How do we live in constant communion with God? Fellowship with God should not be something we do on Sunday and then leave behind the rest of the week. I have found some helpful thoughts from the philosopher Epictetus on what it means to live in communion with God throughout the week. Here are some of my favorite lines:
1. Accept God’s valuation of us: “If only one could be convinced of this truth, that we’re all first and foremost children of God and that God is the father of both human beings and gods, I think one would never harbour any mean or ignoble thought about oneself” (Discourses, 1.3).
2. Let communion with God relieve our fears. “What, shall kinship with Caesar, or some other man of great power at Rome, be enough to ensure that one will be able to live in safety, and be secure against contempt, and free from all fear, whereas having God as our maker, our father, and our protector, won’t be enough to deliver us from fear and suffering?” (1.9).
3. See every good thing as a gift of God: “Don’t be ungrateful, man, nor yet forgetful of better gifts than these, but offer up thanks to God for sight and hearing, and by Zeus, for life itself and all that supports it, for dried fruits, for wine for olive oil . . .” (ibid., 2.23).
4. Pay attention to what God has made. God has made us to see His works and rejoice. “But God has brought the human race into the world to be a spectator of himself and of his works, and not merely to observe them, but also to interpret them” (ibid., 1.6).
5. Accepting our position in life with an attitude of obedience toward God: “How absurd of you to think that if one of your generals had stationed me in a post, I should hold it, and defend it, preferring to die a thousand deaths rather than abandon it, but if God has stationed us in some position and laid down rules of conduct, we should abandon it!” (Ibid., 1.9).
6. See suffering as God training us and building us up. “It is difficulties that reveal what men amount to, and so, whenever you’re struck by a difficulty, remember that God, like a trainer in the gymnasium, has matched you against a tough young opponent” (ibid., 1.24).
7. Want only what God wants: “Don’t wish at any price that he should continue to live with you, don’t wish that you’ll be able to remain in Corinth, and, in a word, don’t wish for anything other than what God wishes” (ibid., 2.17).
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