Chapter 26

God Does Not Command the Impossible

The Savior commanded: go into your room and pray to your Father in secret. This room, as Saint Dimitry of Rostov interprets it, signifies the heart. Consequently, the Lord’s commandment binds all Christians to pray mentally in the heart to God in secret. What does the Apostle Paul command when he says one should pray at all times with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18)? He commands noetic prayer — spiritual prayer — and commands it to all Christians without exception. He also commands all Christians to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). And one cannot pray without ceasing except through noetic prayer in the heart. Thus, it cannot be disputed that noetic prayer is binding for all Christians; and if it is binding, one cannot say it is hardly possible, for God does not command the impossible. That it is difficult is true; that it is impossible is unjust. Yet all that is good is difficult; still more so should prayer be, which is the source for us of all good and its true support. (4, 382)