Photios Kontoglou: The Temptations

 

Just as the eyelids touch one another, so are temptations near to men. And God has arranged them with wisdom, for your own benefit: that you may knock at His door with patience; and that, through the fear of sorrowful things, your mind may remember Him, and you may draw near to Him through prayer, and your heart may be sanctified by reflecting upon Him. And when you call upon Him, He will hear you, and you will learn that God is the One Who will deliver you. And you will feel Him Who formed you, Who cares for you, Who guards you, and Who created the world doubly for you — the one as a teacher and temporary disciplinarian, the other as your ancestral home and eternal inheritance. God did not make you exempt from sorrows, lest, trusting in Divinity, you inherit that which he inherited who was once called Lucifer and afterwards became Satan. Nor did He make you unbending and immovable, lest you become like the soulless creatures and the good things be given to you without gain and without reward — as brute creatures have natural gifts of a bestial kind. For it is easy for all to understand how much benefit and how much joy and humility a man gains by passing through these obstacles.

 

Greek source: https://orthodox-voice.blogspot.com/2025/09/blog-post_26.html