Most Wise Lord, often evil desires penetrate the lives of Your children … making us want more possessions, more money or the admiration of others. Even if I want the desires bad enough, I fight to resist the temptations. Instead of grabbing what I want, I should submit myself to You and ask for the power to overcome the temptation. I need help in overcoming the selfish desires of my flesh so I can walk uprightly as You did. The biggest obstacles to my seeking Your help involves … not asking or asking for the wrong things. I must start by asking myself how regularly do I take time to talk with You? When I do, what do we talk about? Do I ask only to satisfy my desires? Am I seeking Your approval for something I have already planned to do? I know that my prayers will produce good fruit only when I allow You to change my desires into Yours.
A time-tested cure for eliminating evil desires is humility. Pride makes me self-centered and leads me to believing that I deserve what my flesh is yearning for. It creates an appetite for more things that I really do not need. I can find a release from my self-centered desires by humbling myself and realizing all I really need is more of You. When I allow the Holy Spirit to fill my life, I can more readily identify the world’s seductive attractions and how they are cheap substitutes for You and Your many benefits. Because of my fallen nature, I tend to try and fulfill the desires of my flesh. I have come to realize that my life will be filled with conflict in which You battle the Devil to determine the way I will go. To preclude these skirmishes, I must realize that You have already defeated the Devil and released me from the power of sin. As the Spirit guides me, I believe I can resist the Devil and he will flee.
A significant part of overcoming evil involves my submission to You (yielding to Your authority and will, committing my life and it’s control to You and following Your lead) … resisting the Devil (by not falling for his enticements and seductions which try to lead me away from You) … keeping my heart pure and focusing on You (allowing Your work to purge me from the allures of sin, replacing my fleshly desires with Yours) … grieving in true sorrow for my sins (needing to experience true sorrow and express my sorrowful repentance from sinning) … humbling myself before You (expressing my total dependence on You and how You alone have the power to lift my sagging spirit). I must recognize that my worth comes from You alone. Although I do not deserve the favor You heap upon me, despite my human shortcomings, I pledge to strive to overcome evil with good. And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!!
James 4:4 Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.