August 23rd, 2026: When “My Will” Becomes the Authority
The Gospel account of the rich young ruler asks one of the most important questions of the Christian life: what does it really mean to follow God? The man had kept the commandments and lived what appeared to be a faithful life, yet Jesus Christ showed him that something still ruled his heart. His possessions were not simply things he owned; they had become things he could not surrender.
The Orthodox Church teaches that following Christ means allowing our entire life to be shaped by Him rather than by our own desires. Orthodox Christians pray, fast, worship, give to others, and practice obedience not simply to fulfill religious obligations, but so that the human heart can be healed and transformed. Christianity is not about fitting God into the life we have already chosen for ourselves; it is about learning to say with the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done.”
What Does It Really Mean to Follow Christ?
In the Gospel, a rich man approaches the Lord and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. He has already kept the commandments, and from the outside he appears to be doing everything correctly. Yet the Lord tells him that he still lacks something: he must sell what he has, give to the poor, and follow Him. The man leaves sorrowful because his wealth has a stronger hold on his heart than he realized.
The problem is not simply that the man has money. Scripture contains faithful people who possessed wealth, and the Orthodox Church does not teach that having possessions is automatically sinful. The deeper problem is that this man cannot surrender what he has when God asks it of him. His possessions reveal where his heart has become attached.
This is why the Gospel reaches far beyond questions about money. We can become attached to careers, comfort, reputation, plans, entertainment, political opinions, personal preferences, or even our own ideas about religion. Anything can become spiritually dangerous when we cannot place it beneath the will of God. The question is not merely, “What do I own?” but, “What owns me?”
From Self-Will to a Life Shaped by God
Why did Christ tell the rich man to sell everything?
The command exposes what the man loves most. He wants eternal life, but he wants it without surrendering the life he has built for himself. The Lord therefore touches the exact place where the man’s heart is divided. His wealth becomes the test that reveals whether he truly desires to follow God above everything else.
This does not mean every Orthodox Christian receives a command to sell every possession. Some Christians have done exactly that, especially monastics and saints who embraced voluntary poverty. The principle, however, applies to everyone: nothing we possess, desire, or accomplish can be allowed to become more important than faithfulness to God.
Our possessions should serve our salvation rather than rule us. Money can feed a family, support the Church, relieve suffering, and help the poor. A home can become a place of prayer and hospitality. The problem begins when the gifts of God become more important to us than the Giver.
Is being rich a sin in Orthodox Christianity?
No. Wealth itself is not the sin exposed in this Gospel. The danger is attachment, selfishness, and the belief that what we possess exists only for our own comfort. St. John Chrysostom repeatedly taught Christians to see what they possess as something entrusted to them by God and to remember the needs of the poor.
The same warning applies to people who would never consider themselves wealthy. Compared with most of human history, many people today live with comforts that earlier generations could hardly imagine. We can easily become accustomed to abundance while still believing we never have enough. The Gospel asks us to examine whether gratitude, generosity, and mercy govern the way we use what has been given to us.
Christian generosity is therefore more than occasionally giving away something we no longer need. It trains the heart to loosen its grip. When we give willingly, we begin to learn that our security does not come from what we can accumulate. We learn to trust God rather than our possessions.
Why is self-will dangerous in the Christian life?
Modern culture often tells us that personal desire should determine who we are and how we live. We hear messages such as “do what makes you happy” or “live your own truth.” Christianity gives us a very different vision of freedom. True freedom is not the ability to satisfy every desire, but the freedom to become the person God created us to be.
That is why one of the central petitions of Christian prayer is “Thy will be done.” Those words are simple, but living them can be difficult. We naturally prefer “my will be done,” especially when obedience requires sacrifice. Repentance begins when we recognize that our desires are not always trustworthy guides.
The Orthodox spiritual life trains us to place our will before God. Prayer teaches us to seek Him rather than simply asking Him to approve our plans. Fasting teaches us that we do not have to obey every appetite. Almsgiving teaches us to notice the needs of another person rather than continually asking what we can gain.
