On Painstaking and True Repentance:

Nothing equals or excels God's mercies. Therefore, he who despairs is committing suicide. A sign of true repentance is the acknowledgement that we deserve all the afflictions, visible and invisible, that come upon us, and even greater ones. Moses, after seeing God in the bush, returned again to Egypt, that is, to the darkness and to the brick-making of Pharaoh, who was symbolical of the spiritual Pharaoh. But he went back again to the bush, and not only to the bush, but also up to the mountain. Whoever has known divine vision will never despair of himself. Job became a beggar, but he became twice as rich again.
 
 
 
St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 5