Interesting points, Bob434. I have found that prayer and meditation are very useful tools in this regard.
Romans 1 gives us a progression that leads to depravity.
First, they did not glorify God as God, and failed to give thanks to God. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts.
Second, they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Therefore, God gave them up to vile passions.
To reverse the results, reverse the process: reject the world's lies, worship God, begin giving thanks and glorify God.
They do help a lot for sure. And sometimes a person can completely put their previous life ehind them and not be harassed by their minds and consciences, but usually one has to battle for a lifetime. Even Paul had to smash his body and mind Into submission daily . I do t know what he struggled with, perhaps guilt, albeit a firey temper, but he struggled with something and was always doing the things he didn’t want to do, while not doing the things he knew he should. Usually people coming out of a decadent sensual lifestyle have to struggle with impure thoughts their ,ifetime, and keep falling over and over. It gets better the c,over one gets to God, but still, their lifestyle was so embedded in their character before salvation, or even after, that they struggle terrible with thoughts. Folks who drank or smoked might find themselves fighting the urge their whole life while for others God takes the burden away completely.
I struggled and struggled to quit smoking for decades, always falling back into it, and I prayed for God to take the desire away. Well, he didn’t. Instead he gave me strength one day to quit, but now even 12 years ,after, I still fight it mentally, and now I have to suffer the consequences of what I did with copd and emphasema, which are constant reminders that God is very serious about not sinning, because the effects last a lifetime. He just wants the best for us. Unfortunately ately i didn’t want the best for me, so I went in the wrong direction.
I still struggle with wanting to smoke, even though I know how stupid, expe sive, and detrimental it is. And I couldn’t understand why God doesn’t completely remove the desire. Well, it is because of consequences- i immersed myself,in that lifestyle, it became my character, and now I likely will,have to struggle with the mental part of it as well as the physical for life, but now I have ,earned to quit blaming God for what I brought on myself at least. Stil, growing.