The moslems talk of gihad but what I think they mean is the daily struggle that we have, as people seeking God, with idolatry. The orthodox christians (and some evangelicals) talk about it more as wrestling with demons. It does fascinate me that, in the earlier books of the Old Testament, the main obsession of the Israelites is with the struggle to stay away from Baal and all the rest of their neighbours deities. Later on, in the New Testament, there is far more talk of 'demons'. In truth though I think the old testament idols are actually the same as the new testament demons.
The truth is that mankind can (and certainly does) make idols out of pretty well anything. Putting God at the centre of my life is for me a daily struggle. Even after a few hours I will start to search around for easier, seeable, touchable and more noticeably pleasurable alternatives. It is a measure of how much mankind needs God that we do this.
(I have been reading Jeremiah so bear with me if the next bit sounds rather puritanical . . . )
Those who have got further along in their spiritual lives will know what dangers lurk there too. The world is full of people (popes and monks included) who have gone a long way along towards God but have got stuck, perhaps for many years, because there is something to which they are too attached and they cannot accept the pain of having to give it up. It usually isn't as obvious as boys, or sex, it can be something much more sophisticated like being a good role-model, or being a priest, or being a concert pianist, or a particular state of prayer, or a deeply spiritual gift. Our gifts can certainly snare us even more deeply than our more obvious sins.
The terrible truth is that, finally, we are called to give up everything. If we cannot do this we should know that it will be dragged out of our hands. Over and over and over again scripture warns us of this. [Perhaps this is what Jesus was getting at with the bit about turning the other cheek. If we are able to give things up willingly when we are asked for them it will be a blessing upon us rather than a curse. . . .]
We shouldn't be surprised when we get stuck though. This is what prayer and the spiritual life is all about. We're all in the same boat.
I remember hearing people talk like this in sermons when I was younger and thinking well there's no hope for me in all of this then and it does feel like that sometimes except for one thing: the overriding, overwhelming beauty of God. That, and many many second chances . . .
The beauty of boys, of music, of glorious landscape, and of all the rest is nothing in comparison and we really do know this in the deepest place in us. [And, moreover, all of that beauty is the most fleeting of transient things. Boys turn into men, the music stops when the orchestra heads home, and we can't sit looking at landscapes for ever. That's why seeing something really beautiful hurts so much: the end is already in sight!]
The more time that we can give to God the more He is able to show us the truth of this. It is only this that gives me hope of ever really breaking free. When, and if, we can, I am quite certain that it will indeed turn out to be the pearl of greatest price; the willing and not-so-willing sacrifices will have been nothing in comparison.
this helps:
when you climb a mountain the golden rule is not to look down

here endeth the lesson