Thoughts I Have

Struggle towards Salvation

The Orthodox understanding of salvation is not like that of the Catholics or Protestants.
In (evangelical) Protestantism, salvation depends on belief in Christ, and you are baptized to 'publicize' your faith.
In Catholicism, salvation depends on faith, but you can jeopardize your salvation by committing a 'mortal' sin.
In Orthodoxy, salvation is not a once-and-done event.
Salvation is a process.
We've sinned, and turned away from God. Because God created us in His image, and gave us the choice to love Him, He does not force us to turn back to Him.
Because we have turned away from God, we are broken. Our brokenness is, on our own, impossible to overcome.
That reality prevents us from living in communion with God, and with other people.
Jesus Christ became man. He suffered and accepted burial, descending into the deepest, most broken part of being a human cut off from God: death. He rose again, transforming for us death into a Pascha, or passover, into His life.
In our baptism, we die with Christ, and live in Christ. We do so with the rest of the body of Christ. He sanctifies us.
But, we keep sinning. We keep failing. If we think we do not, we are greatly decieved. Sin is something rooted deep in our hearts.
And so begins the Christian life: the struggle to draw closer to God, to one day be again in communion with Christ and His Church.
God is always waiting for us to open ourselves to Him. He will never force His way into our hearts.
But allowing Him into our hearts is painful. We can't follow God and the things of this world. So we must struggle to reject everything that holds a place in our heart besides God. If we succeed in doing that, we will love all those around us, because we love God, because He first loved us.
We must struggle daily to open ourselves to God, to let Him work in us. It's not easy. We must acknowledge and repent of our sins, each and every one, no matter how small.
We must pray and read the Bible, because how can you expect to follow someone you don't really know?
We must forgive each other and love each other.
We must remain focused on our goal: salvation. Being restored to a fullness of joy in God's presence, having struggled out of love for God and rejoicing in the greatest reward imaginable.
My sins are overwhelming... so I must keep struggling!

It is also good to get enough sleep so you have the energy to fight temptation and sin, haha!