# How Do We Consecrate Our Time to God?

> On the intention behind consecration: from Cassian's Conference on the doer's intention and the story of Ananias and Sapphira, to why true consecration begins in the depths of the heart and springs from Christ's love, in synergy with the Holy Spirit.

*2016-12-01T17:54:18Z*

![Quote card with a dark portrait of Christ in prayer: "By this love he preferred to be counted among the lowest ranks rather than among the greatest nobles without it. The only punishment in his eyes was to be stripped of this love." - St. John Chrysostom, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany (ACW), 12:1.](/uploads/sites/1274e232-e31c-46f4-a48b-27b854406479/media/how-to-consecrate-our-time-to-god.png?w=815&h=815)

### 1- Consecration Is a Personal Choice, Not Something Imposed:

One of the Desert Fathers says: "We ought in every case to look not at the work **but at the intention of the doer**, nor to ask what a man does but **for what purpose he does it**, so that we find some condemned for deeds from which good results came, while others arrive at the heights of righteousness **even though they used things in themselves deserving blame.** In the former case the good results of their works profit them nothing **because they did them with an evil intention,** and their will was not to bring about the good, **but the results came contrary to what they intended,** and at the same time their intention does not harm others."[^1]

Which of us has never thought one day about consecration on the personal level (that is, consecrating time for prayer, or setting aside some of our money for almsgiving, or other such things), **but did not complete his consecration?!** In reality the danger is not in what we promise, as St. Joseph, one of the Desert Fathers, made clear, but **the error is in the intention with which we carry out this promise.** Often we offer God a consecration of time, for example, but we embezzle from it, "kept back part of the proceeds,"[^2] and so our consecration is not complete. Here we are not embezzling anything from ourselves, **but in truth we are embezzling what belongs to God!**

Ananias and Sapphira lied not to Peter or to one of the Apostles, but they lied to the Spirit of God, and the questions that St. Peter asked place us in a position of perplexity, because they ask each one of us! "**While it remained, was it not your own?** And after it was sold, **was it not in your own control?** Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? **You have not lied to men but to God!!!"**[^3]

While it remained, was it not yours? Time, in every case, is yours, **so it is good not to consecrate part of it to God and be honest with yourself, rather than to consecrate part of the time and break your vow in it!** Many of us attend the Church's liturgies, perhaps even daily, but is the time of the Liturgy really consecrated entirely to God?! Is all your concern in the Liturgy to be united with Christ and to prepare yourself fully for this great Eucharist that you are about to receive? When the priest cries out "Where are your hearts?" in the prayer of the Anaphora, is your cry truly inward and deep, **"They are with the Lord?"** Is the way you conduct yourself merely outward, or is it deep within you?!

All these questions every faithful believer in his life with God must ask himself, because "the Holy Spirit **does not work on the surface or from the outside;** He works **on the inside and in the utmost secrecy,** so if we want to trace the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, **we need to deepen everything,** to deepen our thinking, to deepen our conscience, to deepen the motives of our conduct, to deepen our desires and our lusts, the good of them and the bad, **to deepen our prayers and our fasting and our tears,** to deepen our service, and finally to deepen our love for God and for people."[^4] Yes, in truth, what St. Peter asked Ananias was not merely a question to Ananias, but a question to the depths of every one in the Church, so that St. Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts, says, "So great fear came upon all the church"[^5]

**2- Where Does Our Deep and True Desire for Consecration Come From:**\
"When the matters of His self-emptying seem hard to accept, marvel rather at the greatness of the Son's love for us, for what you consider unbecoming to Him, He did by His own will for your sake: **He wept as a man in order to wipe away your tears, and He was troubled by economy, leaving His body to be moved by what is proper to it in order to fill us with courage, and He was described as weak in His humanity in order to end your weakness,** and He offered with many requests and supplications to the Father in order to make the Father's ear attentive to your prayers"[^6]

**In truth it is in no way possible for a consecration to spring from within unless the inner being is first consecrated to God**; for among the questions St. Peter asked Ananias, "Ananias, **why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit** and keep back part of the price of the land?"[^7] Satan filled Ananias' heart; so what if Ananias' heart had been wholly consecrated to God from the depths?! Simply put, if the heart had been consecrated, Ananias and Sapphira would not have done this!

Therefore, if we want to consecrate something to the Lord, **it is better to begin by consecrating our depths first,** that is, to hand the heart over entirely to the Holy Spirit, who in turn will work in it powerfully until He consecrates it **entirely to God in a relationship of synergy.** And synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, that is, that the result of joint work and cooperation between two or more agents to achieve a particular goal is stronger and better than the sum of the results of each agent working alone to achieve the same goal. So the Holy Spirit helps the soul to consecrate the heart entirely to Him, **but the soul must first go to the Spirit, as we mentioned before, examining its depths with all honesty.**

And what will move us to this consecration is what Christ did for us, as St. Paul the Apostle teaches us, "and He died for all, **that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.**"[^8] Christ offered Himself for us, showing in this the depth of His love, and gave us one commandment, **that we love one another and be crucified for one another; and what is true consecration but a movement of love that arises from the depths** toward God, so that the heart cries out that it wants to offer everything it has to God. Here true consecration begins: the person offers real time for worship and real time for spiritual study, enjoys the grace and fellowship of the Holy Spirit in truth, and truly becomes a "christ," that is, "one consecrated," wholly to God.

St. John Chrysostom says, "By this love he preferred to be counted among the lowest ranks rather than among the greatest nobles without it. The only punishment in his eyes was **to be stripped of this love,** for that is hell itself, and discipline, and eternal evil. **On the contrary, to possess the love of Christ is heaven,** and it is life, and it is the whole world, and it is to become an angel, and it is joy in the present and joy to come, and it is to become a king, and it is the promise, and it is the eternal good."[^9]

[^1]: The Seventeenth Conference of St. John Cassian - of Abba Joseph 11
[^2]: See (Acts 5:2)
[^3]: See (Acts 5:4)
[^4]: Fr. Matta El-Meskeen - Ma‘a al-Rūḥ al-Qudus fī Jihādinā al-Yawmī [With the Holy Spirit in Our Daily Struggle], p. 5
[^5]: See (Acts 5:5, 11)
[^6]: Defense of the Twelve Anathemas against Theodoret - St. Cyril the Great
[^7]: See (Acts 5:3)
[^8]: See (2 Corinthians 5:15)
[^9]: John Chrysostom - Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany (ACW), 12:1

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Source: https://abba.fadymondy.com/en/blog/how-to-consecrate-our-time-to-god