You have spoken honestly, and that is good, but honesty alone is not yet the whole of prayer, for prayer in temptation is not merely naming the struggle, it is warring against it. When temptation presses, do not begin with yourself, begin with God. You are not dealing merely with a habit, but with the remnants of sin that still dwell within, as Paul the Apostle says, the flesh wars against the Spirit. Therefore your weakness is not surprising, but neither is it to be excused or made peace with. So when you pray, do not only say, “I am struggling,” say also, “I hate this, and I turn from it,” for repentance is not only sorrow, but opposition. Yet hear this carefully, the fact that you return again and again is not evidence that grace has failed, it is evidence that you have not yet learned how deeply you depend upon it. God often allows the struggle to remain so that you may be brought to the end of yourself, you think you need strength, in truth you need dependence, you think you must overcome by resolve, in truth you overcome by being held. As Paul the Apostle writes, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” and this is not a slogan but a reality you are being taught through repeated failure. So how do you pray, you pray with clarity, with hatred of sin, and with reliance upon God, “Lord, this sin is not my master, you are, I do not trust myself in this moment, I cast myself upon you, strengthen me now, turn my heart, do not let me be given over to this, rekindle the burning fire of my first love for my salvation, do not distance yourself from me, keep me according to your tender mercy and loving and long suffering grace, let not your death be in vain.” And if you fall, do not linger in self-pity or delay, return immediately, not as one trying to rebuild worth, but as one who never had any apart from Christ. For the danger is not that you struggle, the danger is that you begin to accept the struggle as normal, or worse, necessary. No, you are called to fight, but you do not fight as one alone. The Spirit himself is at work within you, not only to forgive, but to wage war against the sin you feel, and the very grief you feel is evidence that you are not abandoned to it. So do not measure God’s faithfulness by how quickly the temptation leaves, measure it by this, are you being driven to depend more on him, are you being stripped of confidence in yourself, are you returning more quickly when you fall, then grace is at work. So pray, not to prove anything, but to cling and cling, not because you are strong, but because he is. For he who has and still is sanctifying me, has also purchased you from death, for you are his and always will be.