We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

God is in control, and therefore in everything I can give thanks – not because of the situation but because of the One who directs and rules over it.
Kay Arthur

THIRD VOW

I renounce the flesh with all its sinful
devices.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-EXAMINATION.

Do I abhor all sins of impurity?

Do I avoid seeing or hearing anything which corrupts
the heart?

Do I strive to keep my body in temperance and chas-
tity?

Do I abhor unclean thoughts, and check them by prayer
when they arise?

Have I ever joined in immodest conversation?

Have I sung, or listened to, low and corrupting songs?

Do I avoid all corrupting books?

Do I call back my desires from all unholy and forbidden
pleasures?

Do I shun all low and evil company?

Do I keep in mind that my body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost?

Flee also youthful lusts. — 2 Tim. ii. 22.

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the
flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for
he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.

That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the
flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have
wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in las-
civiousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings,
and abominable idolatries:

Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with
them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. —
1 Pet. iv. 1—4.

From all impure lusts and desires; and
from all the deceits of the world, the flesh,
and the devil,

Good Lord deliver me.

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in
strife and envying.

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no pro-
vision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. — Rom. xiii.
13, 14.

Vouchsafe me, gracious God, the graces
of mortification and self-denial, that my
affections and flesh being subdued unto the
Spirit, and my heart and all my members
being mortified from carnal and worldly
lusts, I may ever obey Thy blessed will:
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of
God.

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of
his own lust, and enticed.

Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin;
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.— James
i. 13—15.

He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap cor-
ruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting. — Gal. vi. 8.

Therefore we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye
shall live. — Rom. viii. 12, 13.

From the power of temptation, Good Lord
deliver me. Absolve me from the guilt, de-
liver me from the power, cleanse me from
the pollution, save me from the punishment
of all sinful desires. Effectually wean me
from all low delights of sense, the end of which
is death; and endow me with all those beau-
tiful graces and pure affections which have
their fruit unto holiness, and the end ever-
lasting life.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lusts of the flesh.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the
other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies,

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you
in time past, that they which do such things shall not in-
herit the kingdom of God.

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with
the affections and lusts. — Gal. v. 16-21, 24.

O holy and blessed Jesus, who wast born
of a pure virgin, and delightest to dwell in
the hearts of the pure, behold with mercy
Thy frail and sinful servant, encompassed
with infirmities and exposed to the tempta-
tions of fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul. I cannot stand, Lord, in the day
of battle and danger unless Thou coverest
me with Thy shield, and hidest me under
Thy wings. O keep me so pure and spot-
less, so chaste and clean, that my body may
be a holy temple meet for the habitation of
Thy Spirit, and my soul a partaker of Thy
purity and love! Pardon all my past im-
purities, whether in thought, word, or deed;
and subdue in me the spirit of impurity and
corruption. Kindle the holy fire of Thy
love in my heart, and let it consume all the
dross with which it has been hitherto de-
filed; and grant that I may no more grieve
Thy blessed Spirit by any works of dark-
ness, but that after a pure and holy life
here, I may be presented unto God washed
and cleansed in Thy blood, and reign with
Thee for ever and ever. Amen, Holy Lamb
of God, Amen.

V.