Please Pray For Me

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scameter18

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I hope this isn’t selfish. I am just having a very hard time with two particular issues, one much more than the other, and I would love to have those here pray for me.

For one, I have a problem with masturbation. Before I began RCIA, I masturbated once a day and looked at pornography while I did it. Now, it is such a hard thing to stop doing. It is enjoyable and my body constantly tempts me to do it, but I know it is wrong and I want so badly to be pure. I recently went over a month without doing it, but in the past three days I’ve done it twice and I feel like I’m crashing, like I can’t resist it anymore. Please, I need the prayers of the people here, especially since I can’t receive grace from the Sacraments yet.

My second, far less important issue, is that I am trying to discern what I am good at, what sort of career or vocation to have in my life. It is very hard to know myself, oddly enough, so if the people here could also pray for me in that discernment process, I would appreciate that too. Thank you everyone so much.
 
I’m sorry I can’t offer you any advice, but I will definitely keep you in my prayers regarding both issues.
 
scameter18 said:
I hope this isn’t selfish.
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Asking for prayer is never selfish! 🙂
scameter18 said:
For one, I have a problem with masturbation. Before I began RCIA, I masturbated once a day and looked at pornography while I did it. Now, it is such a hard thing to stop doing. It is enjoyable and my body constantly tempts me to do it, but I know it is wrong and I want so badly to be pure. I recently went over a month without doing it, but in the past three days I’ve done it twice and I feel like I’m crashing, like I can’t resist it anymore. Please, I need the prayers of the people here, especially since I can’t receive grace from the Sacraments yet.
I too went through the RCIA process just 2 short years ago. It is almost like a spiritual boot camp. I will say in my experience it was as if Satan was trying doubly hard to pull me away from the church by dusting off old temptations, and even using situations with friends, schools, and room mates to assault me. I observed lent before my initiation on easter, and it was probably one of the more difficult times in my life. But I also know that there seems to be a special strength God grants during this time. Rely on him, and he will see you though!!
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I will pray for you. But, I also have a question… how do we pray for others? When I pray for others I usually speak to God, but I am not sure if we should be praying a specific prayer or saying Our Father and Hail Mary after???
 
Thanks everyone, especially Whitacre Girl. This is quite a struggle, but I know what is true, and I know that God can get me through everything. And, knowing that there are other people out there who care about me enough to pray for me also gives me such support. Thanks again. 🙂
 
Once you are fully welcomed into the Catholic Church make the confessional one of you favorite places to be. The grace you get from the forgiveness of Christ in the confessional is extraordinary! You need that grace to overcome this. I am going to tell you that putting up passwords and that kind of stuff will not work. The temptation will find you and you will easily be able to overcome any road block you had previously put up. I have even turned over pictures of Jesus and taken off religious jewelry to have my “fix”. How sick/wrong/dispicable is that? Anyways, you must stay constantly focused on Christ and his mother. Don’t let your guard down for an instant. Don’t, by all means, put yourself in the near occassion of sin. Pray the rosary often. FAST! If you can deny yourself food you can deny yourself anything. You will find that the desire to eat when you are fasting is almost identical with the desire you get to masterbate when you are trying to be pure. I foundd fasting once a week for a whole day on bread and water works great. The bible says some things can’t be overcome except with prayer and fasting. GOOD LUCK! You can do all things in Christ!
 
scameter18 said:
I hope this isn’t selfish. I am just having a very hard time with two particular issues, one much more than the other, and I would love to have those here pray for me.

For one, I have a problem with masturbation. Before I began RCIA, I masturbated once a day and looked at pornography while I did it. Now, it is such a hard thing to stop doing. It is enjoyable and my body constantly tempts me to do it, but I know it is wrong and I want so badly to be pure. I recently went over a month without doing it, but in the past three days I’ve done it twice and I feel like I’m crashing, like I can’t resist it anymore. Please, I need the prayers of the people here, especially since I can’t receive grace from the Sacraments yet.

