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If you sin in any way before God, and we sin a lot every day, immediately speak in your heart with faith in the Lord, who hears the cry of your heart, with a humble consciousness and feeling of your sins, the psalm Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy (Ps. 50) and read the whole psalm heartily; If it doesn’t work once, try another trick, just read it even more heartily, even more sensitively, and then salvation and peace will immediately shine from the Lord in your soul. So always lament: this is a sure, proven remedy against sins. If you do not receive relief, blame yourself: it means that you prayed without contrition, without humility of heart, without a firm desire to receive forgiveness of sins from God, which means that sin slightly hurt you (1). Sometimes a person seems to pray earnestly, but his prayer does not bring him the fruits of peace and joy of heart in the Holy Spirit. Why? Because, praying according to ready-made prayers, he did not sincerely repent of the sins that he committed that day, with which he desecrated his heart, this church of Christ, and with which he angered the Lord. But remember them and repent, condemning yourself impartially with all sincerity, and peace will immediately be established in your heart, “which surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7). In church prayers there is a listing of sins, but not all of them, and often those very ones that we have bound ourselves to are not mentioned: we must certainly list them ourselves in prayer with a clear consciousness of their importance, with a feeling of humility and heartfelt contrition. That is why in evening prayers it is said when listing sins: either this or that did something bad, that is, it is left to our will to mention certain sins (1). Sin is a real poison that poisons the pure joys of our soul. You know this from experience, so flee from sin (2). We sin constantly and often gravely. Because of the multitude of our sins, we do not even count them, we do not comprehend their severity. We have a multitude of all kinds of sins: both obvious and secret, both strangers and our own. Secret sins and the sins of others are also dangerous sins: secret - because we do not notice them and do not correct ourselves for them; strangers - because they destroy not only us, but also our neighbors. Spare me, Lord, from the sins of others, do not exact them on me, and cleanse me from my secret sins. And they take You, my all-good and righteous Father, from me, remove You from You, stir up righteous anger against me, so that You do not listen with favor to my words, my prayer, and I do not have boldness in my heart before You (2). When you sin, man, do not ignore your sin, but immediately try to tear it out of your soul by the roots, confess your iniquity to the Lord - and He will leave the wickedness of your heart. Cry in prayer, grieve, and sin will come out of your soul in tears (2). We often think of ourselves as pious and living members of the Church, but in reality we are dead. Sin, as if unknown to us, lives in us and gradually destroys the life of our soul and body. Quite often, having started a good spiritual, godly life, we then relax and thus do not finish our work. “Be faithful, it is said, until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). In order not to relax in deeds of virtue, you must certainly test your faith, “what you have received and heard” (Rev. 3:3), observe what you have accepted and repent of what you have left - in a word, you must watch over yourself: over your mind, will and heart. Otherwise, the householder will come to us like a thief and severely punish us for not doing the things commanded by him (2). In this evil time, many are ashamed to repent, and even justify themselves in sins and do not consider sin to be sin, but the more strictly the Righteous Judge will judge them (3). “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you” (John 6:53) - the perfect, immutable truth in the mouth of the perfect Teacher - Christ. Man himself is so deeply damaged, corrupted by sin, that he must certainly be reborn or born again in order to receive being again, as if resurrected from the dead. Without eating the Flesh of the Life-Giver and drinking His Blood, man cannot have true life, which he lost through sin in Adam. Horrible molestation! Extraordinary measures for restoration and renewal - the incarnation of the Son of God, His life in the flesh, His personal teaching, miracles, suffering, the cross, death, descent into hell, victory over hell, resurrection, ascension. Think about this and fear sin like fire! Hate him, he is madness, senselessness, absurdity, separation from the Source of Life, the perception of death and combination with the chief of death - the devil (3). Sin is the all-nasty, deadly, most painful and at the same time delightful poison of Satan, killing the soul and body forever, plunging into total darkness, separating the soul forever from God. Only the Blood of Christ will cleanse this poison (4). O sin, sin, how destructive you are! You have made the world, created by God out of nothingness, alien to God. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive Him. “And to those who received Him, to those who believed on His name, He gave them power to become children of God, who were born neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:10–13) (4). Human nature is terribly, unimaginably corrupted by all sorts of sins, such that it is shameful, painful and scary to even talk about. We, priests and confessors, know this more than anyone else, especially those of us who, with our closeness and spiritual affection and sympathy, with our ardent faith and sincerity in our relationship to the spiritual sores of our spiritual children, have earned their trust. Oh, how these simple, sincere souls of sinners and sinners suffer from sins and how they need our sympathy, advice, healing and God’s mercy! There is no such sinful absurdity and abomination of sin that a person has not fallen into. One or another sinner mixed with all sorts of neighbors, the most related people, with all kinds of livestock and animals, with birds, with cats, dogs, pigs, horses, cows, calves. My God! What is this? How far has man fallen! These are ordinary people. And the learned and educated, the rich, the well-born