I have always prayed for God to kill my sinful desires that rise up inside me. The unfortunate part about this type of prayer is my lack of will to fight. Jesus expresses in Matthew 5:29-30 if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out. Of course this is drastic, but it does serve a purpose, and is very meaningful.
To run with the Matthew 5 analogy, we will be tempted and will sin with our right eye; but we are to fight those temptations by tearing out our eye. Practically speaking, this means to eliminate those desires which cause you to sin.
Satan isn’t clever, smart, or creative. He simply knows the weaknesses of Man. We are so easily tempted, and even worse, we are so easily distracted into sin. I say distracted, since the Holy Spirit guides us. However, we are stubborn, mindless, and idiotic in our ways a part from Christ.
Sin will battle against our soul, and Peter tells us to keep away from such desires (1 Peter 2:11). We are easily lured by the enticing nature of our fleshly desires, and those desires lead to our death (James 1:14-15).
Mortifying our sins doesn’t mean to pray that God would kill them- even though that’s great and a proper step- but to actively assess your life and find the areas in which you are tempted and are more likely to give into temptation. Find ways to put to death these desires before they rise up against you.
If you are prone to watch pornography when you are alone at home then you should find ways to avoid being alone at home. If you find yourself being a glutton, get accountability from a (healthy) friend and ask them to assist your next shopping trip. If you drink excessively to the point of being considered a drunkard, be cautious, or not go around social situations where your friends who don’t know Christ might push you to have that next drink. Insert your sin here.
We are idol factories. The Holy Spirit will help us through our sins but others will take its place. We are prone to make things of creation our god, but that is what draws us back to Him. Everything in this world, in its purest form, reflects God’s glory. We are the ones that have tainted His Creation, but it’s His reflection in those things we taint which allure us to Him. As Christians we can see the purity in Creation (Thanks to the Holy Spirit), but unfortunately we also tend to enjoy the tainted version first.
Read your bibles, pray by yourself and with friends, and most importantly, be in community with the Church you attend. Love and get to know each other at a more intimate level. Trust one another, so when you’re still blind to a sin, they might come a long side you and graciously tell you to repent and forgive. We need this so badly, and it might be one of the most important part to mortifying our sins. “Judge others as you wish to be judge” is such a miss used verse. Don’t hold non-Christians to the standard of Christ. They are dead to their sin and God hasn’t begun a work in them yet. Pray, encourage, and show them Christ’s affection. As for us, Christians, one of the most loving ways we can serve each other is to hold each other to God’s commandments, even in hypocrisy. Correction, especially in hypocrisy. If there is hypocrisy than you need to talk to one another before it overcomes you both.
Have hope. We are God’s children. He has begun a work in us and has promised to see it through (Philippians 1:6). He is perfect, and to behold Him in heaven we must be too. That’s not to say we will be perfected in this life, but we will grow in likeness of Christ, and to God’s glory.