Source: The Morning Offering
February 10, 2016
If we are radically obedient to the Gospel, we can face anything, even extreme fear, and stay connected to the heart. If we are to avoid becoming hardhearted, we must keep ourselves focused on the goal of union with God, for we know that triumph over our fallen nature comes when our heart is centered in Christ. If we be faithful in a very little we will also be faithful in much. But if we are dishonest in a very little we will also be dishonest in much. For just as gold, with every firing, becomes purer, so does the heart grow in purity and holiness with every firing by the hot coals that comes when we encounter the transformational power of the Holy Spirit.
The one who does not have resolve, will dissolve, for if we have no plan to overcome temptation, we are destined to be corrupted by temptation. This is because our character is much easier to defend than to restore, and we can not accept defeat by thinking that swimming in a sea of corruption will cause our demise. Defeat comes only when the sea of corruption is allowed it to enter into us, and we become detached from our original goal. We must resolve, therefore, to keep ourselves from detaching from the original goal, which is to be transformed by the power of God’s grace, and be made holy.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