Why do Orthodox Christians pray, fast, and attend church?
Orthodox Christians do not practice the faith merely to complete a list of religious obligations. We pray, fast, confess our sins, receive the sacraments, attend the services of the Church, and care for others because these practices shape the human person. They train our hearts to turn away from self-centeredness and toward God.
Simply attending church on Sunday is not the final goal of Orthodox Christianity. Worship is meant to transform how we live on Monday, Tuesday, and every other day of the week. The Divine Liturgy, Vespers, feast days, daily prayer, fasting, and the sacramental life teach us to see everything differently. The life of the Church gradually becomes the pattern for the rest of our lives.
This is why obedience matters. We do not invent Christianity according to our preferences, nor do we redesign worship around whatever happens to appeal to us. The historic Orthodox Church receives the faith handed down through the apostles and lived by generations of Christians. We enter that life and allow ourselves to be changed by it.
Does serving other people matter as much as prayer?
A traditional monastic story illustrates this beautifully. A monk was once praying when he received a glorious vision, but the monastery bell rang to call him to his assigned work of distributing bread to the poor. He struggled with whether he should remain with the vision or leave his cell to serve the hungry people waiting outside.
The monk finally chose to leave and perform the work entrusted to him. After spending hours distributing bread, he returned to his cell and found that the vision remained. The lesson of the story is clear: genuine devotion to God does not become an excuse to neglect the person standing in front of us. Love for God produces love for our neighbor.
This reflects the teaching of Scripture. In Matthew 25:31-46, the Lord identifies Himself with the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned. St. James likewise warns that faith which ignores a brother or sister lacking food or clothing is empty (James 2:14-17). Orthodox Christianity therefore refuses to separate prayer from mercy.
Sometimes serving another person will interrupt something we would rather be doing. A child needs attention, an elderly relative needs help, a parishioner needs encouragement, or a stranger needs mercy. These moments can become opportunities to encounter God through obedience. Holiness is often found not in dramatic experiences, but in faithfully doing the work God has placed before us.
Should my job be the center of my identity?
Our work matters, and Christians should perform it honestly and faithfully. But a career cannot carry the weight of our identity. Jobs change, companies close, careers end, and accomplishments eventually pass away. A Christian’s deepest identity is found in belonging to God.
This changes the way Orthodox Christians understand success. The first question is not whether we have achieved the position, salary, recognition, or influence we wanted. The deeper question is whether we are becoming faithful, merciful, humble, and obedient. A successful career cannot replace a life of repentance and communion with God.
Our work can instead become part of the spiritual life. We can practice patience with coworkers, honesty when dishonesty would be easier, humility when we are overlooked, and mercy toward people who frustrate us. In this way, even ordinary work can become a place where the Gospel is lived.
What does it mean to make the home a little church?
The Christian life cannot exist only inside the parish building. Orthodox families have traditionally understood the home as a place where the life of the Church continues throughout the week. This means creating a home where prayer, forgiveness, hospitality, Scripture, icons, fasting, and Christian love are normal parts of daily life.
This is especially important when raising children. If children experience Christianity only as something the family does for a few hours on Sunday, they may eventually conclude that faith has little connection to ordinary life. They need to see that their parents pray, repent, forgive, give thanks, seek mercy, and make decisions as Christians. Faith is learned not only through instruction but through the life a family shares.
Parents cannot guarantee what choices their children will eventually make. They can, however, give them a living experience of Orthodox Christianity rather than simply a Sunday routine. When the home reflects the worship and values of the Church, children are given a spiritual foundation they can carry into adulthood.
Why is Orthodox worship not based on personal preference?
Worship begins with God, not with us. The question is not simply what kind of worship makes us comfortable, entertained, or emotionally satisfied. Christians gather to offer themselves to God and to receive the life He gives through His Church. This requires humility because we are entering something larger than our individual tastes.
