Wow Phil, you've asked a profound question that closely relates to what I'm struggling with!
I remember sometime ago saying something about God not needing our help to re-create us, in the step we take to be born again and His making us new creatures in Christ.  Perhaps we can say that the only thing The Lord requires of us is to yield, stop fighting against Him, to rest in him, cooperate and walk with Him, what we call obedience.

My main issue that I'm struggling with, though, is my tendency to feel it necessary to be sincere in my mind, that if I'm not, I'm hopeless, not being willing to go through emotional withdrawal from my mental sin.  However, it seems that The Lord is showing me that my sticking with Him is more concrete than I think, like physically taking medication and putting good thoughts in my mind, instead of trying to refrain from yielding to the teptations I have.  This makes it sound more possible to me, doing rather than trying not to do.  There are other things I can do that will be effective.  I can speak His Word especially those that comfort and strengthen me, and  can express and sing praises and worship.  They're things I can do as steps of faith.  A big example of taking a step without worrying so much about sincereity was when, one evening, I was looking for songs to direct in our small congregation the next morning.  I thought, or perhaps was led, to have us sing "Open the Wells of Grace and Salvation".  "I'd be a hypocrit if I sang that one." I thought to myself, as I felt that I wanted nothing to do with God.  Then I decided I would do it as a step of faith.

The next morning, I led the congregation in that song.  Later, one of my father's cousins by marriage  and a pastor who was visiting along with his wife,  asked me to come forward.  In a nutshell, he had a sort of vision in which he was in worship with me, and that I was singing that very song, "Open the Wells of Grace and salvation"!  The lord responded with,  "I am there."  He described  details that I  either don't recall or did not hear.  But there was another big thing going on: I just, "happened", to be recording part of the the service!  I was thinking to try to translate the sermon  into my broken knowledge of spanish for one of the migrant workers who might be a believer.  I have kept this part of the service.  But there is a challenge: this recording on tape is of very poor quality, even when I transfered it to my laptop in order to make a CD for his wife to listen to and  to possibly be able to understand what was being said.  I was finally able to pick out the confirmation that God was there when I tried to decipher  this part  recently, so I'm so glad it is preserved!  But I haven't sent a CD.  I hope that I will have the opportunity to see her if or when she comes this way from Washington State.

These things that I'm writing down are being reinforced in  my mind toward 
acting on them, and I thank you Phil for posing this question.  You were surely led  byThe Holy Spirit to ask this!  If there's even a small story of how it came about, I'd like to hear it please!

Thanks again much!

Sharon H.