Since we have these promises, dear friends, we need to cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit and live a holy life in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1
Y ou’ve prayed to be holy, but you keep sinning. Why? It’s not a question of praying but of doing. Don’t just ask God to take away your desire to sin and then go on living as normal. Start doing something about it. If there is something that won’t seem to let up its choke hold on your life and is making you miserable, then the logical move is to give it up. Let go. Don’t just beg God to do it—you have to do something too. God gives you the ability to get it done, and he gives you the power of his Word and his protection, but he doesn’t do it for you.
God doesn’t want you to sin. But he does want you to be holy. So why would you need to convince him of your need for holiness when that’s been his goal from the beginning? The only one who’s not been willing until now is you. God doesn’t do this holiness stuff for you; he does it with you. The only one not performing here is you. God has just been waiting for you to agree with him that keeping your sin is harder than giving it up. Until that happens you’ll take the easy road and keep the sin alive. So get up and get busy. The sooner you take action, the sooner you’ll be free.