Steadfastness from God
We talked last time about “striving” in the spiritual life, so that a person may reach a true relationship with God… And we notice that a person—after forming a relationship with God—sometimes goes back from this relationship… And this is a matter that should be observed… It is the subject of “wavering in the spiritual life”… For a person to be steadfast in his relationship with God, the Apostle Paul says: “Be steadfast, immovable”!!
Steadfastness from God
A person ought to remain steadfast with God, and spiritual striving is not only striving to get rid of sin, but also striving to remain steadfast in God. And the Lord Christ says: “Abide in Me, and I in you”!
God wants us to remain steadfast in Him, and wants us not to turn back, and we know that God reproached the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and said to him: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love”… meaning that he had gone back… although he also repented afterward!
And there are people who retreat from God’s way and are lost, like “Demas,” about whom the Apostle Paul said: “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world”…!
We do not want the person who walks in God’s path to turn back again… For “Lot’s wife,” when she looked back, perished and became a pillar of salt…
God showed His wrath against the Israelites, who turned back in their hearts and longed for leeks, melons, and meat in Egypt, saying that they wished they were still in the land of Egypt…
And there is a person who turns back from God’s way in action… while another turns away by thought and the desire of the heart! Just like one who vows himself to God then turns back and regrets, or one who vows something to God then regrets it…
And there are people who, after walking in God’s way for some time, regret it and long for a life of sin…
Why does retreat from God’s way happen?
It is expected in the spiritual life not only that a person does not go back, but that he continually advances, and the Apostle Paul says: “Forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead”!
God likened the person who retreats and goes back to “a dog returning to its vomit, and a sow returning to her wallowing”!!
We want the person who walks in God’s path to continually advance forward and not turn back… For the angel said to Lot and his family: “Do not stay in all the plain, and do not look behind you.”
And Abraham—the father of the patriarchs—when God said to him: Leave your people, your clan, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you… he did not turn back, nor return to the land from which he came…!
And God said to every human soul: “Listen, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house, for the King has desired your beauty, and before Him you shall bow down”!
Many people, after walking with God, have the thoughts of the world return to them, like the people of Israel… So what are the causes that make a person turn back?
Among these causes is retaining some causes of sin… There is a person who walks in God’s path yet keeps with him some causes of sin… like “Rachel,” who left her father’s house but kept with her some idols; she did not leave with a pure heart.
There is a person who walks in God’s path yet retains a stumbling friend… or stumbling readings, or relationships, or environments, or a wrong habit, or anything of sins or their causes!!
It was said—at one time—that the children of God sinned and worshipped idols because some of the Canaanites still remained in the land… So God said to them, “Do not leave any of them”…!
A person may leave sin but keep its causes, and so sin returns to him, or he returns to it… like “Solomon the Wise,” who kept some foreign women in his house, and so he was lost… and likewise “Samson”… he was also lost… For many times God saved him, but he kept “Delilah”… the cause of sin… and she destroyed him!
Search in your spiritual life: Is there in your life a “Delilah,” for example?… Have you left sin?… Or do you still live within its environment?
Another cause of retreat from God’s way is trying to combine God and sin… A person loves God, yet he also loves sin; he loves both at the same time… As though he wants to love striving and comfort at once. But to such a one God says: “What fellowship has light with darkness, or Christ with Belial?”
If you want to walk in God’s way, leave the entire past and seal it with seven seals, for the Holy Scripture says: “Behold, all things have become new.”
Therefore, if one of you leaves sin and wants to live pure with God, he must get rid of sin, its causes, and its inner roots!
Many people treat the “external causes” but do not treat the inner causes of sin… They distance themselves from sin’s environments and causes, and Saint Isaac says: Whoever keeps the material of sin has an enemy within and an enemy without… and the two grow strong against him and make him fall!
Another cause of retreat from God’s path is that many people, when they live with God, think that the spiritual life is merely “ritual practices” in worship…!
They take the outward appearance and the ritual side only in worship, without entering into the depth…
Those who practice outward rituals and leave the inner spiritual side and leave love toward God… these can fall again and retreat… Therefore God says: “My son, give Me your heart”… So the matter is not merely a matter of rituals and worship… For God says: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me”… They are like someone who fills his house with electric lamps and chandeliers… but forgets the electric current!… And this current—here—is the relationship with God, the love of God, goodness, and virtue… It is the longing for spirituality… It is the heart sanctified for God from within… This is what we want, not merely the practices!
Additionally, the person who lives by practices may fall into pride, and his life becomes dry! And also among the causes of retreat from God’s way is “contentment”… meaning stopping at one level and not growing… And he who does not grow in his spiritual life is exposed to going back from God’s path, for the spiritual life is continuous growth and does not stop…
We want the constant impulse that pushes a person continuously forward… Whoever does not advance every day forward is actually going backward!
He who “is content” may go backward… We want people always to be in growth, movement, and advancement; such people do not go back from God’s path…!
I want you, my brethren, to enter into a life of growth and forward advancement, and into the holy impulse that pushes you into continuous growth, for this is what leads to God… Therefore I say to you: Advance in your spiritual life… advance… and be like “Paul,” who did not look behind… For God’s way is a path of continuous walking—or running— not a path of standing… For if you stand still in God’s way, there is the fear that you return back. A person who is occupied with his growth and advancement in his spiritual life does not think about his “lukewarmness,” and lukewarmness has levels: among them is “the lukewarmness of the saints”… which is “slowness of growth,” and the “lukewarmness of sinners”… which is retreating backward…
Also among the causes of retreat from God’s way is preoccupation with things other than God… There is a person who turns back from God’s way because he is occupied with what is not God… and God, for him, is not in the first degree of importance…
This type of person is divided into two groups:
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The first: one who is occupied with worldly matters… and this one is in danger of retreat.
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The second: one who is occupied with others… and this one suffers, because he does not think of himself, forgets himself, and stumbles…
For the Holy Scripture says: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul”?!
Try—especially in this summer vacation—to give the first preoccupation to God… and store up spiritual things for the times of dryness…!
The life of “spiritual storage” is beneficial for times of dryness and pressure, and whoever goes back from God’s way is someone who has no “spiritual storage nor spiritual reserve”!
Among the other causes that lead a person backward is the “broad conscience”… that conscience which finds justification for every sin and every fall.
And among these causes as well are the “wrong concepts about spiritual life”… like the person who imagines that “confession,” for example, is merely stating sins, without knowing that confession is repentance, self-condemnation, and sincere resolve to leave sin…
We want the person who understands spiritual life in a sound way…
Another cause of retreat from God’s way is when a person departs from “contrition of heart”… As long as a person is in contrition of heart, he is preserved from falling or going backward…
My brethren: Keep contrition of heart, for it preserves a person from falling and keeps him in the spiritual life.
Also among the causes that lead to going backward in God’s way are the “small matters”… those matters that a person does not pay attention to and forgets… yet they hinder him, if they do not endanger him… That is why Holy Scripture says: “Catch for us the little foxes that spoil the vines”!
I pray that God may help us to continue advancing in the spiritual life… forward.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III published in Watani newspaper on 18–6–1972.
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