Disordered desire becomes the seed of sin. It is when by one’s own deep desire [epithumia] one is carried away and enticed, that one is then tempted (see James 1:14-15). The deep desire is not the sin; even Jesus had such desire. We read in Luke 22:14-20, "With desire I have desired [epithumia epithumāsa] to eat this Passover with you before I suffer ..." Jesus was not, however, driven by such desire; he, the ever-obedient Son, rather ordered his desire toward doing the will of God the Father.
This right ordering of desire is put in particular perspective in Luke 22:39-46, where we read:
Jesus …proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him.
When He arrived at the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."
And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."
...And being in agony He was praying very fervently ... .
When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow,and said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation."
Jesus gives us the perfect example of "One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). We read in Hebrews 5:7-8, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."
Fervent Prayer was the life-long practice of piety by which Jesus became able to suffer temptation without yielding to temptation. Essentially what Jesus simply said was this, "Father in Heaven, not my will, but Yours be done."
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Consider how Jesus himself learned how to correctly conform his conscience as is characteristic of the Christ from the example of his mother Mary, who submitted herself to be the handmaid of God in giving up her body to become a womb for the incarnate Word of God; consider as well how Jesus had a father in Joseph who, unwilling to expose her to shame, was willing rather to take Mary as his wife into his home in order to fulfill the faithful promise of "God with us."
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