In his sermon 'The War Within,' Peter Allison explores the spiritual battle believers face, emphasizing personal responsibility in combating sin. Using Acts 19, the sermon recounts the failed attempt of the seven sons of Sceva to invoke power over demons, highlighting that true power comes only from Christ. Allison explains that the 'war within' involves battling the world, the flesh, and Satan. He stresses that the devil cannot compel us to sin; rather, he appeals to our inner desires. The sermon underscores the importance of the fear of the Lord as foundational for wisdom and knowledge, and emphasizes that victory in this internal war requires confession, sacrifice, and reliance on God's Word and the Holy Spirit. Confession is seen as a tool to cultivate humility, while removing temptations and seeking accountability are necessary steps in overcoming sin. Ultimately, believers are encouraged to rely on God's promises and the power of the Holy Spirit to achieve victory in this spiritual battle.

Our scripture reading is Acts 19. We're going to pick up at verse 17, which is somewhat in the middle of this account of the seven sons of Sceva. I should say It follows the account of the seven sons of Sceva. They have tried to invoke a name Over something thinking that there was some power in it and found that they were overpowered and wounded. So they fled out naked of this house, naked.

And we pick up in verse 17, here God's word, This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50, 000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

May each of us say with David, I will delight Yourself in my commandments which I love. Heavenly Father, we ask that the truth of Your Word may be impressed upon us. We ask that we might fear you, and that your name might be magnified, and that your word might grow mightily in us. And I ask that you would cleanse my lips, that from a vessel of clay, that from a sinner, the riches of Your grace may be brought to us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

I was interviewing a potential elementary school teacher a number of years ago, that is, who in recounting some of the anecdotes from her life and her childhood adventures Made frequent use of this phrase the devil made me do it It's ducks in my mind because it wasn't a phrase I was used to hearing but although it is a common phrase in some circles, it's not a phrase that's in the Bible. We can never excuse our actions or escape responsibility for them because the devil made us do something. The devil can't make us do anything. See, our sins, like all of our actions, are our responsibility. The evil one can only place lures, incentives, or enticements in our path.

Either putting thoughts in our mind, or obstacles in our path. And if we are enticed by those enticements, it's only because we coveted them, we desired them, we lusted after them. And those desires, James says, once conceived are what gives birth to sin. See, the devil can only make his appeal to the enemy within us. That's our own flesh.

He can put a thought in our minds, but we're the ones who allow that thought to remain there. We're the ones who consider it. We're the ones who may begin to desire what it offers. You know, he may move other people to put stumbling blocks in our path, but he can't make us desire what we don't want to do. He's not sovereign.

He's not all-powerful. He's not omniscient. He doesn't know, can't read our minds. He doesn't know the future. And He can't compel us to do what He wants us to do.

So in the first message from This chapter, if you remember several weeks back, was an overview of the war for Ephesus from the perspective of the church. What did the church do and what effect did what the church did have on the culture there, on their society, on their economy. But of course we know that the church is comprised of individuals, of living stones, of you and I, of people. And people whom the scriptures tell us are at war with the world, our flesh, and Satan. And interestingly, each of these three aspects, each of these three enemies that we battle are covered in this chapter.

You know, last week we looked at some aspects of the demonic warfare as it played out when these seven sons of Skeba tried to cast out demons by making this reference to some names that they thought were powerful. And they learned there is no power against the demonic in certain sounds arranged in certain sequences, as they thought. The power is in Christ alone. He's the strong man who has bound the devil. There's no power in a few sounds and how they're arranged.

And next week, Lord willing, we will consider the battle against the world, which is played out in the second half of this chapter. But this week, we want to look at that third foe, the war, the enemy within, and the battle that we fight against our own flesh. You see, this is just as much a part of the war for Ephesus as the demonic battle. The battle with demons, which Paul talks about in his letter to the Ephesians, which we also see played out in this chapter. It's just as important, if not more important, because Satan, as we said, can only operate through our flesh.

