Sometimes in a long prayer only a few minutes are pleasing to God and constitute true service to God. In prayer, the main thing is the closeness of the heart to God, evidenced by the sweetness of God's presence in the soul.

Let us measure the dignity of our prayer by the human measure. Thus, for example, sometimes we are with people who are cold, out of propriety, and pretend to thank or praise them, or do anything for them without the participation of the heart. Sometimes we do it sincerely, with warmth and love. We are also not the same with God. And that's not how it should be. One must always express to God from the bottom of one's heart praise, thanksgiving, and petition. We must invariably love Him with all our heart and hope in Him.

Often in colloquial speech, prayer is called something that is not prayer at all. For example, a person went to church, stood there, looked around, listened to the singing, and then said: "I prayed to God." Or he stood at home in front of the icon, nodded his head, pronounced mechanically memorized words and said: "I prayed to God." In fact, in both cases, the person did not pray with his thoughts and heart at all, but only fulfilled the external form.

As you pray, remind yourself of the simplicity of the truth, and say, "It's simple! I believe simply and ask for everything simply."

On the Fulfillment of Prayers

Asking God for various blessings, believe that God is everything for everyone. If you ask Him for health, believe that He is your health; if you ask for faith, He is your faith; if you love – He is your love; whether there is peace and joy, He is your peace and joy; whether He helps you in difficult circumstances, He is your help and protection. Whatever good you ask of Him, He is precisely that good. If He finds it timely, He will give you whatever you ask for.

If you want to ask God for something, then before you pray, prepare yourself for undoubted, strong faith and take in advance the means against doubt. It will be bad if, during prayer, your heart fails in faith. Then do not think that you will receive what you asked for, because by your doubt you have offended God. The Lord said that "whatsoever ye ask in prayer with faith, ye shall receive" (Matt. 21:22). So, if you ask in doubt, you will not receive it. "If you have faith, and do not doubt," He still says, "then you can move mountains." "But let him who doubts not think to receive anything from the Lord," teaches the Apostle James, "because a man with double-minded thoughts is not firm in all his ways" (James 1:7, 8). The heart of a person who doubts that God can give what he asks for is punished for doubt: it is painfully tormented and embarrassed by doubt. Do not anger the Almighty God with a shadow of doubt, especially you, who have repeatedly experienced God's omnipotence. Doubt is the lie of the spirit of falsehood nestling in the heart... Remember that when you ask, God expects an affirmative answer to His question that is offered to you inwardly: "Do you believe that I can do this?" (Matt. 9:28) And then it will be according to your faith. The following thoughts can help you not to give in to doubt. 1) I ask for what exists, and not for dreamy or fantastic good, and everything that exists has come into being from God, and "without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:3). In addition, He calls what does not exist as existing (Romans 4:17). So, if I asked Him for something that didn't exist, He could create it and give it to me. 2) I ask for what is possible, and for God our impossible is possible. This means that there is no obstacle from this side either. Our trouble is that our faith is mixed with a short-sighted mind, this spider that catches the truth with nets of all kinds of judgments and analogies. Faith embraces and sees everything at once, and reason reaches the truth in a roundabout way. Faith is a means of communication between the spirit and the Spirit, and the intellect is a means of communication between the sensual and the sensual. This one is spirit, and this one is flesh.

Living as a Christian