Daily Journey Through the Great Fast With the Early Churchনমুনা

When my spouse and I first started to get to know each other, we would spend hours on the phone talking with one another. We shared our fears and dreams, laying down the foundation of trust so we could believe the other person for who they say they are to be. We didn’t have to do much convincing though, I was who I said I was by my actions and my spouse was who they said they were, backed up by their actions.

Jesus did not have to convince anyone who He was, in fact, He said “for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” [John 8:24]. The authority! Yet, in His goodness, He came to us to reveal to us the Kingdom of Heaven, to heal those with sicknesses and infirmities, to save us from a grim and cold life without Him, to Reconcile us with the Father - it was up to us to accept this sentence of faith; if we did not choose it then we choose for ourselves the sentence of death, a life absent of God.

Think of the person that you most love in this world. Think of the person that most loves you in this world. Neither of those sentiments of love are ever always consistent, never with the same intensity at all times, nor at all times unconditional. That’s what makes God so wonderful - His love isalwaysconsistent, His love for usneverdecreases, His love iswithoutconditions and is eternal. Hereallyis who He says He is.

Sometimes our flesh wars against our spirit and it is hard to believe. Our mind tries to wrestle with thoughts of belief and yet, God isstillalways consistent. At times we are like the father of the child with the mute spirit in Mark 9. When we find ourselves unbelieving in His truths, we must proclaim as this father did and immediately say, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” [Mark 9:24]. To proclaim this is both a proclamation of belief and a prayer - we believe He is Lord and we pray asking for help.

May the Lord who is consistent, in His promises and the fulfillment of them, His love, His mercy, His never ending compassions, Who is the unchanging God, help our unbelief and strengthen and confirm us in His faith, in order to wholeheartedly receive the sentence of faith.

“Where faith fails, prayer perishes. For who prays for that in which he does not believe? … So then in order that we may pray, let us believe, and let us pray that this same faith by which we pray may not falter.” [St. Augustine of Hippo, 4th century theologian]

“Seeing that his faith was being driven by the waves of unbelief on the rocks which would cause a fearful shipwreck, he asks of the Lord an aid to his faith, saying “Lord, help me in my unbelief.” So thoroughly did the apostles and those who live in the gospel realize that everything which is good is brought to completion by the aid of the Lord, and not imagine that they could preserve their faith unharmed by their own strength or free will, that they prayed that it might be helped and granted to them by the Lord.” [St. John Cassian, known as "John the Ascetic", a 5th century monk and theologian]