I came across an interesting YouTube channel today called CSLewisDoodle where an artist draws doodles along with “selected essays by C.S. Lewis in order to make them easier to understand.” The videos are fantastically well done and I can recommend you check them out.
In watching one of the videos drawn from Lewis’s Mere Christianity the following section stood out to me:
We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity [sexual morality] – like perfect charity – will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.
(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

I found C.S. Lewis’s words to be incredibly insightful and encouraging. As believers, we are all on this journey of sanctification, that is, becoming holy through putting to death the sinful habits in our lives and becoming more like Jesus. We all have certain areas of sinfulness that we struggle with and at times it can seem impossible to attain that Christian virtue in our lives. Nevertheless, we mustn’t stop trying.
For some of you, this period of isolation has been a setback in your journey towards holiness. Without the physical presence and encouragement of your brothers and sisters in Christ, you may be struggling even more in your daily battle against sin in your life. Do not stop trying. “Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again.” God will give you the strength to try again, the Holy Spirit will empower you to pursue holiness.
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16 NIV)
God Bless
Graham