Prayer When You Wake & Against What Tempts You

"When you wake, or as soon as you are dressed, offer up your whole self to God, soul and body, thoughts and purposes and desires, to be for that day what He wills. Think of the occasions of the sin likely to befall you, and go, as a child, to your Father which is in heaven, and tell Him in childlike, simple words, your trials—in some such simple words as these—'Thou knowest, good Lord, that I am tempted to—[then name the temptations to it, and the ways in which you sin, as well as you know them]. But, good Lord, for love of Thee, I would this day keep wholly from all [naming the sin] and be very [naming the opposite grace]. I will not, by Thy grace, do one [N.] act, or speak one [N.] word, or give one [N.] look, or harbor one [N.] thought in my soul. If Thou allow any of these temptations to come upon me this day, I desire to think, speak, and do only what Thous willest. Lord, without Thee I can do nothing; with Thee I can do all.' " -E. B. Pusey (1800s)

Martin Luther said regarding temptation that you cannot stop a bird from flying over your head (the temptation), but you can stop him building a nest there (yielding to the temptation)! The temptation is not the sin! (or Christ would have sinned! For three days he was tempted in the wilderness.)

To yield to the temptation is the sin! As someone has said, temptation is like walking by a conversation of bad men talking; just keep on walking and ignore them! (I'm talking to myself here too, that's one of the reasons that I write.)

Walk by Faith,