I have a lot of empathy with you. Imagine I walk down a street and see a pretty girl. Lots of emotions run through me.
But it then strikes me. I have seen this girl like I would look at a road, or a poster on a wall. My brain analyses the image and makes a few suggestions. Now I have a choice, do I encourage these suggestions, self indulge, fall into lust, fantasy, or just look at something else.
Now how you respond is how you spend your private time, what you watch, what you aspire to, what you encourage. It is part of your identity and biology and how you repress desire or know who you are. Depending on how you have become and how you regard sex and attraction dictates how you react. It takes preparation, understanding, sowing and reaping to become something else. It is what Jesus asks us to do, not to be instant responders but to be children of our Father.
What the sermon on the mount shows up is how much effort you have put into this walk and how aware you are of yourself.
You obviously gave up, and feel it is all a lost cause. I did not. I have had my trials, my failures, but I have changed and have understood how I am a victim as well as participant. Jesus does bring victory, but it needs lots and lots of things to walk this road, but it is what we are called to.
Hyper-grace is just a cop-out.
I gave up banging my head against the wall.
I came up with this BRILLIANT idea instead.
I asked the Lord Jesus Christ to help me.
I asked over and over and over. And He gave me rest. He showed me what my work accomplished. Then He showed me what His Work Accomplished.
That was when I started trusting Him in all things and stopped trusting in me. Well, mostly. I still fall into self-effort from time to time.
This is what its like. You are in a war. But you, alone, are against a whole kingdom of darkness. This kingdom is sneaky and powerful at the same time.
There is only One who can overcome this kingdom of darkness. And its not you. Its not legalists telling you to try harder. Its not Judaizers telling you how to be sinless.
You have to ask for the Help of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are saved by Grace through faith. Your whole walk is by Grace through faith. Whenever you depart from this simple formula you start to lose, again. Whenever you lose faith in the One who saved you and start to fight for yourself, you lose. Simple.
Hebrews 4:10-11
[SUP]
10 [/SUP]For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
[SUP]
11 [/SUP]Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Are you still trying so hard to perfect your own self?
Galatians 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
People read some other book about the bible and put way too much faith in what some other guy has said and believed.
People need to read the bible and put it into action. Then read all other books about the bible through the lens of the bible. They shouldn't read the bible through the lens of whatever book(s) they read about the bible.
This is the only explanation I can really see for someone reading the same bible as me and coming up with an idea that is 180 degrees opposed to Grace.
I don't know why the Holy Spirit would lead someone to read the Bible then not lead them to their Saviour, Jesus Christ. Makes no sense to me.