БЛАГОДЕЯНИЯ БОЖИИ

Count all the blessings of God shown to you throughout your entire life, and, of course, you will find many of them not only in your whole life, but also in one day. And if God wanted to present to us all the benefits that we, without realizing or understanding, receive from Him every day, then we could not even list them. How many demons are running around in this air! How many forces are contrary to us! If only God allowed them to show us their terrible and disgusting faces, would we not be horrified, would we not die, would we not be destroyed? Reflecting on all this, as well as on our sins, which we commit consciously or out of ignorance - and it is no small blessing that God does not punish us for our sins every day - we can nourish within ourselves love for God. In fact, when you think how much you sin every day, how many blessings you receive every day, what patience you use, what forbearance, when you think that if God punished every day, you would not live even a short time - according to the words of the prophet: if you see iniquity, Lord, Lord, who can stand? (Ps. 129:3), - then you will give thanks to Him and will not grumble about anything that happens to you; on the contrary, you will see that if you had suffered countless evils, you would still not have suffered a worthy punishment (2). Arranging our salvation in different ways, God sends either blessings or punishments, and the former more often than the latter, because he only desires the former. And He threatens Gehenna not in order to plunge us into it, but so as not to plunge us; He prepared it for the devil: “Go,” he says, “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil” (Matthew 25:41), and for people He prepared the kingdom, instilling that He does not want to plunge man into Gehenna. The Lord is generous and merciful, long-suffering and abundant in mercy. “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are in all His works” (Ps. 144:9 Do you see how the prophet [David] dwells on the blessings of God and speaks more about them? He clearly knew that this is especially the riches of God. It would be impossible for us to be saved if His love for man were not great; therefore, He Himself said: “I will blot out your iniquities,” I will protect you (Isa. 44:22). The Lord is merciful. Look how the prophet shows His indescribable love for mankind. God not only has mercy on those who sin, but also shows another significant type of love for mankind - long-suffering, so that sinners come to repentance and, with God’s love for mankind, achieve salvation through their own efforts, thus receiving boldness before Him through their deeds. He is not only merciful, but also abundant in mercy, says the prophet, expressing that His great mercy cannot be measured, but surpasses every word (3). As soon as God sees us as unworthy of good deeds, He withholds them so that they do not make us careless. If we turn at least a little, that is, as much as is necessary in order to recognize that we have sinned, then very rich and abundant mercies will be poured out on us. And the more you accept from Him, the more He rejoices and the more abundant He prepares new blessings for us. He considers our salvation and generous gifts to those who ask to be His wealth. This is what Paul says about this: “Rich to all who call on Him” (Rom. 10:12). But when we do not pray, then he becomes angry; when we do not ask, then we turn away. For this reason He became poor, in order to make us rich; He endured everything in order to encourage us to pray. So, let's not despair. But having such motives, such good hopes, even if we sin every day, let us approach with petition, prayer and demand for remission of sins (6). What are the blessings of God? He gave us existence and created for us everything visible: sky, sea, earth, air and everything contained in them: animals, plants, seeds; but it is impossible to count all God’s works because of their limitless multitude! Of all the creatures that inhabit the earth, we are the only ones who breathed a living soul into us; He planted paradise, gave him an assistant, made them rulers over all the dumb, and crowned them with glory and honor. Then, when a person turned out to be ungrateful to his Benefactor, He honored him with an even greater benefit. In fact, look not only at the fact that God expelled man from paradise, but also pay attention to the benefits that came from here. After his expulsion from paradise, He showed countless benefits to people, accomplished various works of salvation, and finally sent His only begotten Son to those who had benefited from Him and those who hated Him, opened heaven to us, unlocked the doors of paradise, and made us, His ungrateful enemies, sons. Therefore, it is now proper to say: “Oh, the depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Rom. 11:33). He gave us Baptism for the remission of sins, freed us from punishment, made us heirs of the Kingdom, promised countless benefits to those who live virtuously, stretched out His hand to us and poured out the Spirit into our hearts. So, what after such countless blessings of God? What kind of disposition should we have towards Him? Would we repay not only a worthy, but even the smallest part of the debt even if we died every day for the One who loved us so much? Not at all. And this very thing would turn to our advantage. But do we have such dispositions towards Him as we should have? We break His laws every day (7). Having thought about the blessings of God concerning everyone in general and so abundant that it is impossible to count them, and having given Him gratitude for all this, let us all imagine what He has done for each of us and reflect on it every day. This has great power. Therefore, let each of us think about himself and carefully remember when he, having been exposed to danger, escaped from the hands of enemies, and let him keep the blessings of God as if written in a book; for example: has he ever set out on a journey at an untimely time and avoided danger; Have you ever dealt with bad people and emerged victorious? Have you ever fallen into illness and recovered beyond all expectations? This helps a lot to reconcile us with God. If Mordecai’s good deeds, when they were remembered by the king, brought so much benefit that he again achieved his former greatness (see Esther 6:1-12), then much more [will we benefit] if we remember and carefully observe how we have sinned against God and what benefits He has given us; then we will be grateful and leave everything [sinful]. But no one remembers anything like that, and just as we say about sins that we are sinners, without examining exactly what, so we say about God’s blessings that He benefits us, without examining exactly where, in what and at what time. From now on we will be more careful. If anyone can remember the long-ago [blessings of God], let him carefully reflect on everything and find great treasure in it. This is also useful for us in order not to fall into despair. If we see that He has benefited us many times, we will not despair and consider ourselves rejected, but we will have a great guarantee of His care for us, knowing that even though we sin, we are not subject to punishment, but still benefit from His benefits (10). You might be interested in: