Just as the Lord is solicitous about our salvation, so
too the murder of men, the devil, strives to lead a man into despair. A lofty
and sound soul does not despair over misfortunes, of whatever sort they may be.
Our life is as it were a house of temptations and trials; but we will not
renounce the Lord for as long as He allows the tempter to remain with us and
for as long as we must wait to be revived through patience and secure
passionless!
Judas the betrayer was fainthearted and unskilled in
battle, and so the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to
hang himself, but Peter, a firm rock, when he fell into great sin, like one
skilled in battle did not despair nor lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a
burning heart, and the enemy, seeing these tears, his eyes scorched as by fire,
fled far form him wailing in pain. 
And so brothers, St. Antioch teaches, when despair
attacks us let us not yield to it, but being strengthened and protected by the
light of faith, with great courage let us say to the evil spirit: “What are you
to us, estranged from God, a fugitive from heaven and evil servant? You dare do
nothing to us. Christ, the Son of God, has authority both over us and over
everything. It is against Him that we have sinned, and before Him that we will
be justified. And you, destroyer, leave us. Strengthen by His venerable Cross,
we trample under foot your serpent’s head” (St. Antioch, Discourse 27).
+ St. Seraphim
of Sarov, “The Spiritual Instructions to Laymen and Monks”, printed in Little
Russian Philokalia: St. Seraphim of Sarov
Source:
http://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/2014/09/22/st-seraphim-of-sarov-the-devil-strives-to-lead-a-man-into-despair/
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