He appeals to our flesh to induce us to yield to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Our pride. Speaking of this war within, John Calvin said, this is the principle war in which God would have his people to be engaged. He would have them strive to suppress every rebellious thought and feeling which would turn them aside from the path to which he points. And the consolations are so ample that it may well be said, we are more than cowards if we give way.

He says, let us feel assured that we offer him a pleasing sacrifice when we resist and do violence to our inclinations for the purpose of placing ourselves entirely under his command. But we need to understand this war within in its greater context. I think it's important for us in order to keep the big picture about this battle, the war within. It is the principle war, as Calvin says, in the sense that it is foundational. We can't defeat the world or the evil one without first winning the war against our own flesh.

You see, but it's not the ultimate war. I think it's very important that we remember that and keep that in perspective. In waging the war within, we don't want to lose sight of this big picture because it's a great encouragement and help to us in the war within when we understand the context in which that war is being fought. Satan, you see, is not primarily at war with us. He's at war with Christ.

It's Christ's reign that he's trying to topple. He's only after us because we are in Christ and we belong to Him. In that sense, He's like a vandal. They destroy property not because they particularly hate the property they are destroying, but because they hate the person to whom that property belongs, and they're trying to get some sort of revenge for that person, for whatever reason. They're trying to hurt that person to whom the property belongs.

They don't want the property. If they did, they would just take the property. They're trying to hurt the person the property belongs to. And see, Satan is only interested in us to the extent that we are advancing Christ's Kingdom and living for His glory. If we're not doing those things, if we're not effective in those things, then He's not that interested in us.

In fact, I think this is one of the foundation stones to winning this war within, is to realize it's not primarily about us. Remember, Satan's goal in attacking Job was not because primarily Satan despised Job and he wanted to see Job suffer. His goal, you remember, was to get Job to deny Christ. He thought that Job served the Lord and the Lord protected him. He put this hedge around him, and Satan couldn't harm him, and he thought that Job served the Lord because of that.

And in his first visit, Satan said to God in the first chapter of Job, but now stretch out your hand and touch all that He has, and He will surely curse you to your face." That was His goal. And God allowed Him to do that, but of course, Job did not curse God. He blessed God. He said, the Lord gave and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord after He had lost everything that He owned, including His own family, His children. And so when Satan saw that taking his wealth away didn't work, then Satan thought that if God touched His bone and flesh and took His health, then Job would curse God to His face.

And that's what he told God. The Scriptures don't say, but Satan probably also moved Job's wife to advise Job to curse God. Remember, that's the same words she uses, are the same words that Satan used. But Job didn't. When he was in great misery and stricken from head to toe, he didn't curse God, even when Satan moved his wife to induce him to do that.

See, Revelation 12 gives us an overview of what's going on. In Revelation 12, 7, war breaks out in heaven between Michael and his angels, and they fight with the dragon and his angels. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found in them in heaven anymore. So the dragon is cast out, who is to be that serpent of old, called the devil and saint, who deceives the whole world. He's cast to earth and his angels are cast out with him.

And so when the dragon sees that he's been cast out of heaven to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given a means of escape and she was nourished in the wilderness for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. And here we read this, And the dragon was enraged with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandment of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The dragon is enraged at the woman who gave birth to the male child, the one who had crushed his head. That's why he's enraged.

And he's making war with the woman and her offspring. When He tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, it was an attempt to destroy in Mar what God had created. You see, Satan is making war against us because of his hatred of God. And one of the ways that He makes war against us is by appealing to the sinful desires of our flesh. We battle Satan, the world, and our flesh.

Satan and the world are outside of us, but they aren't the cause of sin. Christ battled Satan, and Christ battled the world. He lived in this world all without sin. See, it's our flesh within us. And by that we refer to our sinful nature, the sin that still clings to us even as believers.

It is the flesh within us that's the occasion of our sin. It's not the things that are outside of us. Even our flesh doesn't even need inducements from the world or from Satan to lead us into sin. It's capable all by itself. And this little passage here that we've read gives us the essential keys to winning this war within.

And the foundation to winning the war within is given in verse 17. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was magnified. Fear. God did a work The fear. God did a work in that His power was demonstrated over Satan and his demons.

When Paul cast out demons by the power of Jesus Christ, these sons of Sceva tried without that power of Christ and utterly failed. It was a very dramatic victory, kind of like a Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal experience. And these people saw that and they feared the Lord. And the name of God was magnified. Now what is this fear of God?

Proverbs 1, 7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In Psalm 11 says that it is the beginning of knowledge, And Psalm 11 says it's the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. That means without the fear of the Lord we can't have true knowledge or wisdom. What we think we know and what we think is wise has no foundation without the fear of God.

There's no frame of reference. What happens if what we think we know, what we think is wisdom, has no foundation, no anchor, no frame of reference. Well, we can just look at a few examples. Take a few things at random in a financial sense. That means that people might have a lot of know-how about how to invest, where to invest, when to invest, how much to invest, and so forth.

And they can make a lot of money in that maybe. But without the fear of the Lord, they will have no wisdom, no knowledge of how to use that wealth that they've acquired. And they will be just like the rich fool in Luke 12 who was very successful in his business. And he had a great harvest. And he said, well, then I'll just pull down my barns and build greater and I will store all my crops and I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for years, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry." And God says, Fool, you fool, this night your soul will be required of you.

This is somebody who lacked the fear of God and so had no wisdom about his money. Or in education, if the knowledge and wisdom that is acquired has no foundation, no starting place, then the more Learning will simply produce more highly educated criminals, people who are more crafty and skillful in all the ways of unrighteousness. They will be more clever thieves and murderers, more sophisticated liars and embezzlers that are harder to detect. Education without the fear of the Lord just leads to apostasy. Proverbs tells us that the Lord gives wisdom.

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Or take medicine. In medicine, without the fear of the Lord, knowledge, so-called knowledge, has no foundation. No advanced learning, instead of giving life, will just lead to more effective ways of taking life, of killing people. This is what we're seeing in a number of places in the abortion industry with the medications that enable mothers to murder their own unborn babies in the privacy of their own home.

That's something that's new. It's come by an advancement of knowledge, so-called, but it's a prime example of knowledge without the fear of the Lord. We spend more money, mortars of magnitude more money than any other nation in the world on our medicine. And yet we are the sickest people on the face of the earth. That's because we have tried to acquire knowledge in medicine without the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death. And all the medical knowledge, all the research, the billions, maybe it's even trillions of dollars that's spent on medicine and research and study has done nothing to promote life. That's knowledge that has no foundation. Knowledge in sexual matters without the fear of the Lord simply leads to all manner of sexual immorality. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

See, sin is the transgression of the law. To transgress the law is to violate it. And when we violate the law, we're saying in essence that we know better than the author of the law. That we don't care about what the author of that law thinks, or that we don't think the author of that law will ever enforce it on us. So if a policeman pulls on his lights behind my car, he's directing me to pull over and stop the car.

If I continue to run, I would be saying, I know better than you do about what needs to be done. I'm going to do what I want to do, not what you want to do. Or we're saying, I have other plans for today and they're more important than your plans. Or I'd be saying, I don't think you can make me pull over. See, any of those ideas is rebellion.

See, rebelling against God's law is the opposite of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is to put great weight on His words, so that we tremble at His warnings, so that we believe His promises, so that we obey His commands. And if instead we don't think that God would really punish us with death for our sins, with being eternally, we don't think He would ever eternally cut us off from fellowship with Him or any sign of His grace, then we're not putting very much weight on His words, because that's what He tells us about our sin. So sinning is the very opposite of the fear of the Lord. That's why the fear of the Lord leads to a very carefulness not to sin, not to do unrighteousness.

