What to Do When the Higher Rational Will Seems Almost Completely Overcome by the Lower Will and the Enemies

If at times you feel so powerful an uprising of sin that it seems to you that you can no longer stand against it, and as if even the fervent zeal to resist it has dried up—look, my brother, do not let your hands drop; but rouse yourself and stand firm. This is an enemy’s stratagem: by the thought of hopelessness of resistance, to cut off the very act of resistance itself, and to make you, laying down all weapons, surrender into the hands of the enemy. Bring this cunning of the enemy more clearly to mind and do not yield. For as long as you do not incline your free choice toward the passionate impulse, you are numbered among the victors, those who repel and wound the enemy—even if your sympathy has already gone over to the side of the passion. For no one and nothing can compel your free choice, or tear the victory from your hands against your will and lay you low, however fierce and bitter a warfare your enemies may wage within you. God has granted our free choice such power that, even if all the feelings proper to man, all the world, and all the demons were to arm themselves against it and enter into combat with it, they cannot violate it; on its side there always remains the freedom to desire what is proposed and demanded by them, if it wishes, and not to desire it, if it does not wish. For this reason it is accountable for all things and subject to judgment. Remember this well: however enfeebled you may seem to yourself, you can in no way excuse yourself if you incline toward the passionate impulse. Your conscience itself will tell you so. Therefore prepare yourself all the more zealously to resist, the stronger the temptation to fall, and never depart from such a resolve—in every such case crying out within yourself the commander’s words of one of our chief commanders: ”Stand firm, be courageous, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13).

Holding your free choice in this way—inflexible toward the sinful impulse and standing on the side of the demands of the higher will—deploy your spiritual weapons one after another. The chief of them is prayer. Encourage yourself with it, saying within yourself: ”The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, I will trust in him” (Ps. 26:1, 3). ”I do not trust in my bow, and my sword does not save me; but in God I will boast all the day long, and in his name I will give thanks forever” (Ps. 43:7, 9). ”Do not fear your threats, O enemies, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow, and he shall be your fear in my behalf. Trusting in him I will remain, and he will be to me for a sanctuary. And if you try again, you will again be overcome; and whatever counsel you take, the Lord will bring to nothing; and the word that you speak will not stand” (Is. 8:12-14; 9:10).

Emboldened thus, do what a soldier sometimes does in visible battle when hard pressed by the enemy: the soldier steps back a little to choose a better position and take aim at how best to send his arrow into the enemy’s heart; you, gathering your thoughts inwardly and rousing the consciousness and feeling of your own lowliness and helplessness to do what is needed at this moment, have recourse to God almighty, and with warm hope and tears call upon him for aid against the passion assailing you, saying: ”Arise, O Lord, help me and deliver me for your name’s sake” (Ps. 43:27). ”Fight, O my Jesus, against those who fight me; take up shield and armor and rise to help me; let those who seek my soul be put to shame and disgraced; let those who devise evil against me be turned back and put to shame” (Ps. 34:1-2, 4). Most holy Theotokos and Lady, do not allow me to yield to enemies and be overcome by them.

My guardian angel, cover me with the shelter of your wings from the enemy’s arrows, and with your sword strike them and drive them away from me.

Persevere in such cries—and you will see swift help. Take careful note of yourself, however. The enemy knows the power of such cries to God and hastens to forestall them or to disrupt them by the senseless murmuring against God that he stirs up—murmuring over why God allowed you to be subjected to such an enemy assault and such a danger of falling—so as thereby both to prevent or cut off the cries, and to make you unworthy of God’s help. The moment you notice such a movement contrary to God, hasten to rouse in yourself that sincere and true conviction that ”God… tempts no one,” and that ”each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:13-14). Then look into your preceding deeds, feelings, and thoughts, and you will find that from them was born the inward storm that brought you into a dangerous state. The enemy slandered God and concealed your own carelessness. Your task is by faith to justify God within yourself, and by discernment to remove the enemy’s flattering veil, to convict yourself of indulgence and inattention, and—having confessed this inward sin before God in repentance—to return to the cries as described, which will restore to you the help of God always ready and especially so in such cases.

After this, when the inward storm has subsided, the struggle must continue according to the general rules of the unseen warfare, which have in part already been discussed.