Due to the enemy and endless wrong conceptions about life, most people have no idea about how life truly is. Difficulty, unease, or uncertainty, are seen as super negative things to be avoided, while complacency, weakness and wallowing in what one knows, as seen as "life". Life is broader than this.
Others live sheltered in life, others in extreme suffering and other people simply have no clue or live their life in circumstances where they have not yet "come to their own". Most people are told to never do mistakes, never engage, that the occult is of the "Devil" and numerous other threats, such as that one must not approach the Gods, or let's say join the Temple of Zeus. Fear reigns over the poor souls and the soul that is poor, is faced with constant suffering and ignorance, until it understands what cost it is to not do anything of growth for themselves.
In the Divine Path, one is on the path of becoming progressively a God. To become a God you also have to first know how to do human things, often underestimated by people and oftentimes everyone wants to skip the human part, which cannot be skipped. Being human requires trial and error and this error can create a lot of discomfort. Failure is also part of human experience, so victory later is comprehended and growth settles in. Finally, there can be triumph. The path to triumph on any affair is going to be confronted by opposition, be it yourself, bad habits, external life, or reformation of your awareness in order to succeed.
This process of course sounds very beautiful and it truly is, but many estimate that this process will be easygoing or that the Godhead is merely a situation of "easy-mode" to all things and affairs. This is not the case.
This path was in the Ancient World called the "Heroic Path". It was related to trials, sacrifices, empowerment, growth and supreme evolution for the person who undertook it, but also this path being a path of evolution, contained both difficulties and things to overcome. The labors of Hercules are symbolic of this and coded messages are contained in all the Labors, which are called Labors because they require Labor. Labor, also requires knowledge and intelligence to pull through, but above all, it requires courage. Another word for this is Trials. Trials are also related to fear, uncertainty and facing the possibility of defeat.
It's a regular statement that if you don't even try, you will definitely lose. When you don't even try, your chances of losing are absolute. Michael Jordan said "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take", I recall this from the years of my youth as an absolute and unalienable rule (Yes I am a Michael Jordan admirer for obvious reasons). You have already lost if you never tried for anything at all.
When one enters the path they have no idea of what to expect. They don't know if it's important to try, or hesitate even to try, or they don't see reason about WHY they should try.
Trying and doing is how you reduce this absolute 100% to less and less, until you reach 1% of failure rate, ie, you become successful.
The Gods give tremendous help and guidance, making a lot of things easier, but the evolution itself necessitates also that one will have to strive, change habits and ultimately do their best to transform through their labor. This labor becomes very joyful when one gets the hang of it, and as power increases, other people will look to you as "lesser", in the sense that you will start seeing that they are very fickle and ultimate victims of fate. When we begin the path as human beings, we are by definition entirely into the jaws of fate for better or for worse [astrological - karmic] and we have no understanding that we can so to say, have the ability to carve our own path.
Every word that is related to the Heroic Path, has to do with work, labor, creation, determination and all these things that empower and increase power.
Power increase will not happen by laziness, complacency, or things that have to do with giving minimal or zero effort and sacrifice. If power and truth is what you seek, be ready to be gradually tested to attain higher and higher levels in power. This power brings peace and wisdom, but this peace of wisdom is attainable because one overcomes previous trials and they look easy after one has passed them. One therefore, gains mastery over life, fate and other situations that make other humans sink very easily. They are not trained, but one is trained.
The role of the Gods is to help you through, instruct you, give you strength that adds up to your own, to manifest these powers and become a powerful wielder of these powers. When one asks for pleasure, freedom or liberation, one will be faced directly with what restrains these, internally or externally, and be called upon by life and the Gods to solve these, first for themselves and then for others. There is no other way.
People also that you see in life and you think they "have it easy" are only in two categories. One is those who don't truly have it easy (ie, you imagine they do, due to assumption) and two, people who dwell on the labor of others (for example, family or their parents). Of course the second category eventually runs out, and one will always be called to stand on their own feet at one day.
The title of this sermon is to remind you that you must stand strong in the path. The Gods know very well this can be stressful, and they know all too well that you might be new, blind to the spiritual reality and I want to reassure you they are very empathetic and in full understanding of your limitations. They love us all despite our shortcomings and limitations and their love is so great, that instead of looking at us and expecting us to be slaves that ask for pleas (servile worship) they instruct us to start standing on our feet and to start respecting, loving and growing ourselves.
Overall you might also face numerous situations that look "unsolvable", "impossible" or in other ways very difficult in your life. This is normal. It's part of the plan. Certain things might be "impossible" but this is not forever. We are eternal beings that evolve in the cycle of lifetimes. What is now impossible, with power and knowledge, becomes possible. How? We make it so by engaging these situations.
Impossibilities can range from cutting down your sugar or cigarette intake, to coming up financially from the shreds, or maintaining a good health in a very trying environment, all the way to doing certain things that might be considered by others to be legendary. Everything "impossible" or difficult to attain, evolves you, and in turn, evolves others around you. So when life knocks you down, you must remember that the knockdown is also part of the higher aim for you to evolve, learn to manage yourself and your reality and always get back up on your feet.
Embrace the trials if you want to embrace victory. It will come; start the trial and be not afraid of errors. Triumph belongs only to those who engage the trials.
-High Priest Zevios Metathronos