The Mercy & Grace of God — Paul Washer

Glory to God. Glory to God. I know that many of the hymns that I've chosen for this conference have been unknown to many of us, but there's a reason for it. If you were to go back, as I have done in the last... it took weeks, going through hymnal after hymnal after hymnal, finding hymns that have all but been lost, and yet with more truth than a thousand songs sung today.

And I would greatly recommend to you, there is a website, I think it's cyberhymnal .org. And I'll tell you something, I literally went through hundreds, if not several hundred songs. And it was as though literally I had just spent the days in prayer and reading the word.

There was so much scripture to be found there and so wonderful, wonderful. And if I had the time, I'm not a musician or anything, but if I had the time, I would re-edit a hymn book. I would, and put in all those songs that have been lost, so full of truth, so full of theology, so full of God.

And they need to be reintroduced, definitely need to be reintroduced. Well, here we are and there, I must pray, Father, help me, help me. Lord, I only say Amen, because I trust that I have been helped.

Amen. I look out over in this congregation, I have a burden for everyone here. I have such a special burden for those of you who are younger, want to go out into the ministry, those of you who are young in the faith.

Those of you who are older, your children that you've brought with you, they're the great burden for me, because I, too, have children. And I'm reminded as I look out over the faces that I see of a song that I always sing at night to my boys.

And it's, Oh, Lord, I am weak and I'm trembling for the Lord. I am always remembering. Oh, what a strong shepherd holds you in his arms. He'll break you and make you his own. I have not walked with God long, 23 years is not long, but that is one of the most precious things to me.

Even after 23 years of very little progress in the faith, I would have no hope except for I know this God before whom I am weak and I am trembling. He will continue to break me and continue to make me his own.

God's Faithfulness in Salvation

The greatest gift I'm convinced that the Lord can give a man is to capture him, is to capture him and not let him go. You see, prior to coming to Christ, you are not some victim groping to find the truth.

You were a hardy and stout rebel who hated God and would bite at every hand that reached out to you. And the fact that in your salvation, he captured you and continues to capture you, to continue to to take more and more possession of your land.

If you got to know me, if you knew me 23 years ago, I would have been a great disappointment to you. If you knew me now, as some know me, I would still be somewhat of a disappointment to you. But know this, he who began a good work will finish it.

And that is the confidence that we all have. It's the only confidence that we have. And so I'm going to be talking. There's three different things I want to do, and I don't think I'll be able to do all of them.

Holiness and Separation from Sin

But I want to continue for a moment speaking about holiness. I must, because listen to me, young people and young ministers, I don't know most of you. But as young ministers go and young people go, I see young people that seem to me to be quite the contradiction.

Seminary students and college students who talk to me about the high things of God. And yet I can I see what they watch, what they listen to and what they wear and how they act. And I find no continuity.

I find no agreement between what they study and what they purport to love and what they are. And it is not, I'm assured that it is more to deal with the culture that is around you. That as each passing generation becomes more and more ungodly, we become less sensitive to sin.

And I'm to preach on the power of God, but how can anyone think about the power of God? If they have no nearness to God and if there's no concept of personal holiness in our lives. There's no need to talk about power.

One of the great problems with the seeker movement today, the movement that speaks much, charismatic movement and things that speak much about coming into the presence of the Lord is that they don't understand something.

It's like I gave the illustration of my little boy who would grab a hold of a chair when he was first learning to stand and then reach out to his father. And I would always stand farther than arm's length so that he would have to let go of the chair or the wall in order to come to me.

It's the same way, don't you understand? Don't talk so much about drawing near to God unless first you've understood the idea that to draw near to him, you must separate yourself from the things he hates.

You cannot have both things and if you truly want God, and this is something I want you to understand, I think many who declare themselves to want God do not want God because in order to truly want God, there must be a reason for it.

And if there is a true reason for wanting God, you'll hate the things he hates. There is this necessity to build within us, to pray that it be formed in us a solid, biblical, burning hatred. Not for men, not even for the wickedest of men, but for the things that would steal our own heart away, for the things that would stain us.