My second, far less important issue, is that I am trying to discern what I am good at, what sort of career or vocation to have in my life. It is very hard to know myself, oddly enough, so if the people here could also pray for me in that discernment process, I would appreciate that too. Thank you everyone so much.
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Mankind had a sinful nature. This behavior is perfectly natural for man. However when we are truly born again, we are given a “new life” or a “second” nature and we allow Christ to live his life through us. Although our sinful nature remains we now have help in fighting the sinful nature. There is no way in the world any of us to stop sinning on our own power.

According to the books of Psalms and Hebrews, Christ is our purification for sins and he has already provided it and has made us perfectly pure forever by shedding his blood on the cross.

"…After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1:3

“…because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Hebrews 10:14

“…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

From Isaiah 1:18 we read:

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;”

Our sins, past, present and future are already forgiven. Christ has already paid our sin debt on the cross. He paid this terrible price because he love us so very deeply. Therefore we are free to obey him out of love for what he has done for us rather than fear of condemnation. From Romans we read:

“…Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1

Talk to Jesus about this. Let him be your guide. Do your best to keep away from things that make you weak. Take little steps. If you are doing this daily, resolve in your heart to start skipping days… then skip two days… three days and so on. This is something millions of christian men struggle with. These little victories will eventually lead to winning the war.

One way to discover your talents is to think about the things you enjoy doing. Speak to others who might be making a living at it. Ask them what they like about their jobs and what they don’t like. It might even be a good idea to talk with all sorts of different professionals, non professionals, technicians, and get a wide variety of (name removed by moderator)ut. Don’t talk to bitter people who hate their jobs. You won’t get an accurate feel or a fair representation of the profession.

Be at peace my friend.
🙂
 
dg5887 said:
Once you are fully welcomed into the Catholic Church make the confessional one of you favorite places to be. The grace you get from the forgiveness of Christ in the confessional is extraordinary! You need that grace to overcome this. I am going to tell you that putting up passwords and that kind of stuff will not work. The temptation will find you and you will easily be able to overcome any road block you had previously put up. I have even turned over pictures of Jesus and taken off religious jewelry to have my “fix”. How sick/wrong/dispicable is that? Anyways, you must stay constantly focused on Christ and his mother. Don’t let your guard down for an instant. Don’t, by all means, put yourself in the near occassion of sin. Pray the rosary often. FAST! If you can deny yourself food you can deny yourself anything. You will find that the desire to eat when you are fasting is almost identical with the desire you get to masterbate when you are trying to be pure. I foundd fasting once a week for a whole day on bread and water works great. The bible says some things can’t be overcome except with prayer and fasting. GOOD LUCK! You can do all things in Christ!
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I feel like I need to clarify here.

What I stated was little tricks to catch you in the moment to make you stop and think. No, it is not 100% foolproof, and yes, if the desire is strong enough they won’t stop you. But it’s a deterrent that can help catch you. I didn’t mean in any way that he shouldn’t rely on the graces in the sacraments once fully admitted, only that making things harder to get to can help deter the action. The idea of deterrents should be used with all the other weapons in your spiritual aresenal: Prayer, fasting, devotion, scripture reading, sacramental confession, and I even found another vital resource. A personal confessor. If I mess up, I tell my husband. Especially since he is the one I hurt the most, and he and I will pray together. This is VERY powerful. He aso comes to me with his temptations, and when he fails. I have found this has even strengthened our marriage since we allow ourselves to be prayer warriors for each other, and help one another in our weaknesses and temptations. It also opens up lines of communication. 👍
 
Hail Mary,
full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
 
Lord, I pray that this soul does not go one minute longer alone in his difficulty. May he meet with a good, holy priest who can counsel him on how to break free from his addiction. Addictions, we know, are hard to break. May this person just keep fighting strongly against the temptation to sin and pick up a good Catholic book or do something holy when he is tempted to sin. May this soul please get to daily Mass, if that is a possibility, even if he can’t yet receive Jesus in the Eucharist. May he spend his free time reading good Catholic books, in prayer, and at eucharistic adoration at a nearby church. May he fill his time with charitable works and anything good, so his heart and mind stay focused on you and loving you and neighbor. Help this person, Lord, please. I know things will be easier for him once he is able to draw strength from the sacraments, but through prayer and a good Chrsitian life, in the meantime, this soul could still try and break free of his addiction. Help him, Lord. He really wants to be pure. Help him become a beautiful chaste and holy saint. Amen.
 
