John Owen...on fighting sin giants...a lengthy but relevant quote

There Will Be No Mortification of Any Sin Without Sincerity and Diligence in a Universality of Obedience

A man finds any lust to bring him into the condition formerly described; it is powerful, strong, tumultuating, leads captive, vexes, disquiets, takes away peace; he is not able to bear it; wherefore he sets himself against it, prays against it, groans under it, sighs to be delivered: but in the meantime, perhaps in other duties--in constant communion with God--in reading, prayer, and meditation--in other ways that are not of the same kind with the lust wherewith he is troubled--he is loose and negligent.

Let not that man think that ever he shall arrive to the mortification of the lust he is perplexed with...

Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lies at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification.

(self-love)...You set yourself with all diligence and earnestness to mortify such a lust or sin; what is the reason of it?

It disquiets you, it has taken away your peace, it fills your heart with sorrow and trouble and fear; you have no rest because of it. Yea, but friend, you have neglected prayer or reading; you have been vain and loose in your conversation in other things, that have not been of the same nature with the lust wherewith you are perplexed.

These are no less sins and evils than those under which you groan. Jesus Christ bled for them also. Why do you not set yourself against them also? If you hate sin as sin, every evil way, you would be no less watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God, than against that which grieves and disquiets your own soul.

It is evident that you contend with sin merely because of your own trouble by it. Would your conscience be quiet under it, you would let it alone. Did it not disquiet you, it should not be disquieted by you.

Now, can you think that God will set in with such hypocritical endeavors--that ever His Spirit will bear witness to the treachery and falsehood of your spirit?

Do you think He will ease you of that which perplexes you, that you may be at liberty to that which no less grieves Him? No. God says,"Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost."

Let not any man think to do his own work that will not do God's. God's work consists in universal obedience; to be freed of the present perplexity is their own only. Hence is that of the apostle: "Cleanse yourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 7:1)

If we will do anything, we must do all things. So, then, it is not only an intense opposition to this or that peculiar lust, but a universal humble frame and temper of heart, with watchfulness over every evil and for the performance of every duty...that is accepted.

BE SURE TO GET AN INTEREST IN CHRIST--IF YOU INTEND TO MORTIFY ANY SIN WITHOUT IT, IT WILL NEVER BE DONE."