When someone is empty of Christ then a thousand and one other things come to fill his soul: jealousies, hatreds, boredom, melancholy, negativity, a worldly frame of mind and worldly pleasures. Try to fill your soul with Christ so as not to have it empty. Your soul is like a cistern full of water. If you channel the water to the flowers, that is, to the virtues, you will experience true joy and all the thorns of evil will wither away. But if you channel water to the weeds, these will grow and choke you and all the flowers will wither.
Raise everything up to Christ. That's how you will experience joy with the grace of God. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13. Don't say that you will achieve something. Never imagine such a thing. The Lord said, "Without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5. There is no other way. Never should a person trust in his own powers, but rather in the mercy and compassion of God. He will make a little effort, but Christ will crown that effort. It is a delusion to believe that you achieved something on your own. The more someone progresses and approaches towards Christ, the more he feels that he is imperfect. The Pharisee, on the contrary, who says, "Look at me! I am good, I do this and I do that..." is deluded.
Raise everything up to Christ. That's how you will experience joy with the grace of God. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13. Don't say that you will achieve something. Never imagine such a thing. The Lord said, "Without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5. There is no other way. Never should a person trust in his own powers, but rather in the mercy and compassion of God. He will make a little effort, but Christ will crown that effort. It is a delusion to believe that you achieved something on your own. The more someone progresses and approaches towards Christ, the more he feels that he is imperfect. The Pharisee, on the contrary, who says, "Look at me! I am good, I do this and I do that..." is deluded.
- Elder Porphyrios
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