In my early faith walk, I knew in my head what was wrong, but my faith had not taken the 12-inch journey to my heart quite yet. I was struggling with perpetual sins and some of them mortal. It was a long road filled with many falls until I finally had the humility to ask God for His help.
Give Me A Clean Heart
A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit (Psalm 51:12).
If I am honest, I also struggled with not wanting to stop certain sins. There were so many aspects of my life I needed to change that I was overwhelmed. When I did fall, I was ashamed and self-hatred crept into my life. I was worse than when I was blindly sinning. I was pathetic and had no willpower.
When I finally called out to God in Adoration for His help, it was such freedom. A weight of burden was lifted off my soul and I knew God heard my cry. This was my first experience with humility. I began to realize that His grace was the only thing that would permanently heal my wounds and sinful ways. I needed God to clean my heart so that I would desire not to sin. I also prayed for the Holy Spirit gift of “Fear of the Lord” so that I wouldn’t look at my sin and going to hell but doing wrong and hurting Jesus.
Stop, Pause and Pray
can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
My life was filled with test after test in so many different forms. One day I was able to fight the urges and other days I would fall immediately into sin. Even though I knew in my head that Jesus was my strength in my weakness, I often failed to call on Him.
We can master our bodies, if we choose to stop, pause, and pray. I tried this at the times when I had the most overwhelming urges. I decided to pray to Jesus for His strength and sometimes called out to Mary for her help. I noticed that when I did not pause and pray, I was on autopilot and let my body control me instead.
But there were times when that didn’t work. “Why isn’t this working?”
Sometimes We Need Deliverance Prayers
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these… (John 14:12).
Then I found out about deliverance prayers and how, with the power of Jesus’ name, we can cast out evil spirits tempting us into mortal or venial sins. I used to pray to Jesus, but I did not use His name as a command for the evil to be delivered. What a gift and what we should be using all day, every day in the spiritual battle. I understand that we get busy, we forget, or we aren’t at a part in our journey where we pray incessantly every day. But let’s face it, we are in a daily battle and God gave us weapons to with the fight.
I am a Faith Coach and I know this is a struggle for many people. It is as simple as praying two prayers, which need to go hand in hand:
- “In the name of Jesus Christ, I bind the spirit of X and I command you to go to the foot of the Holy Cross for Jesus to pour His precious blood on you and to receive your sentence.”
- “Father, in Jesus’ name, please fill me with your Spirit, love, peace, joy, faith.”
It is important that after we cast out the evil, we ask God to fill us with His Spirit. It was amazing the first time I prayed this when I was faced with mortal sin. My body was almost vibrating. It wanted what it wanted, and it wanted it now. I could sense that it was more than the flesh. After I prayed the prayers, I could feel my body relax into a state of peace that was instantaneous and I burst into tears.
Whatever you are delivering – anger, fear, lust, addiction, gluttony, resentment – pray for God to fill you with the opposing virtue – love, peace, purity, temperance, forgiveness. Last part, we must say this prayer out loud. Evil cannot read our thoughts. You can say it under your breath in a whisper if needed.
I hope these three practical ways help you on your spiritual journey. Pay attention to how your mind, body, soul, and spirit feel during the temptation and after. Pray multiple times, if needed. When you feel the peace of God, you will come to depend on Him. Your humility will grow and His graces will flow. Pretty soon you will be praying incessantly all day. Always remember to thank Him when He helps you in those times of need.
If you would like help on your journey, please go to https://www.kendravonesh.com/faith-coaching. Have a blessed and peaceful Advent Season.
7 thoughts on “I Cannot Stop Sinning, So I Pray”
“I bind the spirit of X”.
Who is X?
Hi Mike,
The “X” represents the spirit you are trying to cast out. For example, lust, gluttony, obsession, harrassment, anger, greed, etc. There are so many spirits! You can see some in Fr. Ripperger’s book “Deliverance Prayers for the Laity” or search online and maybe carry a list with you so you have them “at the ready” when you need to deliver them. Hope that helps! Thanks, Peter K for your help in answering Mike and Bill! 😉
I always believed that evil can hear our thoughts. The devil/demons can not hear our thoughts? Can you substantiate that claim? Thank you!
Yes, I have learned that from Father Ripperger, a well known exorcist priest, he has many videos on Sensus Fidelium on YouTube and his own channel, plus he has a Deliverance Prayer for the Laity book, a must have. Evil has access to our memory and emotions….keep fighting the fight! God bless!
“I bind the spirit of X”.
Who is X?
Bill, Satan and his demons are very intelligent, but not omniscient. They cannot read our thoughts, unless we deliberately share our thoughts with them. Look at Satan’s tempting of Christ in the gospels. Why would he bother doing that, if he knew that Christ was God Himself in the flesh, and that it was therefore a hopeless task to try to get God to sin, a logical contradiction? Satan’s temptations to Christ are also an information gathering exercise.
Mike, I take it that we are meant to substitute “X” with the particular sin that we are being tempted to at the time.
Thank you for quoting Psalms 51:12. The word ‘steadfast’ jumped out at me and gave me a further confirmation for my prior comment. Psalms 55:22 seems similar.