I burn with zeal when I walk into a church. And because of lackadaisical preaching, there is no concept of this hatred for sin. So I want us to look just quickly, let's go to first Peter. We're not going to be profound in any verse, but we're going to reach out to many.

First Peter, chapter 1, verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. As obedient children, you and I are called to obedience. It is amazing to me that when I begin to talk about principles and wisdom and laws, I'm labeled a legalist.

But it's impossible to be obedient unless there's a command. And the scriptures have not left us just to float in the air. God has given us commands and precepts and wisdom with regard to every aspect of our life.

And the reason why there is so much perishing is because of a lack of knowledge. You hear where there is no vision, the people perish. Oh, my goodness, how that is twisted. Usually it's some it's some pastor or great churchman who wants to build a gigantic church and he's got this great vision.

And he says, you need a vision to do great things or else we'll perish. That's not what that means at all. It's saying basically where there is no revelation of the law of God, where there is no revelation of God's will being preached, the people perish.

And so he's calling us to obedience and be obedient. First of all, you must not be conformed to the former lust, which were yours in your ignorance. You have to understand something. You coming to Christ, come to Christ in ignorance.

I'll never forget when we, Chato and I, we discovered that she was pregnant. I remember getting down on my knees on the second floor of our house in the room where I used to study. And I cried out to God, God, how can a pagan raise a child?

I'm ignorant of everything in Scripture that deals with child raising. I'm a worldling. You come with all the knowledge that you have when you come to Christ. It is pure ignorance. Everything is wrong.

Everything. I had a young man discipling me when I was at the University of Texas, and we both had this same psychology class. And he had it the hour before me. And the man was, he attacked God, attacked Christ, did everything in his class.

He was a horrid, immoral man. And the young man who was discipling me came out of the class one day smiling. And he said, I love that class. I just, I'm learning how to live in that class. And I said, Mike, how can you say that?

You're the one that's taught me out of Scripture that that man is apostate. He goes, no, Paul, you just got to understand. Listen to everything the world says. Do just the opposite and you'll have the Bible.

Well, let me tell you something. It's true, but you're not recognizing it. Who has taught you? To what have you submitted with regard to your mind? Have you been taught by Christ or been taught by the world?

What should enter in there? What should go through your eyes? What you wear on your body? Who gave you the rules? Where did you learn how to dress? Where did you learn how to talk and walk? Where did you learn about relationships and marriage and sex and children and everything else?

I can tell you, if you're like most, you learned it from the world and it's still there. You have to understand, he says, the former lust, which were yours. We come to Christ and yes, in regeneration, there's this powerful transformation, but we come with so much baggage that's wrong.

And the problem is we are unwise in that we compare ourselves by ourselves and no one changes. Most young people, their peers are not godly parents, but other ignorant, confused children. And then they go on to high school and it's the same.

And then they go on to college and it's the same. And they go on to Bible college and it's the same. And they go to seminary and it's the same. You have children's church, teenage church, every kind of church, but the right kind of church where the word of God is preached.

And we've got to attack these former lusts in our own lives. We must. He goes on and he says, he says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust, which were yours in your ignorance, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves.

The Command to Pursue Holiness

How much striving? How much striving is in your life towards godliness and towards holiness? How much do you strive for that, work for that? I read some of the biographies. I just got through with Daniel Rowland, the biography on him, The Great Awakening in Wales.

And I was amazed that these men, they were, I don't know how they lived. They were literally consumed like, like moths into a flame. They were either preaching or they were praying and fasting. Or meeting together in groups and encouraging one another unto holiness.

Church isn't that anymore. People come to church, hear a message and all it is, is saying grace before the meal they're going to eat on Sunday. It's not coming and encouraging one another to be holy. When was the last time someone came up to me and rebuked me?

When was the last time someone came up to me and dealt with me, asked me, what's going on? How are you loving your wife? What are you doing? You see, we're to be a community of people promoting one another to godliness in love and in compassion.

I am so tired of church. He goes on and he says, Look at this, like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves. Be a reflection of your Father. Is that your goal? It's the same thing. Do you realize this is the same thing as be conformed to Christ?

