Your sin and your prayer life are inversely connected

"Spurgeon preached "strongly and plainly upon the necessity of giving up sin, in order to succeed in prayer," and he spoke against the seemingly unimportant little habits many Christians practice that keep them from true fellowship with God."
'Spurgeon: A New Biography' by Arnold Dallimore

This see-saw relationship between sin and prayer has never actually occurred to me before. But thinking about it, it's such an obvious point. When one goes up, the other goes down. The best way to overcome sin: increase your prayer life.

We (my wife and I) were listening to the 'Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus' hymn (which I flippin' love!) in the car yesterday and it totally echos that point:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

The best way to look overcome sin is to look directly at the son. When you look at something incredibly bright you can't make out other objects in your peripheral vision. They're completely overpowered and out of focus. Life isn't about being consumed with your sin, obsessively trying to resist and overcome, it's about being consumed with Jesus: his glory and grace.