St Symeon the New Theologian | The same is true where the soul is concerned.

If the bridegroom-to-be is delayed abroad or kept away by other business, and puts off the marriage for a while, and if the bride-to-be, indignant, rejects his love, erasing or tearing up the document that contains the pledge, she immediately loses all right to what she expected from him.

The same is true where the soul is concerned.

For if a person engaged in spiritual warfare should say 'How long must I suffer?' and begin to evade the rigor of the ascetic life and, as it were, to erase or tear up the contract through neglect of the commandments and by abandoning the constant task of repentance, then at once he forfeits completely the pledge given and his hope in God.

St Symeon the New Theologian