Do you struggle with materialism? Do you spend much of your time thinking about the next thing you want to buy? Resist the urge, we are told. Ask God to take away your sinful desires, we are told. But this is all wrong. Wanting is good. Don’t wish it away! Just pray that God will change your desires so that you want the right thing with all your heart. (And don’t tell Him what you’d like that to be.)

Do you have a problem with anger? Ask God to add a measure of grace and understanding, and then to help you be angry at the right things. We need more anger in the world, not less, but it must be guided by the Spirit.

Do you work too much? May God redeem this so that you work tirelessly for the Kingdom. Do you not work enough? Pray for the sanctification of your free time. And you each have something to learn from the other.

The same goes for any other sinful habit or preoccupation. Sin is only a corruption of what God has made good, and there is not any sinful thing in the natural world which God will not redeem. He will conquer sin by purifying it, by burning it clean, not by destroying it.

Any strong feeling will quickly become sin if it is not under God’s control. But passion is the lifeblood and essence of humanity. It is precious. Pray not that God would take away your passion, but that he would sanctify it. It would have let you down anyway in the end, so why not?