“Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.” 1 Peter 2:11

Lord God, You called me to be your child. I am now, by your grace, an heir of heaven and of eternity. This place is not my home. Heaven is my home. It is the promised land for which my heart of faith longs. Lord, as your child I often fail to see what the real problem is in this world. I often fail to see what the real problem with me is. So often we point to the guns, to the training at home or in school. We point to the attraction of certain things. We point to external factors which can be like a lure to a fish. We point to external factors which might influence behavior in positive or negative ways. We think it can be stopped or at least curbed if we adopt the right disciplines or the right rules. But the real problem with me is my sinful desires. No rule can get rid of those sinful desires. No discipline can kill those desires in me. I am a stranger in my own body. I want to do what is right. But my nature in me wants to do what is bad. Help me, O God, recognize that my real problem is my nature in me. And save me from it. Cleanse me of it. Kill it in me that I might stay away from all that nature desires. Amen.