Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 3.35

That there is no security against temptation in this life

1. "My Son, you are never secure in this life, but your spiritual armor will always be needful for you as long as you live. You dwell among foes, and are attacked on the right hand and on the left. If therefore you use not on all sides the shield of patience, you will not remain long unwounded. Above all, if you keep not your heart fixed upon Me with steadfast purpose to bear all things for My sake, you shall not be able to bear the fierceness of the attack, nor to attain to the victory of the blessed. Therefore must you struggle bravely all your life through, and put forth a strong hand against those things which oppose you. For to him that overcomes is the hidden manna given, but great misery is reserved for the slothful.

2. "If you seek rest in this life, how then will you attain unto the rest which is eternal? Set not yourself to attain much rest, but much patience. Seek the true peace, not in earth but in heaven, not in man nor in any created thing, but in God alone. For the love of God you must willingly undergo all things, whether labors or sorrows, temptations, vexations, anxieties, necessities, infirmities, injuries, gainsayings, rebukes, humiliations, confusions, corrections, despisings; these things help unto virtue, these things prove the scholar of Christ; these things fashion the heavenly crown. I will give you an eternal reward for short labor, and infinite glory for transient shame.

3. "Think you that you shall always have spiritual consolations at your will? My Saints had never such, but instead thereof manifold griefs, and diverse temptations, and heavy desolations. But patiently they bore themselves in all, and trusted in God more than in themselves, knowing that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Would you have that immediately which many have hardly attained unto after many tears and hard labors? Wait for the Lord, quit yourself like a man and be strong; be not faint-hearted, nor go aside from Me, but constantly devote your body and soul to the glory of God. I will reward you plenteously, I will be with you in trouble."

IMAGE: Gustave Moreau, Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1890)