fall and fell even worse with their education - men on men are doing the same thing 20 . The ancient pagan emperors had a passion for beautiful boys and satisfied their carnal passion with them. Other high-ranking officials did the same. Saint Andrew for Christ's sake, the holy fool, clearly accused one court official of this. It is not for nothing that one hermit abbot, a high ascetic, once gathered his brethren and talked with them about poverty and spiritual poverty and the penetration of the depravity of sin into human nature, in the end he said: “Brothers, let us all pray and cry,” and everyone shed tears of heartfelt contrition (4). What a senseless sin! What an illegality, what a mockery of the enemy against man! Deliver us, Lord, from such madness (4). The task of our life is to unite with God, and sin completely prevents this; Therefore, flee from sin as a terrible enemy, as a killer of the soul, because without God there is death, not life. Let us understand our purpose, let us constantly remember that the common Master calls us to unite with Himself (6). Sin, instead of any evidence that it does not have on its side, acts through violence, wounding, stinging the insides, and pouring out the burning poison of sin. Blessed is the one who despised everything earthly and was wounded by the love of God, the love of heaven. But how few such people are among the fallen sons of Adam. The sting of sweets, self-interest, honor does not work in whom, who does not sting? And conversely, who has the sting of true love for God and neighbor? The sting of passions and pleasures has driven out the sting of God's love and gives it no place. In others, these two principles struggle every day and alternately displace each other, but in others there is no struggle; The thorn of the earth completely dominates in others, suppressing the thorn of heaven, for example, in covetous people, sensualists, ambitious people, drunkards, deceivers, murderers, fornicators and adulterers, etc. Oh, when will our hearts be kindled with complete love for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving, Trinitarian Godhead, who commanded us to keep His commandments? (6). Let no one think that sin is something unimportant; no, sin is a terrible evil that kills the soul now and in the next century. The sinner in the next century is bound hand and foot (speaking of the soul) and plunged into total darkness, as the Savior says: “having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13), that is, he completely loses the freedom of all the powers of his soul, which, being created for free activity, suffer through this some kind of murderous inactivity for all good: the sinner is aware in his soul his strength and at the same time feels that his strength is connected by some indissoluble chains: “he is kept in the bonds of his sin” (Prov. 5:22); To this add the terrible torment from the sins themselves, from the consciousness of one’s folly during earthly life, from the idea of ​​an angry Creator. And in this age, sin binds and kills the soul. Who among those who fear God does not know what sorrow and oppression strikes their soul, what painfully scorching fire rages in their chest when they commit any sin? But by binding and killing the soul temporarily, sin kills it forever, if we do not repent from our hearts of our sins and iniquities. Here is experimental proof that sin kills the soul temporarily and eternally. If one of the God-fearing people happens to go to sleep without repenting of that sin or those sins that were committed during the day and tormented the soul, then this torment will accompany the person the whole night, until he heartily repents of the sin and washes his heart with tears. (This is experience.) The torment of sin will awaken him from his sweet sleep, because the soul will be in distress, bound by the captivity of sin. Now let’s assume that a person who goes to sleep in some sin and is tormented by sin will suffer death at night: isn’t it obvious that the soul will go to that age in torment, and since after death there is no place for repentance, it will suffer there depending on the extent of its sins. The Holy Scripture also testifies to this (Matthew 25:46; Rom. 2:6, 9; 2 Cor. 5:10, etc.) (6). Do not look at the sins of others and do not be hostile to the sinner, either internally or externally, but present your sins to yourself and diligently repent of them, considering yourself truly worse than everyone else; Pray lovingly for those who sin, knowing that we are all prone to every sin (7). Sin itself is fire, therefore we say that such and such is inflamed by anger or carnal love or envy. So, sin itself carries fiery condemnation. What kind of fire will this be in sinners when, because of unrepentance, the goodness of God completely leaves them? What kind of fire will this be outside of sinners, since it is certain that there will be a lake of fire, and a fiery cave, or a fiery Gehenna, or a wild of fire! All this is essential, true. But we, insensitive, are not afraid, we do not tremble, we spend our lives in pleasures, we are cold towards the Church, we do not fulfill our Christian duties, we become rigid in our sins! Woe to us! (7). The sin that you do not deign to commit is not imputed to you; for example, involuntary stumbling in prayer, bad and blasphemous thoughts, involuntary anger with which we diligently fight, stinginess with which we turn away - these are all attacks of the evil spirit. Our job is to endure, pray, humble ourselves and love (7). Sin closes the eyes of the heart; the thief thinks that God does not see; the fornicator, indulging in filthiness, thinks that God does not see him; the money-lover, the overeager, the drunkard think that they are hiding with their addictions. But God sees and judges. “I am naked and hid myself” (Gen. 3:10). This is what every sinner says through his actions, hiding from the omnipresent God (7). Sin is the vile impurity of the soul, removing it from God, the Source of life, the charm of the enemy, shameful captivity and voluntary bonds of the soul, sorrow and oppression; there is hellish darkness, moral chaos, disorder, relaxation of mental and physical forces, demonic confusion, a spiritual storm that throws the poor soul of a sinner hither and thither, the loss of spiritual refuge, which is God, there is a free illness and disease of the soul, and if