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•Prayer: Why Do I Do What I Hate?By Anthony Valente👉 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.(Romans 7:15)Paul is like a little boy who is asked why he disobeyed, and he just stands there with his head hanging down says, "I don't know." He just can't understand how as a believer in Jesus Christ he can do some of the things he does. He knows what is right and he wants to do it, but he doesn't. He knows what is wrong and he hates it, but he goes right ahead and does it anyway. Does that describe your life? It sure describes mine. Doesn't it make you feel a little better to know that the great and godly Apostle Paul had the same problem?You can probably think of a number of illustrations of it. Maybe it's a problem with temper. You know it's sin to lose it. You know it's destroying your relationships with those you love and marring your Christian testimony. You don't want to do it, and yet there are times when you fly off the handle at the slightest provocation.Maybe it's a problem with food. You get to feeling down and you turn to food for comfort and consolation. You know your lack of self-control is sin. You hate what you see in the mirror. You realize that you're ruining your health. But you just keep gorging yourself with fats and sweets.Maybe it's a problem with honesty. You know it's wrong to cheat, but you just can't seem to help yourself. The drive to get grades is overpowering. You want to avoid your parents criticism. And you want your GPA to be high enough to get you into the right school. You don't want to settle for second-best. You hate yourself for cheating, but you keep right on doing it.Maybe it's a problem with lust. You know what Jesus said: that it's no different than adultery. And you know that goes for lusting over lewd pictures on videos, movie screens, or the pages of girlie magazines. You feel dirty every time you do it, and yet you're drawn to it like a magnet. You keep going back.It is only taking this struggle to God and asking for His Holy Spirit to swell in influence in our hearts and minds that we will ultimately conquer this confusion.I encourage you to find some comfort that you are not alone in this continual struggle and in understanding your own sinful tendencies. I encourage you to find the power to overcome them through intentional prayer time in asking God for His help.Let us pray.✝️ Heavenly Father, Help me to continue to do the things I should be doing and call upon Your Name when sin begins to pull me away. Help me conquer this intense battle between my sinful nature and my new self. Keep me from sinful thoughts, thoughts I don't want to have, but thoughts I can't stop for I don't realize they're there until I've had them. This frustrates me to no end and leads me to cry out with Paul, "What a wretched man I am!" But thanks be to You, You won the victory over sin and death. By Your conquering death on the cross, You negated sin's power forgiving my sinful thoughts. Now, I pray, purge me of my sinful thoughts that my mind only entertains thoughts that are pleasing to You. Guard the thoughts of my heart, the words I speak with my lips and the actions I do and may I do everything to the glory of God and for Your greater glory. In You Lord I have Victory. Thank You, our Father, for the simple and clear teaching of these passages. Help us to understand that we are freed from the Law once it has done its work of bringing us to the knowledge of sin. We cannot control ourselves by that means or deliver ourselves from evil, but we can rest upon the mighty deliverer who will set us free. We thank You in Jesus' name,AMEN 🙏 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham. And yet some of you are trying to kill me because there’s no room in your hearts for my message. I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father.”(Romans 8:31-38)Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.(Romans 12:2-3)And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.(2 Corinthians 3:18)Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.(2 Corinthians 5:17)So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.(Galatians 5:16-24)For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.(Ephesians 2:8-10) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.(Ephesians 6:12)Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.(John 3:3-5)I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.(Philippians 3:12-14)At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.(Titus 3:3-7)But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.(James 1:22-25)If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.(1 John 1:9)Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.(Acts 3:19-20)Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies.(Hebrews 10:26-27)So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.(John 8:36)And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.(Ezekiel 36:26)“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.(Luke 15:4-7)For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.(2 Corinthians 5:21)May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.(Psalm 104:34)He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.(Hebrews 1:3)(pic verse)He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver. As a metalworker refines silver and gold, so the LORD's messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to the LORD the right kind of offerings.(Malachi 3:3)Artist 👨‍🎨 I Am With You Always - David Delfeld