Beware of… Habit!

Fr. George Dorbarakis | January 13, 2026

 

 

"Do not become accustomed to being defeated in the spiritual battle, for habit becomes a second nature in man."

(St. Ephraim the Syrian)

With this phrase, the great holy Father Ephraim the Syrian makes a profound psychological as well as spiritual observation. It is a remark whose truth we can all verify in our daily lives: who can doubt the power of habit? Whatever we did once and then repeated, is difficult to stop. So much so, that its repetition, having become habit, eventually became our second nature — the effort to stop a habit is often experienced as... uprooting! And here the significance of habit in the spiritual warfare is revealed — that is, in the struggle of the faithful person to walk according to the will of God and not according to his own sinful will. If the believer is spiritually lax and is continually or very frequently defeated in his Christian journey — we are not speaking of an occasional defeat, which happens to everyone and is followed by swift repentance — then, unfortunately, the habit of his defeat causes him to be almost permanently in opposition to God. This means that his passions and weaknesses have enslaved him, just as the apostolic word declares: "for by what a man is overcome, by this he is also enslaved." Something similar happens to the uprooting of a plant: while it is small, it is easily pulled out; as it puts down deep roots and grows, things become more difficult until reaching complete inability. Thus, one understands the value of the word of St. Ephraim: do not become accustomed to falling into your sin, because when you want to overcome it, you will have extreme difficulty — it is as if you are now fighting against your deepest self.

On the other hand, however, there is the positive element: when one persists in the will of God, even forcibly, then the habit of this persistence and patience makes him overcome himself, and thus his spiritual life becomes continuously easier. The evil devil may, by divine allowance, wage greater war against such a Christian, but the grace of God likewise strengthens him, being assisted by the self-mastery the Christian has now acquired — the habit of his positive walk toward God makes his Christianity a journey from glory to glory, that is, an ascent without end.

And one element that contributes to the unceasing good habit of saying “Thy will be done” — rather than a careless and lax approach to the spiritual life — is the reminder that in this spiritual life there are no breaks or pauses: one either proceeds together with Christ or abandons Him and begins a headlong fall as a prisoner of the evil one. The word of Christ Himself resounds most powerfully and is confirmed daily by every believer: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

And the comforting element, of course: even in the greatest bad habit there is hope, when a person repents with his heart. Then, if he asks for God's help with pain and longing, the power of Him will accomplish the impossible: the person will disengage from evil by turning toward the Good. For “what is impossible with men is possible with God.”

 

Greek source: https://metemorfothis.blogspot.com/2026/01/blog-post_14.html

Reposted from: https://pgdorbas.blogspot.com/2026/01/blog-post_14.html