Because Christ is a reflection of his Father. When he says, be holy like I'm holy, he is saying exactly the same thing as my great purpose for you is that you be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the image of the Holy One.

And he says, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. You shall be. Now, the two things here that are very important and Brother Mack last year brought these out. It's the divine and the human side of this.

If you are truly a Christian, truly called of God, you will be holy because without holiness, no one will see the Lord. And God is going to work supernaturally in the lives of his children. Ezekiel puts it for us so wonderfully, he will be cleansing us from all our filthiness and from all our idolatry.

That's what he'll be doing all the days of our life. Hebrews chapter 12, he'll be disciplining us. Assure yourself that God is working if you're truly converted. But at the same time, we are not just encouraged, we are commanded to strive to be holy.

I hear so often this person is so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. Well, I tell you, you're so earthly minded, you're no heavenly good. He goes on and he says, and if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth.

I've been asked several times when I have preached once by a reporter, why are you always telling people to be afraid or to fear? I said, because they ought to fear. The Bible commands us to fear, to fear in the right way, but to fear nonetheless.

This is a wonderful, awful, terrible salvation. This is not you and Jesus got your own thing going. This is God invading humanity. And he says, and I love this, during the time of your stay upon the earth.

Look at that. Young people, listen to me. It is a stay. It is like that. Yesterday, I was nine. Today, I'm 43. Tomorrow, I'll be 90 and gone. It is a stay upon the earth. It is a stay. Your beauty, your youth, your strength, everything, it is going.

Do not waste it on things that only bring judgment. Do not be deceived by empty words. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming. But live your life as a people weak and trembling and broken and yet filled with the power of God and rejoicing and tasting of divine things as a down payment, as a reminder of the great immense glory that is coming.

Redemption by the Blood of Christ

And he says, verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

And look at this passage. And I go, Oh, Paul, what have you done? What have you done? The way you have lived today, Christ redeemed thee with blood. Have you trembled such blood? Have you treated it as a small thing?

Have you not? What is the great crime? The great crime is to not esteem the worth of God, is to not esteem the worth of the blood of the Son of God. I want you to know that if you're to get anywhere in the Christian life, understand this, everything God has ordained, everything that it will be about His Son.

God loves His Son more than everything and everybody put together. And if you want to be pleasing to the Father, you adore, you honor, you bless, you revere, you worship, you serve, you esteem with the greatest worth His Son, and He will be pleased with you.

Over all the works that mighty men can do, God will set His seal upon you if you cherish His Son. One of my prayers in my prayer journal, I feel like I've asked the Holy Spirit to give me certain prayers to pray.

One of the prayers that He's given me, it's, Lord, I desire to give my two sons to Your Son, even if it means they're martyrdom, that they live a cruel and broken, impoverished life no matter. Take my two sons for Your Son, that they be totally and completely devoted to Him.

I don't want them to be famous preachers. I don't want them to be great writers. I don't want them to be high intellectuals, but that their heart would burn almost insanely with a devotion for Your Son.

Oh, that is the thing. That is the thing. That is the thing. I want us to go now to Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 19. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness.

Abstaining from Wickedness and Resisting Worldly Distractions

Young people, listen to me. Your prayer time is canceled out and nullified and made worthless by your television time. Now, I know I need to maybe speak of glories and things not so vulgar as TV, but in my opinion, if I were to say if there was one thing sucking away any chance or any opportunity of young men to be filled with the power of God, it is that.

What benefit do you gain from all that watching of yours? You cry out and want revival. But look what he says. Let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness. I find almost nothing true, nothing noble, nothing honorable there.

I received a track from Leonard Ravenhill before he died. A friend told him about the struggles I was having and and I was just and so he sent it to me. This little track, Others Can, You May Not, You Cannot.

And it all comes down to this. How much do you want to know him? How much do you want to have a sense of his manifest presence? How much of his power do you want? And what I mean, power, I'm not meaning principally power for ministry, but the power of God in a changed life that will glorify him.

You will know that always to the same degree that you are willing to separate yourself and abstain from wickedness. You walk through this world afraid, you walk through the world afraid, you walk through the world knowing that there are landmines and snares and the evil one has set out many things.

