“The more fervent our devotion and love for God, the more savage are their assaults; they urge us on to acts of sin, making war upon us in ways that we cannot endure, trying in this manner to deprive us of our faith in Christ, of prayer and every hope. But for our part we shall not cease to trust in God ‘until He has mercy upon us’ (Ps. 123:2), and those that devour us are driven far away.”
(St John of Karpathos in ‘The Philokalia’)