So the typical prayer requests we get are usually along the lines of
"I need to stop lusting, I need to be less selfish or I struggle with this"
This is the truth.
We're praying for the wrong thing.
If we ask that that person stop being angry or hateful or prideful etc.
In reality God has already given us the victory over these things.
3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1 John 5:3-5
The problem lies if your willing to give God your heart so He can heal it.
14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "[f]
17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'
-Mark 7
So basically instead of trying to attack the sin from an outward position "please remove this from me" the heart needs to change. So if your heart is all for God than you will have victory over whatever sin it is that your bound to because what you desire is God now and not whatever lie you were pursuing before.
But if your heart is still in an idol and you ask for that sin to be removed than nothings going to happen because the inside is still a mess and your still holding onto it not allowing God to heal it.
ex. Someone struggles with lust/ pornography
That person's idol is a relationship with the opposite sex or same sex in some cases or it can be straight up sex.(pleasure)
That person needs to ask God for strength to give up their idol and only when they do so will they find victory over the sinful pattern.
Not that you won't lust ever again but you will have the power to stop it from consuming your life.
