Now you have become angry, discouraged, and saddened, thinking that the Heavenly Father is delaying His response. However, I tell you that even this will happen as you desire – and it will certainly happen – but first, you must pray with all your heart, and then wait.
And when you cease to desire and ask for what you seek, then it will come to you as a gift of your patience.
If, while praying and asking you approach despair, then the fulfillment of your request is near. Christ wants to heal a hidden passion within you, and that is why He delays in fulfilling the request. However, if you receive it earlier when you desire it, the passion remains unhealed within you. If you wait, you receive both what you have asked for and the healing of the passion.
And then you rejoice with great joy and warmly thank God, who wisely manages all things and makes them beneficial for us.
Excerpt from “Testimonies of Monastic Experience” – Elder Joseph the Hesychast, Evanghelismos Publishing House.
