A Christian has his cross, his sufferings, that will be laid upon him by the Lord. Bear, though, in mind, that these aren’t plain sufferings that simply fall upon him and burden him. They foreshadow God’ s blessings. They are the vehicles through which God’s blessings will come.
Whoever takes things this way will bear his burdens joyfully no matter how heavy handed or insufferable. When man doesn’t take things this way, his life is thankless, tough and intolerable. When the Lord lays upon us hardship and misfortune and we trustfully and hopefully take them in our stride, they are lighter to bear.
What man should try to do is prepare himself to receive the grace the Lord gives. Leave yourself in the hands of God and let God “walk” you on the path of preparation.

God expects man to be ready at every given moment: attentive to His word when God speaks, watchful and on the alert to see, understand and respond when God reveals Himself. In the world of social relations and businesses, they say there are certain people, who respond and react to situations before they even emerge. Indeed, certain people have this kind of sensitivity when it comes to purely human affairs; they immediately respond and understand. And they do so, either because they possess a special talent or out of deep desire to please and respond.
Similarly, let us be over attentive in our relationship with God in order to please Him.
Start saying the prayer with longing and love towards Christ. Do not fret about what Christ will do and whether He’ll bless you or not.

Let us be spurred to the utmost humility and consider ourselves sinful to such an extent, as if we were worthy of damnation. Let us feel as if we were in Hades already and dwelt in there. And whoever resides in Hades, is there for good; he’s lost. However, let us not despair.
If we simply hope in God without feeling that we are passing through Hades, then our whole struggle is pointless. And, it’s even more pointless if we don’t put our hope with God, no matter how deep we descend into Hades.
“Keep your mind on Hades and despair not”. This was revealed to saint Silouan who experienced both living in Hades and hoping in God. And the person who puts to practice these simple words, said by saint Silouan, will be saved: by considering that he deserves to be in Hades, yet, without falling prey to despair. He will imitate the saint and will also enter paradise with the saint.

Why don’t people come to an understanding? Why can’t they find the truth? Why does everyone want to have it his own way? The answer is because they don’t start frοm God. There is this worm, this poison within man: the turn towards himself, towards egocentricity, towards self-love.
The more man believes in God, the more he is redeemed from self-love, egocentricity and egoism. And then, everything is splendid and there is no problem at all.
There is no problem indeed. There is no problem in attitude or miscommunication and no problem in relationships, either. But when is there not a problem? When? When man is redeemed in Christ and is a true person. And when, as a true person, he does not lose himself among other people, nor does he want to eliminate, devalue and embitter them.

We need to be attentive of things in our soul; to lend an ear and pick up what is done and told around us and in us. And when the Lord sees that we pay heed to His words and consider them holy, there are moments we feel as if we found ourselves in heaven.
On account of some word or phrase or meaning, without realizing it, while you’re lost in God –and I mean given to God– you find yourself in paradise. The heavenly breath comes and finds you and overwhelms you. The “electric power” of Christ and heaven comes through this word or that meaning and intoxicates you. This happens as Christ reaches us through every spiritual path and achieves special contact with every single one of us. It’s as if He whispers to us: “Yes, for you is the paradise reserved, for you the joy of God, for you all the blessings”.
What else would anyone wish for? What else?

We should remember every day that things are simple and easy. The reason we suffer and make no spiritual progress is that we take the wrong attitude before God. This is a perversion on behalf of man. Blessed be the man who will realize that early enough, and, with his feet firmly on the ground, will eagerly adjust to how God economizes things.
Man finds peace, gets healed, finds comfort and rest, and the soul finds God, when he makes up his mind and very humbly says: “Who values me?”
God leans over you and wants to make a saint out of you. And, instead of realizing this, you twist the knife that hurt you, round the wound –you recall, for example, the harsh words once said to you. Instead, you can throw the knife away immediately and find peace.

Are you stuck in the face of difficulty? Do the easy, simple things. At the crucial moment, you can’t cast despondency out. At least, try to ignore it. Restrain yourself from offending, hurting or answering back. You can do this, no matter how strongly negative conditions urge you do the opposite. This is no accident. Self-love gets in the middle of things because it is losing its rights. Self-love thrives in its self importance; it needs to be superior to others. It won’t allow you to occupy yourself with the little things, i.e. changing your eating habits by eating less, amending your behaviour by treating others better.
This effort is similar to being on the cross with Christ. Don’t step down. Live with this pain for a while. Let the sense of your own importance die in you. Be patient with the bitterness your own self brings. The Lord himself suffers along with you. If you say: “I deserve everything”, peace comes into your soul.