We must make an effort

“A brother said to Abba Anthony, ‘Pray for me.' The old man said to him, ‘I will have no mercy upon you, nor will God have any, if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.'" -The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Abba Anthony the Great, paragraph 16)

What striking words Abba Anthony gives the brother here.

“…if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.”

It seems like what Abba Anthony is admonishing here is either the sin of presumption or acedia, but I am not certain.

We must make an effort.

We must pray to God.

Without these two things, we will live like the heathens.

What is a Christian who does not make an effort and does not pray to God? Would we say that their faith is dead?

Life on this earth is not easy. The Christian life is not easy. We cannot skate through life and presume that we will not lose our souls in the process.

Abba Anthony the Great, pray for us!