You walk through this world like the like Christian and Pilgrim's Progress in a vanity fair all around you. Distractions taking you away and not just evil things, but good things that are not the most excellent thing.

Even ministry, the only proper way to see it is refuse compared to knowing Christ. I don't want a ministry. I don't want to be a great preacher. I don't want to write. I just want to be a Christian, just want to follow him.

And if you have this idea, yes, to be mightily used of God, I need to abstain from these things. Behold, you're idle being used of God. I want to abstain from these things because they break the heart of my father and they show I do not esteem the blood that was shed for me on Calvary to the wind with the ministry.

You will be very, very surprised on that great day when all men stand in that granite hall and bow their knee before God, that it will not be the famous ones who stand there at the head of the line, will not be the great ones who are known and pointed out first.

It's not ministry. It's all about him. It's all about him. That my sons be basically worthless and everything because they're just so totally and completely distracted by Christ. The goal is not to have a ministry, young man.

The goal is to have a life, a life. And it's so freeing when you no longer have to be anything but a follower of Jesus Christ. There's no reputation now to be lost. There's no one to be concerned with, just Christ, just Christ.

That's what I want for you. Don't go through all the hamster wheels that I've gone through to get to this point. Recognize it now. I want us to go to I've written down so many passages here. I want to I want to take you through young person, especially listen to this, whether you're in the ministry or not.

A Biblical Fence for Discerning God's Will

I want to take you through something that has been extremely helpful in my life, extremely helpful. And it's something that that I've lived by. And I call it my fence, my wall, strong wall, a strong tower.

It's a wall that Scripture builds around me, helps me to recognize whether or not I'm in the will of God. In the place I ought to be. It's a fortress of holiness. I'm going to set out some fence posts that when you connect them together with strong cable, nothing can penetrate them.

And you'll be safe. The first one is 1 Corinthians 10, 31. This is my first fence post. Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now, you say the will of God is complicated.

Well, we've made it quite simple now. If it brings glory to God, if it honors God, if it demonstrates esteem and the worth of God, you can think it, do it, say it, wear it. Everything in your life. Just ask yourself this question.

What I'm watching on TV, does it glorify God? Does it bring glory to God? If not, cut it off like a right hand or like a right eye. Pluck it out. You say, well, this is this is just my dear friend, radical Christianity, which is nothing more than real Christianity, is much deeper than wearing a Christian T-shirt on your back or holding up some contemporary Christian group that I doubt is even converted.

It is a radical, violent sort of thing in one way. If it does not glorify God, what part do I have with this? What part does righteousness have with lawlessness? What part the temple of God with idols?

Cut it off from you. If it does not glorify God, if the relationship you are in or thinking about being in young person does not glorify God, cut it off from you like a disease, because that is exactly what it is.

If it does not prosper you spiritually, it's not of God. Your speech, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth except such a word that is good for edification according to the need of the moment.

Everything, your thought life, if it is a thought that does not glorify God, reject it. Even if at that very moment in the middle of a city street, you have to get down on your knees, reject it. What you do with your hands, the direction of your life, if it does not glorify God, change it, drop it.

What you're looking at, what you're listening to, everything. It must glorify God. You are given breath to glorify God. Your heart beats to glorify God. The only reason you're alive is to glorify God.

Every moment lost to something else is a moment lost to vanity and stupidity and carnality, and it will burn. All for the glory of God. You say, well, Brother Paul, are you saying we're to be a cloistered people, do nothing but read our Bibles and pray?

Oh, my friend, the kingdom of Christ is very broad. I can fast and pray and read the word to the glory of God. I can attend a conference to the glory of God. I can wrestle with my two boys on the bed to the glory of God.

I can love my wife to the glory of God. I can dance with all my might in the middle of the cornfield when no Baptist is looking to the glory of God. I can do it all to the glory of God. Breathe in the air on a cool morning at five to the glory of God.

Watch snowflakes fall and fall down on your face and worship to the glory of God. Take your child out and show him his first tadpole to the glory of God. There is no good and perfect thing withheld from you.

