I am thinking about the apostles and the choices they made in their later years following after Christ, it seems to me that the ultimate sacrifice to follow Him is our lives, and yet we have so much difficulty sacrificing our will! let alone our lives! i agree with the comment about being prepared to fight, and that the fight makes us stronger, we are by nature weak and Jesus knew this, but yet He showed us the way to fight and to overcome. yet we in our sinful nature 'choose' to give in to sin and selfish need.

He does however, tell us that there is a way of overcoming temptation, and a way to gain eternal life, through Christ and through the salvation He bought for us. maybe if i kept my eyes on the goal and focused on what Jesus did for me, i would see the way to overcome the temptation and lure of sin.

I thank God for His promise that nothing can seperate us from His love, and that my sin is forgiven through the cross of Jesus. if anything is worth having then it is worth fighting for, why should our eternal soul be any different?

Yes and there's Paul's "Thorn in the side" which somewhat depresses me since I really thought I had got through it all,  But I'm still left with this need for T.L.C., so I'm having a strong chat with Jesus about this but it looks as if, so far, that this is the "cross" that I've go to "pick up!".    Painful, aint it?  Brian