The other part of this foundation here is that we live to magnify the name of the Lord and not ourselves. And whatever we do, We want to glorify the Lord, even in those mundane things like eating and drinking. Things that we think are neutral, right? Or that are related to the secular world. They're not part of our spiritual life.

Paul says, No, no, no. When we eat and drink, our desire is to magnify the name of the Lord. That's our goal. To magnify the name of the Lord is to give Him the glory, the credit for everything. It's causing Him to increase and ourselves to decrease.

And I just think about that all the times that we say something or we do something. And maybe there is a part of that motivation there that we want to increase our glory. We want our name to be known. This is really a moment by moment awareness that all that we are, He's made us. All that we are, He has made us.

All that we know, He has taught us. All that we do, He's enabled us to do. So who do we credit with our work, with our successes? Who do we credit with the fruit of our lives? The Ephesians here in this case were magnifying the name of the Lord.

They were giving him the glory and the credit. You see this is the exact opposite of pride. Pride is to exalt ourselves. Pride is wanting recognition for what we have done. Pride is thinking that we don't need God and are sufficient in ourselves.

Now while we would never say these things, at least we would never admit saying them, we demonstrate them by how we live. If we live a prayerless life, or if we live without reading, meditation, and memory of God's Word, we're essentially saying that in our actions, that we don't need God. We're sufficient. And so magnifying the name of Christ means we are crucifying our pride. The things that crucify our pride are the things that enable us to magnify Christ.

And one of the key ways that we crucify pride is by confession of our sins. Verse 18 says, And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Confession begins with telling our deeds. Sometimes they're already known, sometimes they're not. But confession takes Personal responsibility for our words, our actions, or our thoughts even, without excusing them, or without shifting the blame to someone else or to something else, like the devil.

Confession, you see, acknowledges that our deeds are wrong and that we are guilty. You see, confession is hard, isn't it? Because it requires us to crucify our pride and humble ourselves in the sight of others. And if you have difficulty doing that, and I know I do, then you know that you're battling pride. It's a temptation in our confessions even to short circuit these steps.

We sometimes will tell what we have done, but we point to someone else as the real culprit instead of a run flesh. Thinking that if we can pass off responsibility, we can somehow escape the guilt or at least reduce the guilt by sharing it with others. Or we might acknowledge our actions but try to hang on to our pride by listing all the extenuating circumstances that justify it, and thereby we can minimize, or we can rationalize away any guilt for them. See, we don't want to admit these things about us because they make us look bad. But you see, we really need to see confession as a good and a vital tool in winning the war within.

We need to see confession as a good and a vital tool, an essential tool to winning the war within. When we are willing to humble ourselves In confession, that means we care less about what other people think of us, and we care more about magnifying the name of God, the name of Christ. And that, brothers and sisters, means that the grace of Christ is operating in us. When we've been convicted of our sin, we should see that as God's grace in us. Because we can't grieve sins that our heart is not convicted of, and we won't confess the things that we don't grieve.

And we can't turn away from the things that we won't confess or have not confessed. And see, winning this war within is all about turning away from our sin and turning to Christ. We die more and more to sin, and live more and more for the Lord. More and more to magnify His name, and less and less ours. You see, we can't turn away from what we hide or from what we won't acknowledge.

In order to turn away from something, we first have to acknowledge it. And secondly, we won't turn away from something that we love. When our sins look alluring and good and pleasing to our eyes, we can't turn away from it. Notice how Genesis 3.16 describes Eve's sin. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise, that's when she took the fruit and ate.

We turn away from what we hate and grieve. And so turning away from sin requires grieving of it. We can turn away from it because we are embarrassed about its effects. But that's really falling short of what we need to do to win the war within. We need to turn away from it because we hate it and grieve it for what it is in itself and affront against our Savior, a grief to Him.

