"God, as Everywhere-present
and the Filler-of-all-things, with His almighty, all encompassing
and all guiding power, is near every person; He is near the evil, and
He is near the good. For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous
(Mt. 5:45). He holds the life of all, the good and evil, the
righteous and sinners. In Him everyone lives moves and has their
being (Acts 17:28). But His
special grace, [His] merciful salvation, which helps, covers and
guides, does not abide with every person, but only with those who in heartfelt love and fear turn to Him their noetic eyes; always
seeing Him as if present before them, according to the words of David
the prophet: I beheld the Lord ever before me
(Ps. 15[16]:8). Thus, for the sake of His presence, and for love and
fear of Him, everything that is done, whatever is spoken or thought,
all is done in a God-pleasing manner, all is said honestly, all
thoughts are good and profitable; all of life is lived in good works
and a soul-saving manner, as if before the All-seeing Eyes of God,
repeating often within oneself the words of the prophet Elijah: The
Living Lord … before whom I stand
(1 Kings 17:1), or speak in this manner: the Living Lord, before Whose
All-seeing Eyes I walk, stand, sit, work, eat, drink, speak, converse
and think. Everything I do, I do before His most-bright eyes;
therefore I dare not do something bad, or say, or think anything
impure; so that He, in displeasure, would not strike me suddenly and
unexpectedly with all my lawlessness. In this manner where a person
contemplates God with noetic eyes there He abides. For He draws near
to those who themselves draw near to Him; He is present with those
who seek His presence, and He gazes upon those who gaze on Him. This
is as it were a mirror. Whoever looks in a mirror sees a face, which
is reflected in the mirror, but when he turns from the mirror he also
turns from the face he beheld in the mirror. In a similar manner our
Lord God turns to those who turn to Him, and looks upon those who
look upon Him. His face is turned from those who turn away from Him
and He does not gaze on those who do not look to Him, or those who do
not desire to see His presence in themselves." St. Dimitry of Rostov, Instruction in Virtue, translated from Russian.
