Are You Posing a Threat? | Rabbi Nachum Malinowitz

One of the challenges of Shmiras Einayim is the fact that it's relentless. Every single day, a person is faced when he goes to work, when he's at the bus stop, when he's at his computer, constantly faced with the challenges of Shmiras Einayim. And the truth is, it's difficult. You know, sometimes a person is just tired. How much can we keep pushing? How much can we keep going ahead and advancing? What's the answer? How does a person have the Chizuk to constantly keep pushing when he's faced with test after test after test? You know, sometimes you could think you're like a soldier on the battlefield, who has to stand all day looking around, making sure no one's shooting at him. But that's a soldier. I'm just a regular person. Why do I have to live my life being bombarded with constant Nisyonos? And perhaps we can look at it as follows. We have to realize that the Yetzer Hara only puts Nisyonos when he feels threatened. Let's take an example. Let's say I open a store. There’s a Walmart down the block and I'm selling the same items as Walmart. The odds are Walmart is not going to be bothered by my store. I'm not taking away any business from them. They're just too big that I should be competition to them. If you see that Walmart is starting up with me and they want me to move my store, obviously, I'm a threat to them and therefore, they feel the need to move me. The Yetzer Hara responds exactly the same way. If we weren't a threat to the Yetzer Hara, he wouldn't bother with us. Why make us crazy? Let us live our lives, he'll live his life, he has no problem with what we're doing. The fact that we're constantly faced with Nisyonos should be telling us that we are a threat to the Yetzer Hara. And every single time we overcome that Nisayon, we might fail sometimes, but every single time we overcome it, we should know we are putting another blow against the Yetzer Hara. And he feels threatened. And that's why he puts these Nisyonos in front of us. When you're faced with a Nisayon, and it feels like it's relentless and it doesn't leave up, remember, you're making the Yetzer Hara bankrupt.