Слово о внушениях ненавистника добру демона

Listen, fathers and brothers; the enemy often encourages a person, saying: “You are still young, satisfy your wishes. How many, do you think, have enjoyed the world and are not deprived of eternal blessings? And you are still young: eat, drink, have fun with the blessings of this world; In your old age you will repent. And why do you want to exhaust your body from such an age?” Then old age comes, and this insidious one quotes the sayings of the Holy Scriptures and says: “You sigh, man, you doubt God’s mercy, and you imagine that God is unmerciful. And God’s Scripture preaches that God is merciful and loving of mankind. Well, doesn’t He know that you are a feeble and weak old man? He knows that you can neither fast, nor spend the night in vigil, nor sleep on bare ground. Have you not heard, as He says in the Gospel, that both from early and middle age those who serve Him, as well as the elderly, receive an equal reward? For He said in the Gospel that those who came at the first, and at the third, and at the sixth, and at the ninth, and at the eleventh hours received equal wages. So the prophet David prophesied: “He blessed the little ones with the great ones” (Ps. 113:21). “The enemy speaks such speeches to those who know the Scripture, so that neither in youth nor in old age will they be allowed to mourn their sins, but to simple people, giving the sword of despair, he says: “What are you counting on, man? Why do you deceive yourself by saying that God is the God of repentants? You are a fornicator, an adulterer, a predator; you killed, you stole, you lied, you broke your oath; What hope of salvation do you have? You are lost, so satisfy your wishes; You have lost the future, don’t deprive yourself of the present.” Such are the words of the devil; but the word of Christ is disgusting to him: “You are lost, but you can be saved; You were a fornicator, but you can become chaste.” When asked by Peter how many times to forgive a sin to a repentant brother, Christ says: “seventy sevens” (Matt. 18:22), meaning that forgiveness can always be received up to an indefinite number of times. Whatever a person is caught doing at the end, whether good or bad, that is what he will be judged on. Remember, brother, how sinners were saved, and do not despair. Imagine in the mind of the blessed Manasseh, the harlot, the tax collector, the thief, the prodigal son, and you will avoid the deception of the enemy. When the devil tells you: “satisfy your wishes”; you tell him: “Is there any benefit from unclean pleasures; on the contrary, will they bring me eternal fire?” And when he begins to show you God’s love for mankind, tell him: “I myself know that God is merciful and loving of mankind; but I also know that He is a righteous Judge; I know that He did not spare you and those rejected with you, but condemned you to eternal fire.” - And if he says to you: “I am incorporeal and not burdened with infirmity, therefore God did not spare me, but He will spare you”; then answer him: “Why didn’t you spare the ancestor Adam, Eve, Cain, who lived during the flood, and the Sodomites, and even His disciple? And if He did not spare His own disciple, then why will He spare me? Move away from me, fugitive who left heaven!” Having said this, seal yourself with the sign of the cross, and the enemy will flee from you. Let us not, my brothers, listen to the enemy, who gives bad advice to our destruction; but let us believe that there is judgment and reward for every deed, word, thought, movement, and idea. Knowing all this, let us bring ourselves to safety, so that on the day of the Last Judgment our opponents cannot say anything bad about us; and we have found our rest with those who fear the Lord. Let us do good together with them, because “faith without works is dead” (James 2:10), just as works without faith are dead. For it is impossible for one who lives in luxury to enter the kingdom of God, according to the exact word of the Gospel. See, “let not your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness” (Luke 21:34). So, we need to be ready every hour, so that those who are called do not suddenly find themselves unprepared. And then the holy angels sent to us will grieve for us, and the crafty demons will laugh. Be careful that we do not turn out to be Christians only in name, but pagans in morals. Christianity is the imitation of Christ to the best of one's ability. If we rely on holy baptism and neglect the other commandments, then we are infidels. Christ will not take advantage of us who are in vice and sin. For we have heard what He says in the Gospel: “Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but do the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). See how the saints pleased God; not indulging in sleep and not reclining, but “by the stoning of Bysh, by the trepidation of Bysh, by the temptation of Bysh, by the murder of the sword, by death, by deprivation, by sorrow, by embitterment, by wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in the abysses of the earth” (Heb. 11:37.38). Therefore, we, beloved and lovers of Christ, will strive, each to the best of our ability, so as not to be completely fruitless, for then eternal torment will befall us. Just as it is in our will to sin, since God allows it to our freedom, so it is in your will to do the truth, since God cooperates in this with our intention. Therefore let us love the narrow and straitened way, because by walking it we will reign with Christ. Let us avoid walking along the wide and spacious path, which leads us to endless torment, and above all, let us do good, brothers, as much as we have the understanding to do so; let us put to death the wisdom of the flesh, so as not to turn out to be enemies of God. This was said by Paul, the great apostle of Christ (Rom. 8:7). We will give alms. Let us give bread and receive heaven, let us give food and become inhabitants of paradise; let us give clothes and inherit the kingdom of heaven; let us give little in order to receive much; let us give free will and acquire everything; Let us give zeal and receive strength. Let us cry here, Christ-loving brethren, in order to extinguish the endless flame; because those who live joyfully here will be condemned there; those who mourn here will be blessed there; those who hunger here will be satisfied there; those who thirst here will quench their thirst there. Let us be sober and watchful, to the best of our ability, let us not lose heart, knocking on the door and begging; and Christ our God will certainly open it. To Him belongs glory now, and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: