Dear sister, as long as we are in the flesh, till we take our last breath, we will be as Paul said, struggling. It is in acknowledging our desperate NEED for Him that encompasses our "walk" with God and consequently our "praying without ceasing"...
"Struggling with Sin
13 "Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." ~Romans 7:13-25
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Dear brinny, dear dear brinny,
I know that interpretation of Paul in Romans. It was my own understanding for many a long year. It seemed to match my own struggles, not just against sin but in not being able to abide in the presence of God, and this greatly upset me because I had known glimpses of the mountain top and nothing would satisfy me after that.
But it seemed by my own experience and what church preachers were saying, that this was what was to be my walk in Christ. I resigned myself to it bolstering myself up by other verses which were really only to apply to the spiritual state, and I was unknowingly walking by the strength of my flesh.
A day came when I had an encounter with Christ, and He opened up the way of holiness to me and showed me many things in scripture and one of them was that Paul was speaking here of a crisis he had come to, like the one I was now facing, where he had tried and tried to be the obedient disciple he dearly wanted to be, but had failed and now was crying out to God to help him.
And God did help him as he helped me by seeing that this was not the normal Christian walk but the abnormal one and when one is on that one, the flesh stays alive and one never gets that intimacy with God that one desires. Unfortunately, the other teaching remains the most popular one and men do not expect to be freed from sin like Christ promises us - to be free indeed.
It came to me when I cried out like Paul to be delivered from that stinking rotten flesh. He did it and like Paul I moved on to Romans 8. It has been a blessed walk.
Now brinny dear you might continue to disagree with me, but I can only ask you to wait until God starts revealing this way to you, and perhaps you will come back one day and read about it again.
I see you have asked me why Job is my favourite book.
It is because it has so much meaning for me in understanding the way of holiness and the dark night of the spirit which is a further step than the well known dark night of the soul. I can really empathise with Job.
There is so much in it that a lifetime of study will not reveal it all. I want to write a book on it one day.