Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth. 1 Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come.
Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply.
We cannot conquer simply by 17 fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways. Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.