And that's how it is in everything. And the reason is unbelief – disbelief in God, disbelief in God, in His good providence, in the fact that God is love, that He wants to save everyone. Because if we believed Him, we wouldn't do that, we'd just ask. Why does a person go to some grandmother, to a healer? Because he does not believe in God or in the Church, he does not believe in the power of grace. At first, he will go around all the sorcerers, sorcerers, psychics, and if nothing helps, well, then he turns to God: maybe he will help. And the most surprising thing is that it helps.

If some person had neglected us all the time, and then began to ask us for something, we would have said: you know, this is not good, you have treated me so badly all your life, and now you come to ask me? But the Lord is merciful, the Lord is meek, the Lord is humble. Therefore, no matter what paths a person walks, no matter what outrageous things he does, but if he turns to God from the heart, to the last, as they say, at worst, the Lord helps here too, because He is only waiting for our prayer.

The Lord said, "Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you," and we do not believe. We do not believe in our prayer, nor in the fact that God hears us – we do not believe anything. That is why everything is empty with us, that is why our prayer is not fulfilled, it cannot not only move a mountain, but cannot manage anything at all. If we really believed in God, then we could guide any person to the true path. And it is possible to direct a person to the true path only through prayer, because it shows love to a person. Prayer before God is a mystery, and there is no violence in it, there is only a request: Lord, rule, help, heal, save.

If we had acted in this way, we would have achieved greater success. And we all hope for conversations, for the fact that we will somehow manage ourselves, that we will save something like this for some rainy day. Who is waiting for a rainy day, it will definitely come. Without God, you will not achieve anything anyway, so the Lord says: "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and the rest of all will be added to you." But we don't believe that either. Our life is not directed towards the Kingdom of God, it is more aimed at people, at human relations, at how to arrange everything here. We want to satisfy our own pride, our own vanity, our own ambition. If we were striving for the Kingdom of Heaven, we would rejoice when we are oppressed, when we are offended, because this contributes to our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. We would rejoice at the disease, but we murmur and are horrified. We are afraid of death, we all try to prolong our existence, but again not for the sake of the Lord, not for the sake of repentance, but out of our lack of faith, out of fear.

The sin of lack of faith has penetrated into us very deeply, and we must fight it very strongly. There is such an expression: the feat of faith – because only faith can move a person to something real. And if every time a situation arises in our life where we can act in a divine way and can act in a human way, if each time we courageously act according to our faith, then our faith will grow, it will be strengthened.

If we take a kettlebell and lift it ten times every day, and after a month we measure the muscle, we will see that it will increase in volume; And in a year it will be even larger. So it is with faith: if we perform a certain action every day not according to feelings, not according to reason, but according to our faith, then it will increase in us. For example, a man irritates me by prying into me with all sorts of nonsense; I'm tired of it to the limit. What to do? You want to run away or say some barb in response, something so that he will never pester him again in his life. This is what I want as a sinful person, but how should I act according to faith? By faith I must reason thus: why does the Lord send this man to me every day, why did He give me this cross? Why does life always confront me with it? So that I endure, so that I acquire humility by enduring. So, I will endure for a year, two, three, four, ten years, until I put up with it completely, until it no longer annoys me.

And if every time we act according to faith, do not splash out our irritation, but, on the contrary, keep it inside and ask God: Lord, help me, give me patience to hold on, not to say rudeness, harshness, let me somehow endure this little test – if we do this for a day, two, week, month, year, ten years, then how the muscle strengthens and becomes stronger, In this way our faith will be strengthened. And when some really serious trial happens in our lives, then we will be able to stand firm in faith; we will not renounce the Lord, nor faith, nor the Kingdom of Heaven.

