When the Lord first leads us into the path of salvation, He says ‘How narrow and strait is the way leading to the kingdom and few there are who follow it’. But to those who have firmly resolved to keep His holy commandments He says, ‘My yoke is easy and My burden is light’.
At the beginning of the struggle therefore, the holy commandments of God must be fulfilled with a certain forcefulness of will; then the Lord, seeing our intention and labor, will grant us readiness of will and gladness in obeying His purposes. For ‘it is the Lord who makes ready the will’ so that we do what is right joyfully. Then shall we truly feel that ‘it is God who energizes in you both the willing and the doing if His purpose’.
-St Diadochos of Photiki
Prayerful Life 