Turning away from sin in this sense, requires a heart that is truly grieved over it, that laments it, that hates it. And a heart that's grieved over it is a heart that freely and openly confesses it. And that's why James exhorts us to confess our trespasses to one another and pray for one another so that we can be healed. Confession brings humility and God gives grace to the humble. And so if there's a sin that you're struggling with, ask yourself, have you humbled yourself by confessing it?

If not, see that becomes a mark of pride and God opposes the proud. He resists the proud. And without God's grace, we're powerless to defeat sin. We can't do it in the arm of flesh. It's really an extreme folly to think that with the arm of flesh we can ever defeat our flesh.

We need the grace of God. We need His power, His armor, and so forth. Now the second key here to winning the war within is removing the inducements and temptations to sin. In verse 19, many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them. That's the kind of radical action that's necessary to win the war within.

You See, in the flesh we will come back again and again to our sin, just like that dog returns to its vomit, the Bible says. Jesus said, if some part of us, our body causes us to stumble, we should remove it, cut it off. These Ephesians had trusted in their incantations and magic arts, and in order to prevent ever returning to them, they burned them down. That shows a commitment that were real about what we say. Alexander the Great, I think, conquered the world in, I think, about ten years.

And when he got over near the end of that campaign into the Orient, over by India, Persia, the soldiers were so weighed down with the loot of all their victories that they'd won so far, that Alexander the Great noticed his men weren't fighting very hard. Why? Because they had so much already. What motivation was there to go out and get more? So you know what he did.

He had them destroy everything. All of the stuff they captured saying, look, there's far more than what you have. Now there's far more to be captured here in Persia. And indeed, it enabled them to fight with much more intensity and prevail over the Medes and the Persians. But that's what's happening here.

He took away the inducement not to fight. We need to take away the inducements that would be to our sins and things that would be tempting to us. We need to put up barriers and hedges around those areas where we are prone to stumbling. Just like We put guard wheels on the roads where we're prone to run off the road. We need to burn the bridges to those sins, and all the things that would connect us to those sins.

That's what they did. They burned all their books. But notice also that they did it in the sight of all. They did it in the sight of all. They sought the help of others.

Doing this in the presence of all, they didn't just do it in their homes, privately. Doing it in the sight of others brings a measure of accountability. They sought the help of others in this. They sought reinforcement. So It's a mark of pride again if we're unwilling to seek or to accept help from others in our battle within.

Because this battle is not ours, it's the Lord's. Now Suppose you were fighting in a war, like the Civil War, and the general has said that your mission is a critical part of the success of this battle plan. And you have your resources, you have your men, you have your weapons, and you have an assignment to do. And you're part of one piece in this battle. Now what would it be like if you find as you get into the battle, you're being overwhelmed.

You're being outgunned. You're meeting more resistance than you can handle. And the line is in danger of being broken there. What would you do? Would you just be quiet?

Would you say, well, I've got to work harder? No, you would send a messenger to the general and say we need help. We need reinforcements. The line is about to break. Well, we're fighting for Christ and His army.

And there are reinforcements to help us when the line is about to break. And if we are good soldiers of Jesus Christ, then we're going to use those reinforcements to help that He provides. We're going to seek it, we're going to receive it. Ephesians 4 says that God gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, pastors, and so on for the equipping of saints for the work of ministry. And he goes on to talk about till we all come to the unity of faith, to a perfect man, to a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." He's given us help.

But it's not just pastors and teachers. The saints themselves are to be equipped for the work of ministry. You see, your battle is the business of the whole church. When one member of the body is sick, the whole body hurts. And so we're called to bear one another's burdens in this way.

We're called to help each other. And when we don't, We would be like the reinforcements that are unwilling to come to help the point of the line that's being attacked at that point. Hebrews 3.13 says, "'But exhort one another daily, while it is called the day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Exhort one another. That's a ministry we are to have to others. In Hebrews 10, 24, we are exhorted to consider one another in order to stir up love and Good works.

