For those who want salvation

by St. Seraphim of Sarov

Those who want to be saved need to have a humble heart and a broken spirit: The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart - these, o God, You will not despise (Ps. 50:19). In such humble spirit, a man can easily avoid all the traps of the evil one whose efforts are directed towards making us furious and angry thus sowing evil seeds according to the word of the Gospel: Sir! Did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? He said to them, "An enemy has done this."  However, when the person is trying to be humble and preserves peace in his thoughts, then all the traps of the enemy are meaningless, for where there is peace in one's thoughts there is God Himself: peace is His dwelling place (Ps. 75:2). 

All our life we insult God with our lawlessness and that is why we should always ask the Lord for the forgiveness of our sins.

We should always be patient and accept everything that happens to us with thanksgiving for the Lord's sake. Our life is one minute in comparison with eternity. That is why according to the apostle, our sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). 

Let us constantly, day and night, with tears bring ourselves before the mercy of God  so that He would cleanse us from every evil thought and that we would be able to worthily bring Him gifts of our service. When we do not accept evil thoughts that are planted in us by the evil one, we do good.