Saturday, June 9, 2012

 In stevegershom blog Steve wrote....
This has very much to do with something Anthony Bloom says about prayer:
It is absolutely pointless to ask God for something which we ourselves are not prepared to do. If we say ‘O God, make me free from this or that temptation’ while at at the same time seeking every possible way of falling to just such a temptation, hoping now that God is in control, that He will get us out of it, then we do not stand much chance.2
At first one is tempted to ask: “Then what difference does it make whether I pray for the thing or not?” But we are not praying that the task be done for us — only that our efforts be guided and brought to their proper fruition.

First Before I go any further Steves blog is well written and should be read.

Will God deliver us from something we are not willing to do ourselves?  I believe the difference is what is sinful and what is an addiction.  If it is truly just our cross in life we are struggling with or in this case not struggling with than no, God will probably not deliver us from it.  Although, He has been known to knock some people off their horse and give them instant conversion from sin.  St. Paul went through this on the road to Damascus.  The instant conversion didn't come easy either.   Remember he was left blind for a while and also talked about his own personal thorn that the Lord would not take from his side. 

I often struggle with letting God do His thing in His time and when am I personally called to do something in His time.  That does not mean I can keep putting myself in the way of sin and think God will save me.  There are consequences to our actions and even inaction.  I consider not moving ourselves from the near occasion of sin an inaction and of course I believe can be sinful in itself.  An example of this is when we are watching something on the television and the show moves on to the next one which is nothing more than some soft porn called and R movie.  Sometimes I am not sure of you but I often leave it play out thinking it will get better. 

It's like I tell my daughters who are now above 18 when they say dad there is no reason to block mtv on the tv anymore we are adults.  I tell them I didn't just block those type of channels for them but for my soul too.

If you are still struggling with something hard remember we all do.  Saints are just those who fell and got up again.  The other thing most sins of the flesh especially feel good for a short time and that makes them so enticing.  Ask the Lord to give you the urge to change before you ask the Lord to change you.  We are in this with the Lord.