Consider one another to stir up love and good works. We're to help people. We're to bear one another's burdens. And so fulfill the law. And He says, we're to be exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

And you notice what's in between those two parts? Consider one another to stir up love and good works, exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. What's in between there? Hebrews 10.25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

That's where it's stuck. That's the context of that. This assembly on the Lord's Day is a vital part of this ministry of exhorting one another, of encouraging one another, of bearing one another's burdens. And that's one of the reasons we're exhorted not to forsake this assembly. You see, we have to be in fellowship with God's people.

We need those reinforcements. We need accountability. Galatians 6 even calls us to go to our brothers on our own. In other words, we're not just those who are to sit back and wait for somebody to come ask us for help. We're to be those who go and help others when we see that they're in trouble, even if they haven't asked.

So this is what we see here in these Ephesians. They were doing this in the sight of all. The next thing we see is that they're willing to accept loss. They counted up the value of everything they burned and it totaled 50, 000 pieces of silver. There's all lots of different ways to come up with how much that is worth today.

You can do it by the weight of the silver and value today. You can do it by counting up time and saying, okay, a piece of silver was, a drachma, was worth one day's wages. That's usually the best way to do it, But we have to remember that we're very, very wealthy people today. And a day's wages, a regular day's wages, are some kind of average wages far, far above what an average worker would have made. It supports a much higher standard of living than what they were doing.

But it's a lot of money any way you look at it. It's a lot of money. And so winning the war within means willing to sacrifice. There may be a financial cost. There may be a good pleasure that we have to forgo.

Comforts that we have to give up. Things that we have to burn. See, they didn't sell these materials that were the occasion of their sin, because they were willing to sacrifice all that money so that these materials would not only not induce others to sin, but so that they could never return to them themselves. If they had just given them away, they could go back to that person they gave it to and say, hey, you know that thing I gave you, I'd like to see that, I need to check something. By burning it, it burned that bridge.

And that required a sacrifice. And so they're willing to sacrifice. They're willing to sacrifice even what might be their right. It might be foods that we need to sacrifice. Whatever it is, part of winning the war within is a willingness to sacrifice.

Because as Jesus says, it doesn't matter if we gain the whole world and lose our own soul, there's no profit in that. And lastly, the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed. They fought this battle with the sword of the Spirit. The Word of God grew mightily. They came under the influence of the Scriptures.

When we come under the influence of the Scriptures, and we use that sword of the Spirit, we start prevailing. We Use the Word of God to counter the lies and the inducements that are put in front of us. It is then that we prevail in the war within. When we fear the Lord, I said that was foundational. When we fear the Lord, we put great weight on His words.

And when we put great weight on His words by the power of the Holy Spirit whom we have been given working through His Word, we can mortify our flesh. We can resist the devil. And we can not love the world. This is a war, this war within, is a war to the death. There's no middle ground.

You're either winning this war or you're losing this war. You will either mortify your flesh, or the flesh will mortify you. But our great hope is that the Word of God for the believer, the Scripture, gives us great assurance, strong assurance, of our victory through Christ. Moreover, whom he predestined these he also called, whom he called these he also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified." There is no break in that chain. What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? All things that we need for the winning of this war within. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Satan is the accuser, but it's God who justifies.

Who is He who condemns? It's Christ who died and furthermore is risen. Who is even at the right hand of God who makes intercession for us? We have that promise, that Christ is interceding for us. Just like He interceded for Peter when Satan desired to sift him.

He intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or pearl or sword. For your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the sure and certain promise of His Word that gives us the hope of this victory.

But we need to use the tools that He's given us for it. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank You that our perseverance is not based on our ability to hold on to You, but on your power, your sovereign power to hold onto us such that nothing can take us from the palm of your hand. We ask that you would strengthen us in this knowledge and with these promises in our war within. And Father, I ask and confess the sin of impatience.

Impatience that comes out in tone of voice, impatience with those who I love the most. I would ask your forgiveness and for your strength to overcome this by the power of your blood. In Jesus' name, Amen.