Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing so honestly what is on your heart. I have prayed for you and for your pastor, and I want to encourage you from Scripture in both of these burdens.
For your pastor, who is grieving the death of his brother and walking through difficulty in his marriage, pray that God will sustain him with patience and strength. Loss and strain in a home can feel overwhelming, and waiting on God in such a season is hard. Yet testing can develop patience, which is a needed quality we often lack when we want immediate relief. God is faithful and He understands sorrow and pressure. Ask the Lord to comfort him in his grief, to bring healing and unity in his marriage, and to restore him in His timing so he can again shepherd with joy. Pray that he will hear the Lord's voice today and not harden his heart under trial.
For your own struggle, please hear this with hope. Being tempted is not itself sin. Every person is tempted, and even Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. That matters because He knows the pressure you feel and He is able to be merciful and touched by your weakness. The spirit may be willing while the flesh is weak, and He understands that conflict within you.
Temptation itself is a solicitation to evil, and it does not come from God. It comes when we are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Satan's suggestion is always that you can have immediate fulfillment if you will just step off God's path for a moment. The sin is not in hearing that suggestion, but in choosing to walk after the flesh rather than after the Spirit. When desire is allowed to conceive, it brings forth sin, and sin when finished brings death. That is why it is so important to decide beforehand which way you will walk.
Your exhaustion is understandable. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes never get satisfied by indulging them. You cannot fulfill lust, you can only starve it. Every time you feed it, it grows stronger. Every time you deny it and feed the Spirit instead, it weakens. The world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains.
God has promised that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to everyone, and He is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, and with the temptation He will provide a way of escape so you can endure it. There is always an escape route, but you must take it. God will not force you away from it. When the temptation comes, turn away, flee, look away, leave the situation, call out to Him.
A practical way to fight is with the Word of God hidden in your heart. When Jesus was tempted to meet the needs of the flesh, to gain what the eyes desire, and to exalt Himself, He answered with what is written. In the same way, memorize Scripture that speaks to purity and keep it ready. Do not lust after beauty in your heart. Much of what the world displays is designed to entice, but there is no real love in it, only empty desire that consumes the body and soul. Set your affection on things above, remembering that you have died with Christ and your life is now hidden with Him. You do not have to be mastered by the flesh any longer. You can reckon yourself dead to that old way and alive to God.
Do not try to bargain with God in prayer just to use His help to still feed the desire. Prayer is not to get our own will done so we can consume it on our lusts, but to align our will with His. Come honestly and ask for a clean heart, for strength to walk in purity, and for help to love others as whole persons rather than objects for desire. If you fall, do not stay down. Confess it quickly, receive forgiveness through Jesus Christ alone, and get up again.
You are not alone in this battle. The flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another, and every believer feels that war in his members. Ask God to help you discipline your body and bring it under control, to make provision for the Spirit and not for the flesh. It helps to have a trusted, godly man to be honest with, to limit what your eyes take in, to remove what entices you, and to fill your mind with what is pure.
I am praying that God will give you grace to starve what has wearied you and to strengthen what is of the Spirit, that you will find victory not by your own willpower but by walking daily with Christ who has already overcome for you.
For your pastor, who is grieving the death of his brother and walking through difficulty in his marriage, pray that God will sustain him with patience and strength. Loss and strain in a home can feel overwhelming, and waiting on God in such a season is hard. Yet testing can develop patience, which is a needed quality we often lack when we want immediate relief. God is faithful and He understands sorrow and pressure. Ask the Lord to comfort him in his grief, to bring healing and unity in his marriage, and to restore him in His timing so he can again shepherd with joy. Pray that he will hear the Lord's voice today and not harden his heart under trial.
For your own struggle, please hear this with hope. Being tempted is not itself sin. Every person is tempted, and even Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. That matters because He knows the pressure you feel and He is able to be merciful and touched by your weakness. The spirit may be willing while the flesh is weak, and He understands that conflict within you.
Temptation itself is a solicitation to evil, and it does not come from God. It comes when we are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Satan's suggestion is always that you can have immediate fulfillment if you will just step off God's path for a moment. The sin is not in hearing that suggestion, but in choosing to walk after the flesh rather than after the Spirit. When desire is allowed to conceive, it brings forth sin, and sin when finished brings death. That is why it is so important to decide beforehand which way you will walk.
Your exhaustion is understandable. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes never get satisfied by indulging them. You cannot fulfill lust, you can only starve it. Every time you feed it, it grows stronger. Every time you deny it and feed the Spirit instead, it weakens. The world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains.
God has promised that no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to everyone, and He is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, and with the temptation He will provide a way of escape so you can endure it. There is always an escape route, but you must take it. God will not force you away from it. When the temptation comes, turn away, flee, look away, leave the situation, call out to Him.
A practical way to fight is with the Word of God hidden in your heart. When Jesus was tempted to meet the needs of the flesh, to gain what the eyes desire, and to exalt Himself, He answered with what is written. In the same way, memorize Scripture that speaks to purity and keep it ready. Do not lust after beauty in your heart. Much of what the world displays is designed to entice, but there is no real love in it, only empty desire that consumes the body and soul. Set your affection on things above, remembering that you have died with Christ and your life is now hidden with Him. You do not have to be mastered by the flesh any longer. You can reckon yourself dead to that old way and alive to God.
Do not try to bargain with God in prayer just to use His help to still feed the desire. Prayer is not to get our own will done so we can consume it on our lusts, but to align our will with His. Come honestly and ask for a clean heart, for strength to walk in purity, and for help to love others as whole persons rather than objects for desire. If you fall, do not stay down. Confess it quickly, receive forgiveness through Jesus Christ alone, and get up again.
You are not alone in this battle. The flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another, and every believer feels that war in his members. Ask God to help you discipline your body and bring it under control, to make provision for the Spirit and not for the flesh. It helps to have a trusted, godly man to be honest with, to limit what your eyes take in, to remove what entices you, and to fill your mind with what is pure.
I am praying that God will give you grace to starve what has wearied you and to strengthen what is of the Spirit, that you will find victory not by your own willpower but by walking daily with Christ who has already overcome for you.
