Above all, we should maintain a humble mindset. We must believe that everything we accomplish is due to God’s help.
“What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”(1 Cor. 4:7) . Whatever we have, we have received it all from God.
Did you assist someone with your own hands? Very well. Didn’t God give you your hands? Did you say a good word with your mouth? Did you
save someone with your good advice? Do not boast! God gave you both your mouth and the ability to speak. Did you use your feet to run and serve others? Well, they also belong to God. Did you praise God with your heart, with your inner voice, and with your inherent logic? Did you have good thoughts about God and your neighbor? Again, the heart and mind are also God’s. Did you
perhaps even desire to be born? No! It was God Who brought you into existence. Since everything is a gift from God and all things must serve Him, then what can you possibly offer to God?
This is why Christ said to His disciples, “When you have done all that you were ordered to do, you must know that you are simple and worthless slaves”(cf. Lk. 17:10).
“I give to you [says Christ], and then you give to others. If I had not given to you, you would have nothing to give. You did not conceal the gift, but you transmitted it and multiplied it.
”Hence, what is rewarded is the desire to perform virtue, as in the parable of the talents (vid. Mt. 25:15-28).
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
from the book
The Art of Salvation
http://www.stnektariosmonastery.org/weeklymessage.pdf
