the struggle against our own weakness

"There is one kind of tribulation experienced at all times by those who try to serve God, and from which the thorough-going servants of sin are quite exempt. It is described most vividly in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. It is the struggle against our own fleshly weakness, which may become so severe as to lead one to exclaim, 'O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' All those who are described as having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, will have passed through severe tribulation of this kind. There is no escape from it, and generally speaking, the more spiritually-minded a man is, the greater will be the struggle, the more severe the trial."