the sinner does not repent, there is petrification of the heart and death, temporary and eternal (8). Sin is rebellion, the rebellion of a creature against the Creator, disobedience to the Creator, betrayal of Him, admiration of divine honor for oneself or self-adoration; “You will be like gods” (Gen. 3:5), the serpent whispered in Eve’s ears, just as he whispers to a sinner now; perversion of one’s nature, free madness, ugly absurdity, arbitrary fall from goodness into malice, from truth into untruth, from simplicity into wickedness, from light into darkness, from strength into weakness, from space into cramped space, from the world into confusion, from life into death. Sin is a disgusting filth, a godless charm, a choking poison. Sin gave rise to all the disasters in the world and all the diseases, as in the paralytic mentioned today, famines, destruction or general diseases, wars, fires, earthquakes and death, temporary and eternal. The sin of the highest angel became the devil, Dennitsa became Satan and all the spirits who rebelled against God, who were angels of light and indescribable beauty, the darkest and most disgusting demons. Sin has produced and is producing terrible evil, terrible disasters, terrible upheavals in the world, in the human race; Because of sin, all nature is in turmoil. It is impossible to describe, it is impossible to mourn enough, the tears of the entire human race are not enough to mourn the terrible consequences of sin in the world (8). “He made Him who knew no sin (it is said about Christ) to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). After this, will you be ashamed to admit to any sin or accept the accusation of a sin you did not commit? If the Son of God was guilty of sin according to us, although he was sinless, then you must also accept the accusation of all sins with meekness and love, for you are truly sinful of all sins. But if you are not a sinner, accept the accusation with humility (9). Sin is an absurd, insane, flattering, captivating, ungodly monster that dishonors and kills the soul. Every Christian must firmly know its qualities and fight against it, turn away from it, not succumb to it, “because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places. For this purpose take on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and, having done everything, to stand” (Eph. 6:12, 13) (10). Sin is an old disease, an ulcer, uncleanness, corruption, separation from God; it has deeply planted its countless roots in the entire human being; and no one can heal this terrible disease, this corruption, except the Lord Himself, Who came down from heaven, took on our body, lived on earth, suffered for us and died, giving us His Most Pure Body and Blood for food and drink as the Wise Physician (10). Everything is connected by consequences: one sin, one error is almost always the germ, the seed of another sin, another error. The tares are incredibly fruitful: they choke even the wheat, although it was not sown (10). When you are faced with a temptation to sin, then vividly imagine that sin greatly angers the Lord, Who hates lawlessness. You hated all who commit iniquity (Ps. 5:6). And in order for you to better understand this, imagine a truthful, strict father who loves his family, who tries by all means to make his children well-behaved and honest, in order to reward them for their good behavior with his great riches, which he prepared for them with great difficulty, and who meanwhile sees, to his regret, that the children, for such love of their father, do not love him, do not pay attention to the inheritance prepared by their father’s love, live dissolutely, and are rapidly rushing towards destruction. And every sin, mind you, is death for the soul (see James 1:15, etc.), because it kills the soul, because it makes us slaves of the murderous devil, and the more we work against sin, the more difficult our conversion, the more certain our destruction. Fear with all your heart all sin (12). We are extremely partial to carnal life, we have become accustomed to sins, have embraced them and are afraid to declare a decisive war on them, to break off any alliance with them, we take only half-measures against them, as if we are protecting ourselves with them, because they have become our natural resources, 22 and therefore we always remain with them, and they take root in us more and more, the fight against them becomes more difficult and persistent, we often lose ourselves for God and We become daily prey and acquisitions of the enemy. The words of the Lord: “Whoever wants to save his soul will lose it” (Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24) are fulfilled over us every day. We are daily sold to our enemy by all kinds of sins that live and act in us; we die spiritually every day, and oh! if only they rose up every day and came to life for God through tearful repentance. After all, our sins separate us temporarily from the Lord (see Isa. 59:2). They can separate us forever and ever if we do not turn around and repent with all our hearts. But look at the examples of many sinners who became saints: Peter, the publican, Mary of Egypt, Eudoxia and others; Look in general at the examples of the saints, how they decisively and irrevocably entered into the struggle with sin, with passions, with the devil; how sincerely they loved God and His truth and, having renounced the carnal life for Christ and the Gospel, saved their souls for ever and ever. Why don’t we have a decisive struggle against sin? We love temporary life very much, we are afraid to upset the flesh, we are afraid of strong temptations, we extremely love the world and its blessings, forgetting the inevitability of death and the transition to a new life; We expect to live for many years in constant prosperity; in the pursuit of sensual pleasures, we forget the divine nobility of our soul, its purpose for immortality and eternal bliss; we forget that it is infinitely more valuable than the whole world with all its treasures, which, like a shadow, will pass. Condemning our crazy behavior, the Lord says: “What good is it for a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? or what ransom will a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) (14). Men commit disgrace on men (Rom. 1:27). Wilderness - hollow, ravine, gulley. Ouds are organs, members of the body. You might be interested in: