Chapter 92

One Who Yields to the Spirit of Arbitrary Willfulness Will Never Learn Prayer

In every way you must resist the spirit of arbitrariness, or the desire and impulse to act without restraint. This spirit whispers: ‘This is too much for me, I do not have time for it,’ or: ‘I should not take this on yet, I must wait,’ or: ‘Obedience to commands hinders’ and much else like this. Whoever listens to it will never learn prayer. —In alliance with this spirit stands the spirit of self-justification, which approaches and begins to act after someone, yielding to the spirit of arbitrary willfulness, has done something for which the conscience troubles him. Then the spirit of self-justification uses various devices to deceive the conscience and present its wrongdoing as rightdoing. —May God keep you from these evil spirits. (10, 229–230)