Give Up What Competes With God

A brother said to the elder Isaac,

Disciple: Father, what is true hope in God?

Abba Isaac said,

Abba Isaac: True hope begins when you stop securing yourself.

Disciple: How so?

Abba Isaac: As long as you protect your comfort, calculate your future, and arrange your obedience around safety, you do not hope. You manage.

Disciple: Then what must I do?

Abba Isaac: Labor. Sweat. Endure. Obey when it costs you. Surrender what you cling to. Hope is born from a conscience that has suffered for God.

Disciple: And what does such hope give?

Abba Issac: Fearlessness.

The man who has given his life no longer trembles over losing it.

The man who has surrendered control no longer fears uncertainty.

Disciple: Is this not reckless?

Abba Isaac: No. It is faith.

Recklessness tempts God.

Faith entrusts itself.

You speak of hope. First give up what competes with it.

Then hope will come.