors of His mercy. Yes, and He Himself commands us to approach Himself with prayer and petition for our needs. “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). What could be more comforting than these words for us poor sinners? What kind of person, so kind, merciful, generous and meek, is it so easy to attack as God, Who planted kindness, mercy, generosity and meekness in the human heart? From what father do children so conveniently and quickly ask for what they want, like the sons of men from God? Our God not only looks at the request and fulfills it, but also listens to the desires of His poor people. “You have heard the desire of the poor, O Lord; Your ear has heard the devotion of their hearts” * (Ps. 9:38). The doors of mercy and access to God were opened to us by our Sweetest Savior Jesus through His precious merits. And let His greatness not frighten us to approach Him in prayer, but let His goodness and love for mankind encourage us. “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). We see that it is not possible to approach the Tsar or any high official with a petition at any time or in any place. But it is not so with our God, Christian: it is always easy to approach Him everywhere and always. Everywhere and always He is ready to listen to our prayer. Night and day, evening and morning, and every time and hour are convenient for prayer. It is also convenient to approach Him anywhere, for He is with all of us everywhere and always. We can approach Him with our petition in church, in the house, in the meeting, on the road, at work, on the bed, walking and sitting, working and resting, and at any time. For everywhere and always we can raise our minds and hearts to Him, and bring the petition of our hearts to Him, and kneel with heartfelt kneeling before His merciful eyes, and expect mercy from Him. After all, we approach God not with our feet, but with our hearts. Come, Christian, everywhere and always to your Merciful Creator, confess and acknowledge your poverty, poverty and damnation, and you will receive the wealth of goodness from Him. Translation by P. Yungerov – Editorial office of “The ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: