Do not rely upon yourselves

Tues­day. [I John 3:11–20; Mark 14:10–42] Saint Pe­ter so en­thu­si­as­tically in­sist­ed that he would not re­ject the Lord; but when it came down to it, he de­nied Him, and three times no less. Such is our weak­ness! Do not re­ly up­on your­self, and when you en­ter in­to the midst of en­e­mies, place all your hope to over­come them on the Lord. For this pur­pose such a fall was al­low­ed to such a great per­son — so that af­ter­wards no­bod­y would dare on his own to do some­thing good or to over­come some en­e­my, ei­ther in­ner or out­er. You must hope in the Lord, but not stop try­ing. Help from the Lord joins our ef­forts, and thus makes them pow­er­ful. If these ef­forts are not there, God’s help has no­where to de­scend, and it will not de­scend. But again, if you are fill­ed with self-re­li­ance, and con­se­quent­ly you have no need for help and seek no help — again, God’s help will not de­scend. How is it to de­scend when it is con­sid­ered un­nec­es­sary?! Nei­ther, in this case, is there any­thing with which to re­ceive it. It is re­ceiv­ed by the heart. The heart o­pens up to re­ceive through a feel­ing of need. So both the for­mer and the lat­ter are need­ed. Say, “Help, O God!” But don’t just lie a­round.