Only the wicked, vile medicine of a world that hates you. I'm so sick and tired of all these silly contemporary Christian artists that are always asking the question, why does the devil got to have all the good music?

He doesn't have any of it. God's given us everything good. Everything. This kingdom, the pots and the pans in your house, if you're a Christian, are sacred. Everything. Godliness does not restrict a man.

It sets him free. It sets him free, it truly does. And this is what God desires for you. Do you think he's a God of bondage? Religion, some have taken that word and said that the root of it means to bind one.

That the whole idea is to bind something in order to please a deity. To bind yourself in order to please a deity. No, my friend. Not Christianity. Loose him and let him go. That's Christianity. Every vile snake that's been tied around his leg.

Every leech that holds him together and binds him and holds him down. Every wicked heap that's been poured on his head. Rip it all off and set him free. You won't know life until you taste him. They tell me that those who are given to smoking can no longer taste the wonderful flavors of food.

That is a great, great illustration of those who still eat from the world's trough, cannot taste the delicacies in Yahweh's table. Oh, clean yourself up and come to the table. And we go on. Everything for the glory of God.

Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. My wife and I, we. The rules. The rules. We've got them down pretty much now. The rules with regard to marriage. The things that Scripture says about, well, you know, you don't divorce and you don't go to bed mad and you know, all these different things.

But here's the one thing. That we seek for. You can have all that, but is the glory of God manifest in your relationship? Is the presence of Christ, does it fill your home? You see, you can take and force yourself into an image and a mold, but the presence is not there.

The power is not there. The joy is not there. The reality is not there. And that's the thing about the Christian life. It is not just keeping rules. It is a manifestation of the glory of God through earthen vessels.

So ask yourself, young person, in everything, does this glorify God? Does it glorify God? Because if it doesn't, it's gone. If your right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If your right hand offend thee, cut it off.

Cast it from you. If your right hand offend thee, pluck it out. That's the first question that ought to always be asked. You go back to Bible college on Monday, back to seminary on Monday, you walk in the student center or whatever in a friend's room, TV's on, things are going on that television.

Say, well, it just has a little bit of cussing, just has a little bit of nudity. Well, just how much sin does it require before the Holy Spirit is grieved? The biting of a fruit will just about do it.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

The glory of God. The next is Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Paul says, I urge you, therefore, brethren, here is the heart of a pastor. Here is the heart of a father. Have you ever seen this? Some of you have experienced this as parents. You've literally almost got down on your hands and knees and begged your child not to turn from the way.

Begged your child to come out of darkness into the light. Begged your child to flee from the wrath to come. Literally, your heart on the ground, broken in a million pieces because of the love that you have in your heart for them.

This is what we see here in the Apostle Paul. This is what we see in any man of God who truly loves Christ's bride. There is a sense in which we as men of God and listen to me, those of you called in the ministry.

There is a sense in which we are a part of the bride of Christ. I mean, we're part of that bride. But there's another sense if we look at the Apostle Paul in which we are stewards of her, protectors of her.

We burn for her. We burn for her. Who does not fall and we don't mourn? Who's not carried away by some snare of the devil and we do not burn with heat? And that's the way Paul is here. He says, I heard you, brethren.

He's going to urge them to do something. Same thing I'm going to plead with you to do to offer your life as a living sacrifice to God. Now, Job was right. I mean, the devil was right when he said this, you know, do a lot to a man.

He'll still hold true. Touch his life, touch his body, then you'll see what he's made of. Same way, I'm not asking you to give away a car or a home, not asking you to even give away a future. I'm asking you to give away your own life, the only one you have.

Now, in order to do that, I need some strong medicine to motivate you. I mean, why on earth would anyone give their life away as a living sacrifice? And Paul gives the motivation. He says, by the mercies of God, I urge you to do it.

What are the mercies of God? The first 11 chapters of this book. No, that is true. I mean, that's why he's got he's got therefore there. He's linking the whole thing up to the first 11 chapters in the first 11 chapters.

He has told us all the glorious things that God has done for his people in Jesus Christ. And he says, therefore, do this. So everything is based upon our knowledge of God in Christ. That's why I don't want to fire you up with some just some camp meeting that's a camp meeting.

