Благословение

It is lawless and shameless to ask God for blessings that have been gathered through untruth and theft. God does not command us to do injustice and forbids theft. There is no blessing of God there, where there is untruth and theft, but instead a curse, since the law of God is ruined and the Lawgiver is despised. He who has living faith has God's blessing. You know, Christian, that when we want to use someone else’s goods, for example, or taste food, or get drunk, or take something else out of necessity, we ask the owner and ask for permission and, having accepted his goods, we thank him: this is how honest people usually act everywhere, and this is how it should be. This is what Christians should do when they want food, drink and other blessings of this world. Everything of God is there: food, drink, clothing, etc. God is the ruler and master of the world and everything that is in the world. Therefore, with His blessing, we must accept everything we want to use and ask for it in prayer, if we do not want to sin against Him. For it is sinful to use someone else’s property without the owner’s permission, as anyone can admit. It is indisputable that God does not deny anyone the blessings of this world and gives them to the most wicked. But Christians must know the Giver, and ask His blessing for the use of these benefits, and for that, thank Him as the Benefactor from the heart. Those Christians do bad things who, without prayer and God’s blessing, begin to eat, drink and consume other good things. Such people do not know where all good comes from, and, not knowing the Giver, they do not thank Him. Thus, they become like pagans who do not know the true God and Creator of all good things, or even dumb cattle who, without any reasoning, eat and drink what they see in front of them. It is bad to ask for blessings on overeating and drunkenness, as well as on clothes for ostentation and grandeur, for God allows us to consume food and drink, but forbids overeating and drunkenness. He also gives us clothing for our needs, and not for the love of glory, to cover nakedness and warm our wretched body, and not for self-praise and magnification - in a word, he allows us to please the flesh, allows us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, warm, give rest to the weary, but not to her lust, as the Apostle teaches: do not turn caring for the flesh into lust (Rom. 13, 14). When you want to eat or drink, call on the name of the Lord and ask Him to bless your food and drink, saying: “Lord, bless.” And think here that you want to eat and enjoy the good of your Lord. For everything is God’s good, as it was said above: the earth is the Lord’s and what fills it (Ps. 23:1). Whoever has acquired property for himself through theft and untruth is a curse, not a blessing from God, and therefore it is not appropriate to invoke the name of God here. Likewise, those who want to get drunk should not call on the name of God, for drunkenness is forbidden by God.