The Orthodox Church therefore preserves a received pattern of worship rather than continually reinventing its services according to changing cultural preferences. Scripture, prayer, psalmody, fasting, the sacraments, and the liturgical cycle shape the Christian rather than being shaped around the Christian. This continuity is one reason Orthodox worship can initially feel unfamiliar to someone coming from another Christian background.
Over time, that unfamiliarity can become a gift. Instead of asking whether everything matches our preferences, we begin asking what the Church is teaching us through its worship. We learn to listen, participate, repent, and pray. The center slowly moves away from ourselves and toward God.
How do Orthodox Christians learn to put God first?
We learn it gradually through repentance and faithful practice. There is rarely one dramatic moment after which selfishness disappears forever. The Christian life consists of repeatedly turning back toward God whenever we discover that something else has taken His place in our hearts.
This is why the Church continually calls us back to prayer, confession, fasting, the Eucharist, Scripture, generosity, and service. These are not punishments imposed on Christians. They are medicines given for the healing of the human heart. Through them, we learn to desire what is good rather than simply doing whatever we desire.
The rich man in the Gospel reminds us that outward religious faithfulness alone cannot substitute for this surrender. We can know the commandments and still protect certain areas of life from God. The Gospel invites us to ask where we are still saying, “Everything except this.” That may be the very place where repentance needs to begin.
What does “follow me” mean for an Orthodox Christian?
To follow means more than agreeing with Christian teachings. It means shaping our lives according to the One we claim to follow. Jesus Christ calls His disciples away from a life centered on self and into a life of love, sacrifice, mercy, obedience, and communion with God.
None of us does this perfectly. The Church is not a gathering of people who have already mastered the spiritual life. It is the place where sinners continually return for healing, forgiveness, instruction, and strength. We keep coming because we know that we still need to be changed.
The rich man’s question therefore becomes our question: what am I unwilling to surrender? The answer may not be money. It may be pride, resentment, comfort, control, ambition, a habit, an opinion, or simply the conviction that life should happen according to our plans.
The Gospel calls us to place all of it before God. We learn to say “Thy will be done” in church, at work, in our marriages, while raising children, when making decisions, and when serving people who need us. This is how the faith moves from something we profess into something we actually live.
Orthodox Christianity offers an entire way of life designed to help us make that journey. We do not have to invent the path for ourselves. The prayers, services, sacraments, fasts, feasts, teachings of Scripture, and wisdom of the Fathers continually point us away from self-centered living and toward communion with God.
If you are curious about the Orthodox Church, the best way to understand this life is not merely to read about it from a distance. Come to the Divine Liturgy, listen to the prayers, experience the rhythm of worship, and speak with an Orthodox priest. The invitation of the Gospel remains the same for every generation: loosen your grip on whatever keeps you from God, come, and follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Orthodox Church teach that Christians must sell everything they own?
No. The command given to the rich man exposed his particular attachment to wealth. Every Christian, however, must be willing to place possessions beneath God and use what has been given to us with gratitude, generosity, and mercy.
Why do Orthodox Christians fast?
Fasting trains us not to obey every appetite or desire simply because we experience it. It helps teach self-control, repentance, prayer, and dependence upon God.
What does “Thy will be done” mean in Orthodox Christianity?
It means seeking God’s will rather than treating our own desires as the highest authority in life. Christians learn this obedience through prayer, repentance, Scripture, worship, and faithful participation in the life of the Church.
Why do Orthodox Christians attend services besides Sunday Liturgy?
The services of the Eastern Orthodox Church form a rhythm of prayer that shapes the whole Christian life. Vespers, feast days, and other services help Christians learn that faith is not limited to a single hour each week.
How can an Orthodox Christian make the home a little church?
Begin with regular prayer, forgiveness, Scripture, icons, fasting, hospitality, and participation in parish life. A Christian home becomes a little church when the faith practiced during worship also shapes the family’s ordinary life throughout the week.