If while you are engaged in ascetic labor and hardship God withdraws from you because of some bodily lapse, or lapse of tongue or thought, do not take this to be strange or untoward….had you not yourself first indulged in some new-fangled, overweening and obnoxious thought about yourself, or had you not in arrogance treated someone disdainfully or criticized him for his human weakness, you would have recognized your own fallibility and God in His righteous judgment would not have withdrawn from you. Learn from this not to judge (Matthew 7:1), not to think too highly of yourself (Romans 12:3), and not to look down on others (1 Corinthians 4:6).
~Nikitas Stithatos
Prayerful Life 