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Post by reed on Mar 31, 2010 17:46:06 GMT -5
Hello, A selfish prayer request . If you feel inclined to do so, please pray for me in the name of Jesus that I learn to love God more than I love the world, and that He changes me so that I become obedient and pleasing to Him. I am struggling with sin and willpower will not do. I unfortunately realise that I like my sins and the world more than God, and I do not want to carry on like that . Thank you.
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Post by newstartnow on Apr 3, 2010 3:45:33 GMT -5
This certainly isn't a selfish prayer. It's a prayer we all probably need to pray daily.
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Post by LDM on Apr 3, 2010 7:06:52 GMT -5
Hi Reed,
I will certainly lift you up in prayer about this. As Newstart says, this is a battle we all must face; crucifying that old man and his carnal desires so that we might be built up in the inner man.
Have you also considered fasting? There are many ways this can be done, fasting from food, from media stimulation (i.e TV), etc. Basically it is a way to deny "pleasures" that the old man might be seeking. As we don't feed that nature, but instead increase the feeding of our spirit (prayer, bible study, etc), one will grow weaker while the other grows stronger. As the old man gets weaker, you will find more victory over those things which snare you now.
Remember too that God will gives us the desires of our hearts as we continue seeking Him. He will change us in the inner man to desire what He likes, so keep pressing on in Him.
Lastly, I would just say to try and stay out of temptations way. If you have a particular vice, try to stay away from that which pulls on that. What what you see and what you hear which may be trying to exploit that weakness.
God Bless!
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Post by estes on Apr 4, 2010 16:01:53 GMT -5
John 8: 31-47
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father”
“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
Romans 7:7-25
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Romans 8:1-17
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
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Post by reed on Apr 5, 2010 16:45:38 GMT -5
Thanks Newstart and all for your comments and kind words. LDM - thanks very much for the prayer support. Yes, I have done some fasting before; of food (a tough one for me, short ones only...) and of non-work related Internet browsing mainly. I was actually in a 40-days fast of secular music when I miserably re-acquainted myself with another of my weaknesses, around 1 week short of completing it. I did not stay out of temptation's way... I also think I do not fast properly as I don't spend enough time studying the Bible or just trying to draw closer to God. And by now I should know so much better than this . Estes - thanks for all the verses. I must spend more time thinking them through, particularly Romans 7. I think that will be a good start for study and God time, starting tonight actually. Time to get back on the saddle.
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Post by estes on Apr 5, 2010 20:04:26 GMT -5
You are more than welcome. I try to assist the best way God leads me to.
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