People can get inside you and eat out your guts; a metaphor for a certain wasp that lays a single egg that emerges nourished from the guts of its living caterpillar host. 

You may remember my saying that the very moment you became resentful, something of the nature of the temptation got inside you. In the split-second before the resentment rose up in you to meet the challenge, you may have had a brief glimpse of the truth; namely, that the spirit of your tempter is pride and its nature is that of the beast. But your glimpse was a passing one, for the challenge to your inherited pride shot past your sentry and shut out the light making you overreact. Compounding all the old confusions inside, it diverted your attention from your growing inability to stand firm against intimidators. 

By making you focus resentfully upon outside threats and entangling your mind with fear and worry, the tempter prevents you from fully realizing the truth and relying on the faith in the common sense that would save you from sinking.

"you can discover how to guide your vessel...through the stormy seas."

You might think of temptation as a tempest; once it gushes into your boat, the boat becomes unstable, less resistant to the rushing water. In the same way, when stress gets inside you, it becomes the "friend" of the temptation that is pouring in from the outside and getting ready to take over your life. 

With a little navigational knowledge and understanding of the subtle currents flowing through the oceans of people surrounding you, you can discover how to guide your vessel -- i.e., yourself -- through the stormy seas.

First, you became upset; then, recalling the circumstances to mind, you resented the awareness of what was going on inside you.

Finally, you distracted yourself from that awareness by creating and attacking those superficial problems, while continually carrying on a rear-guard action against your conscience. 

It is now such a firmly established pattern, you cannot deal with moment-by-moment events in the present. Primarily, it is because you are absent-minded -- your soul is not in the Presence. Emotionally entangled with intrigue, you are bound by memories of the past and with dreams of the future -- possibly revenge. You are away from that presence of mind, the only time frame available for action, where the real solution lives and awaits your recognition. It exists as the potential beyond conscience, awaiting your awareness of His right to govern.