If an athlete who has been training his body all his life is attacked by robbers, and he runs away from them, and they are all smoky and drunk, they will run 60 meters and fall behind. A person will be saved - the fact that he was engaged in sports will be useful to him. Therefore, when we endure, say, our irritation, or constantly overcome our greed, or perform some other act of will, act not according to our feelings, but according to our faith, as a Christian should act, then we do not do it in vain. We are preparing ourselves for a more serious exam, which will definitely come. And the most serious test, the most important test is death. But even before death we will have many trials, and as our faith grows, they will increase.

When a person moves from course to course at the institute, the exams become more and more complicated, and then there is the most important, state, and diploma. Defending a diploma is our death, and before that, you need to pass many exams. And the more our faith grows, the more it will be tested by God, because how else can we know a person?

There was such a case with Spyridon of Trimythous: he came to the council, but the guard did not let him in. He said: "Why don't you let me in? I am a bishop." And he was in simple shepherd's clothes, because he tended cattle, getting food for himself. The guard struck him, and Spyridon turned him the other cheek. He said: "Ah, now I see that you are a bishop, come in." Here it is, a pass. It is immediately clear that this man is a Christian. You don't need any documents that you are, they say, a believer. Here it is written: Christian; photograph – beard, mustache; and printing. This is not necessary, because a Christian is not checked by a document.

The only document is whether a person fulfills God's commandments or not. And how difficult it is! A simple layman slaps the bishop in the face. According to church canons, the one who struck the bishop is excommunicated from the Church. That is, St. Spyridon could excommunicate him from the Church for insulting the priestly rank, and no one would ever say anything against this. But he meekly forgave him at once, and substituted his left, and went to the council, and everything was resolved successfully, and he healed that man – he repented. This is a Christian act. Both our Christian life and our faith will be strengthened only if we do Christian deeds.

We are all not Christians yet, but disciples and are only trying to live in a Christian way. But if we want to become Christians, we must constantly perform Christian deeds in word, deed, and thought. A thought has come to me: if a person is not a Christian, he begins to follow this thought until another one comes. Usually, someone who does not lead a spiritual life is constantly scrolling through some kind of "movie" in his head: he thought one thing, then another, then looked at this, then at that. He saw a man beautifully dressed – he became jealous. If he sees someone driving a car, he thinks that he is gassing the air. If you see a beautiful face, it means that you have some other thoughts. And so the mind floats all the time. But a Christian must constantly struggle with thoughts. Every time we cut off a sinful thought, we commit a moral act. This act is seen by no one except the Heavenly Father. And the Lord, seeing the secret, will always reward us with what is manifest – he will strengthen our faith.

It is not so difficult to cut off a thought, it is a small feat, but nevertheless I bent my arm once more, once again exercised the arm of my soul, the muscle of my faith. Only in this way can faith be strengthened. And any athlete knows: no matter how much you pump a muscle, if you don't train for a year, then everything disappears. Those who start doing sports are doomed to do it for the rest of their lives, otherwise they turn into a huge, clumsy carcass and their liver, lungs, blood vessels, and heart deteriorate. It is the same in the Christian life. God forbid anyone to make an experiment – to stop praying in the morning and in the evening for at least three or four days. On the fifth day, it will be forty times harder to read the rule than when you were tired and missed, because your soul was already weakened.

Therefore, in order for us to strengthen our faith, we need constant exercise in prayer, in reading the word of God. You have to constantly force yourself. Tirelessly, if I want or I don't want to, if I can or if I can't, I have to force myself to go to church. I am tired – I am not tired, I have nothing to do, a decent period has passed – I must force myself to prepare for Communion and commune of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. A situation has arisen – no matter how much you want to act sinfully, you need to force yourself to act in a Christian way, regardless of what you feel and what you think. There is a commandment of God – and do it. And gradually we will see that it is becoming easier and easier for us to fulfill the commandments, and then we will feel that it is impossible for us to commit a sin: we will become so accustomed to fulfilling God's commandments that it will be difficult for us to sin, we will not even be able to force ourselves to do so – we will develop the habit of Christian life. This is the growth of our faith.