A famous monk who lived in the 200s, known as Macarius the Great, was very good at allegory. (i.e. stories that teach morals)
He was watching the road one time when he saw Satan approaching, dressed like a traveller, wearing a linen tunic full of holes, and from each hole there hung a pot.
Macarius asked him, “Where are you going? What are you going to do with those pots?”
The devil answered, “I am on my way to stir up the brother’s thoughts. I am taking various kinds of food for the brothers to taste. If this one does not please one of the brothers, I offer him another. Certainly one of them has to please him.”
Macarius watched the road until the devil returned, and asked, “How are you?”
The devil answered, “Terribly. I tried to sell all of these things to the brothers and hardly any would listen to me… except for one. There was one brother, Brother Alexander. He bought everything I was selling. He became my best friend in the monastery.”
Macarius himself goes up to the monastery, knocks on the door and they welcome him, receiving him eagerly and with joy. He stops all of the brothers there and says, “let me speak to Brother Alexander.”
So they bring Brother Alexander to Macarius and they meet privately.
Macarius says, “Brother, have you been struggling with anything spiritual lately?”
Of course, Brother Alexander not wanting to appear weak in the eyes of this great man… well, he lies, right?
He says, “Oh no. I’m wonderful. I’m great. Nothing is wrong. I’m doing very well here and…”
Macarius stops him and says, “Brother, everyone honors me, but even I struggle in spiritual combat. I am an old man, but the spirit of fornication still troubles me. Is there anything you have been struggling with?”
Brother Alexander realizes that Macarius is basically reading his soul, so he just pours out everything to him; all the distractions and difficulties that he has had.
So Macarius tells him this: “Whenever you have a thought that comes up, whenever you have a distraction or a temptation that you find yourself battling with, I want you to stop and open your scriptures and read a passage in the Gospels. It does not matter which or where, but important that you think of the context of what you are reading.”
“If the thoughts continue, then you keep reading. And if they still continue, then you keep reading another passage and another passage.”
“You do this until the thoughts go away.”
“If you wake up in the middle of the night and you find yourself beset with temptations, I want you to just simply say the Jesus prayer; that beautiful prayer… Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have Mercy on me, a sinner. Just say that prayer to yourself over and over again.”
“This is how you will combat those thoughts.”
Macarius leaves him and leaves the monastery. A couple days later he sees the Devil once again going up the road and asks him, “Where are you going?”
The Devil says, “Well, I’m going up to the monastery. I can’t wait to see Brother Alexander. I can’t wait to ‘offer’ him all these new things that I’m selling.”
A couple days goes by and the Devil is coming back down. Macarius asks him, “Well, how did it go?”
Once again the Devil says, “Terribly, and the worst thing of all, Brother Alexander was the rudest of them all to everything that I was offering.”
Because it’s within this context of engaging in the spritual battle by turning to the Father, by turning to the Grace of Almighty God, removing the distractions, walking out into the desert, taking advantage of the spiritual treasures that our Lord has left for us, Namely the Scriptures, and allowing the Grace of our Lord to deepn our union with the Father.
This is how we overcome the spiritual battle and spiritual warfare.