I don't want to fire you up so that when you get out Monday, everything dies. What we want to present to you is a God worthy of your life. Worthy of your life that will cause you to say, yes, Lord, I gladly, I joyfully offer my life to you as a living sacrifice.

I weep because I wonder why you would even want it. It's too great a privilege for me to give it. It's no longer a burden. My eyes, my ears have heard of thee, but now my eyes have seen thee. It is no longer a burden.

Oh, my God, to give my life away. Take it, take it, take it and seal it so that I never ask for it back by the mercies of God to present your bodies. The word present here is very, very important in that it is an aorist tense and it indicates not this continual every week rededicating your life to God.

It's this sort of prophet's call of how long will you limp between two opinions if Baal is God, go for it. But if God is God, worship him. It's this call for once in your life, sit down and make a decision.

Yes. Yes. He goes on and he says, since your body is a living and a holy sacrifice, something that is very important for you to understand. There are many lost people who in some shape, form or fashion offer their lives to God, want to do things in order to be saved.

None of it is acceptable. The sacrifice that God desires is living. A spiritually dead man can offer nothing living to God. In order to offer something to God, you must first be made alive by God. And the very thing you offer to him came from him because God is no man's debtor.

You're not giving something to God so as to add to him. You're giving back to him what he gave you. The spiritual life that you have, you lay at his feet. Whatever, Lord, you have made me alive. Command me, Lord, what shall I do with this gift that has been given?

He goes on and he says, a living and a holy sacrifice acceptable to God. Something again about living that just came to my mind. Jim Elliott, I believe it's his brother, served in Peru for I don't know how many years.

He's eaten with me at my table. It was a great honor to to entertain him and and his wife. Most of you didn't even know he was alive, you didn't even know about him. But I want you to realize something.

I don't want to take anything away from the sacrifice and the martyrdom of Jim Elliott. But I want you to realize something. Jim Elliott barely served the Lord for six months or so out in the rainforest and was martyred.

And that is the way it pleased the Lord to take him. And I honor that. But may I submit to you that Jim's life was a lot easier than that of his brother. His brother, unknown, has served the Lord for decade after decade after decade.

No fame, no books, no anything. My point is simply this. It is much easier to die for the Lord than it is to live for him. It is a continuous, everyday thing. There is a sense in which it is a marathon.

But don't let old dead pastors tell you it's a marathon. Therefore, take it easy. It is a marathon, but sprint anyways and burn yourself out if necessary. I would rather have my sons burn themselves out for three or four years of hard pressing after God than to float their way to heaven.

Burn for God. Burn out for God. All those stars are in the heavens and you notice them and you take glory in them and you like them. But it's the shooting star you only see for a second. It catches your attention and makes you marvel.

Be not afraid to burn out for God. Be not afraid to throw yourself straight into the lion's mouth or the flame of the fire. So, Brother Paul, you're telling them some dangerous things. God will sort it out and keep you safe.

But you need to hear some dangerous things. Goes on and he says, living sacrifice, a holy sacrifice. God gave you the life. God desires that you be holy and God is the only one who can grant you the grace to be holy.

Holiness does not come apart from prayer. Listen, we all have the correct theological background. We all recognize that everything comes from God. We all recognize that we are going to be holy because of God's providence and His sovereignty and everything else.

But if you use that as a bed to lie in, you're not doing what's great. Scripture says you are to seek and strive after being holy. You are to pray for grace to be holy. My wife came to me just after she was saved and it's wonderful testimony.

If you probably got the CD out there, if you'd like to hear. But my wife was saved last year and she came to me one day and she just she said, you know, something I just need to share with you. And I said, well, what?

She goes, you know, we've got it all wrong. And I said, well, why? She goes, we we recognize there's something in our life that is not conformed to Christ. And so we go after that for a period of time, we pray and we fast to get victory over it.

I said, yeah. She goes, have you ever done that? I said, of course I have. She goes, well, did you get victory over it? And I said, well, yes. She said, how long? I said, as long as I kept praying and fasting and asking grace to overcome.