Is all I can say is thanks again for everyone prayers and advice. It is impossible to state how valuable they are to me, to be in the communion of God’s love with one another, sharing that love together. I love God, and I love all of you as well. Thank you again for your prayers. :crossrc::heaven:🙂
 
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HNA444 said:
I will pray for you. But, I also have a question… how do we pray for others? When I pray for others I usually speak to God, but I am not sure if we should be praying a specific prayer or saying Our Father and Hail Mary after???
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**

You can use a set prayer if you wish, but you are free to speak to God from your heart.
When Mary asked Jesus to help the hosts at the wedding feast of Cana, she spoke to him in natural words of the need she saw, knowing that the hosts would be embaressed before all the invited guests, when they ran out of wine…which in the culture would injure their reputation. Jesus responded to her concern and intercession. I know some of us pray the Lord’s prayer /the Hail Mary, along with or without an accompanying prayer of our own…other times we just say the prayer that comes out of our caring response to the person’s need (or our own). Feel free to speak to our Father in heaven as your heart tells you.

Dear scameter18, I thank God for the graces of your response to the call to the Church, and for your goodwill in wanting to live as God wishes you to. 🙂

In Jesus’ name, I ask You, Father, to give scameter18 **the necessary grace **to overcome sinful behaviours, and with it also to help scameter18 **consciously work **to break the patterns and the habits of this failing.

Father please help scameter18 as he grows in the RCIA journey, to become aware, in the right time, of all your desires for his life, including career or vocation.

Isaiah says, “I was thinking: ‘I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing.’ And all the while my cause was with God, my reward with my God.” [Isaiah 49:3-4] For “the Lord is not being slow to carry out His promises…but He is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.” [2Peter 3:9]
 
That the Lord will flood you with grace.

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen
 
Trishie said:
**

You can use a set prayer if you wish, but you are free to speak to God from your heart.
When Mary asked Jesus to help the hosts at the wedding feast of Cana, she spoke to him in natural words of the need she saw, knowing that the hosts would be embaressed before all the invited guests, when they ran out of wine…which in the culture would injure their reputation. Jesus responded to her concern and intercession. I know some of us pray the Lord’s prayer /the Hail Mary, along with or without an accompanying prayer of our own…other times we just say the prayer that comes out of our caring response to the person’s need (or our own). Feel free to speak to our Father in heaven as your heart tells you.**

Dear scameter18, I thank God for the graces of your response to the call to the Church, and for your goodwill in wanting to live as God wishes you to. 🙂

In Jesus’ name, I ask You, Father, to give scameter18 **the necessary grace **to overcome sinful behaviours, and with it also to help scameter18 **consciously work **to break the patterns and the habits of this failing.

Father please help scameter18 as he grows in the RCIA journey, to become aware, in the right time, of all your desires for his life, including career or vocation.

Isaiah says, “I was thinking: ‘I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing.’ And all the while my cause was with God, my reward with my God.” [Isaiah 49:3-4] For “the Lord is not being slow to carry out His promises…but He is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.” [2Peter 3:9]
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Ok, i see what you mean. thank you!
 
I will pray for you. Please pray for me also, and all of us who are struggling against that addiction. We are all in this together in the body of Christ.
 
praying for you now…

Our Father in Heaven
Holy be Thy Name
Thy Kingdom Come
Thy Will Be Done
On Earth As It Is
In Heaven
Give Us This Day
Our Daily Bread
And Forgive Us Our Sins
As We Forgive Who Sinned
Against Us
Do Not Bring Us To The Test
But Deliver Us From Evil
Amen!

Just continue praying and believe!
 
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