Ignore/Ignoring God
“As I stepped outside of my house this morning, I was braced by the cold. A light wind was blowing and the sky was a clear blue, a refreshing change from the rains of the past two days. God was (and is) everywhere present and filling all things, and, in this, He is meek. He provides the opportunity to ignore Him and imagine the world to be inert and to declare Him absent (or non-existent). By the same token, we see suffering in the world and wonder where God is, refusing to see His co-crucifixion in the suffering of every human being (and every created thing).” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The Holy Spirit instills truth in the form of intuition, but when we thwart, ignore or negate those insights which work for our self-preservation, the Spirit honors our free will and permits us to go against what is best for us.” (Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky)
“ “Then [Jesus] began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent”[Matthew 11:20]. Our modern world is very similar to those cities rebuked by the Lord in this passage, for many people today proudly ignore God. Like the men and women of the first century, we expect God to be at our beck-and-call (Matthew 11:17). Or perhaps, since we have never examined Jesus Christ nor sorrowed for our sins, we dismiss repentance as something arcane, guilt-inducing, and in no way applicable to us.” (Dynamis 6/30/2020)
“…unlike the blind beggar [Luke 18:35-43], we often lack a sense of urgency about presenting our darkened souls to Christ for healing. We have learned to ignore our spiritual blindness by distracting ourselves in the vain effort to find fulfillment by abusing God’s blessings to gratify our self-centered desires. Since we are not literally blind and destitute, it is much easier for us to ignore our true state than it was for him. In our affluent society, we do not have to be rich in order to wrap ourselves in a warm blanket of creature comforts as we indulge in food, drink, entertainment, and other pleasures to distract ourselves from seeing clearly where we stand before the Lord and in relation to our neighbors. We are often so much in the dark that we feel no sense of urgency to call out to Christ from the depths of our hearts for His healing mercy.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“How many people turn to God when they are in trouble, or in need, yet when all goes well, they forget or ignore God. And the longer we dwell in comfort and prosperity, the more we deceive ourselves by thinking that we deserve all that we have! We may even feel that we have earned our blessings through hard work, great effort, and our brains. We forget, though, who gave us our health, our physical strength, our intelligence, and even the chance to live in this country of great opportunity. How arrogant to think we have succeeded all on our own, without the grace and blessings of God! Thus, let us beware of several common temptations: 1) forgetting to express our gratitude for our many blessings; 2) being ungrateful for all we have, and even complaining about what we don’t have; or worse of all, 3) thinking that we ourselves are the source of all our blessings. We must learn to thank God daily for life itself, and for whatever life brings. Ultimately, if we believe that we have a loving Father in heaven who watches over us, than we must realize that this same loving Father will be with us in the midst of any and all surprises in life – both good or bad. He will walk with us, never abandon us, and help us learn and grow from every and any circumstance, no matter how seemingly difficult or unwanted.” (Fr. Luke A. Veronis)
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