EGW does say much of besetting sin and there is many of which of one or more one may have.  I suppose the biggest hurdle in my mind is self rises up in many ways and we need to recognize it and keep him killed.

"Unless the sacred word is appreciated, it will not be obeyed as a sure and safe and precious text book. Every besetting sin must be put away. Warfare must be waged against it until it is overcome. The Lord will work with your efforts. As finite, sinful man works out his own salvation with fear and trembling, it is God who works in him, to will and to do of his own good pleasure. But God will not work without the co-operation of man. He must exercise his powers to the very utmost; he must place himself as an apt, willing student in the school of Christ; and as he accepts the grace that is freely offered to him, the presence of Christ in the thought and in the heart will give him decision of purpose to lay aside every weight of sin, that the heart may be filled with all the fullness of God, and of his love."  {CE 111.1}

government. You have made efforts; but these efforts have only reached the external, they have not touched the spring condemnation. This passionate spirit, unless subdued, will increase to a peevish, faultfinding spirit; indeed, this is already upon you in a degree. You will be ready to resent everything. If jostled upon the sidewalk, you will be offended, and a word of complaint will spring to your lips. When driving in the street, if full half the road is not given you, you will feel stirred in a moment. If asked to put yourself out of your course to accommodate others, you will chafe and fret, and feel that your dignity is imposed upon. You will show to all your besetting sin. Your very countenance will indicate an impatient spirit, and your mouth will seem always ready to utter an angry word. In this habit, as in tobacco using, total abstinence is the only sure remedy. An entire change must take place in you. You frequently feel that you must be more guarded. You resolutely say, "I will be more calm and patient;" but in doing this you only touch the evil on the outside; you consent to retain the lion and watch him. You must go further than this. Strength of principle alone can dislodge this destroying foe and bring peace and happiness.  {2T 424.3} 

     You have repeatedly said: "I can't keep my temper." "I have to speak." You lack a meek, humble spirit. Self is all alive, and you stand guard continually to preserve it from mortification or insult. Says the apostle: "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Those who are dead to self will not feel so readily and will not be prepared to resist everything which may irritate. Dead men cannot feel. You are not dead. If you were, and your life were hid in Christ, a thousand things which you now notice, and which afflict you, would be passed by as unworthy of notice; you would then be grasping the eternal and would be above the petty trials of this life. {2T 425.1} 

Shireen,

" I do believe that we need to overcome besetting sins so that we can fully surrender to God's will."

Are you asking which comes first ?  Please elaborate. 

Here is a collection of quotes - I hope they are on the topic you intended.

By beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are actually to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We expect too little, and we receive according to our faith. We are not to cling to our own ways, our own plans, our own ideas; we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Besetting sins are to be conquered, and evil habits overcome. Wrong dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions begotten in us by the Spirit of God.  {UL 218.3}  

     This the Word of God explicitly teaches, but the Lord cannot work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure unless we crucify self, with the affections and lusts, at every step. If we try to work in our own way, we shall grievously fail. . . . We have a great work to do, and if we are laborers together with God, the ministering angels will cooperate with us in the work. . . . Then let us lay hold of this mighty power by living faith, praying and believing, trusting and working. Then God will do that which only God can do. . . .  {UL 218.4}  

     Self is the most difficult thing we have to manage. In laying off burdens, let us not forget to lay self at the feet of Christ. Hand yourself over to Jesus, to be molded and fashioned by Him, that you may be made vessels unto honor. Your temptations, your ideas, your feelings, must all be laid at the foot of the cross. Then the soul is ready to listen to words of divine instruction. Jesus will give you to drink of the water which flows from the river of God. Under the softening and subduing influence of His Spirit your coldness and listlessness will disappear. Christ will be in you a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. . . .  {UL 218.5}  

     Let the sanctifying power of truth be expressed in your life and revealed in your character. Let Christ mold you, as clay is molded in the hands of the potter.-- Letter 57, July 23, 1887, to J. H. Durland and A. A. John, workers in England.  {UL 218.6}  

Dear Children:--Jesus is inviting you to open the door of your hearts, and let him in. What are you going to do? Will you search carefully your heart, and see what you indulge in and cherish, that displeases Jesus and keeps the door of your heart shut against the dear Saviour? Is pride, or love of the world, or selfishness in your heart shutting Jesus from you? If it is keep Jesus out no longer. Turn these things out of your heart. Go alone and pray for grace, overcoming grace. Die to these sins, and make the happy exchange for Jesus, his presence, his love, his power.  {YI, October 1, 1857 par. 1}  

     Says Jesus, "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me." Have you heard the voice of Jesus? Have you responded to that voice? Has the cutting, saving message taken hold of the soul, and worked a reformation in the life? Or, have you suffered this precious voice, to be drowned by the confusion of the world? You can hear his voice if you will. You must first listen, then hear his voice, then empty the heart of besetting sins, that room may be made for Jesus, that he may come in and abide there.  {YI, October 1, 1857 par. 2} 

     Children, if you overcome your besetments you must pray, and watch yourselves with jealous care. The grace of God is sufficient for you. It is sufficient for the weakest, and the strongest must depend upon the same grace, or perish. To obtain this grace, you must go to your closet and there plead with God. "Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Be in earnest, be sincere. Fervent prayer availeth much. When you sincerely feel without the help of God you perish, then will he appear for you. Then, as you hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus will come in and sup with you, and you with him. Often will your faith be tested, be tried; but tire not. Be unwearied in your efforts. Trust God, and your heart will again be joyous with a sense of pardoned sin, and a holy confidence in your Redeemer. 

                                                           E. G. White. 

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  {YI, October 1, 1857 par. 3} 

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 It was impossible for the sinner to keep the law of God, which was holy, just, and good; but this impossibility was removed by the impartation of the righteousness of Christ to the repenting, believing soul. The life and death of Christ in behalf of sinful man were for the purpose of restoring the sinner to God's favor, through imparting to him the righteousness that would meet the claims of the law and find acceptance with the Father.  {FW 118.1}  

     But it is ever the purpose of Satan to make void the law of God and to pervert the true meaning of the plan of salvation. Therefore he has originated the falsehood that the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross was for the purpose of freeing men from the obligation of keeping the commandments of God. He has foisted upon the world the deception that God has abolished His constitution, thrown away His moral standard, and made void His holy and perfect law. Had He done this, at what terrible expense would it have been to Heaven! Instead of proclaiming the abolition of the law, Calvary's cross proclaims in thunder tones its immutable and eternal character. Could the law have been abolished, and the government of heaven and earth and the unnumbered worlds of God maintained, Christ need not have died. The death of Christ was to forever settle the question of the validity of the law of Jehovah. Having suffered the full penalty for a guilty world, Jesus became the Mediator between God and man, to restore the repenting soul to favor with God by giving him grace to keep the law of the Most High. Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them to the very letter. The atonement of Calvary vindicated the law of God as holy, just, and true, not only before the fallen world but before heaven and before the worlds unfallen. Christ came to magnify the law and to make it honorable.  {FW 118.2}  

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 The character of Christ is the one perfect pattern which we are to copy. Repentance and faith, the surrender of the will, and the consecration of the affections to God are the means appointed for the accomplishment of this work. To obtain a knowledge of this divinely ordained plan should be our first study; to comply with its requirements, our first effort.  {CT 50.1}  

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 Good works do not purchase the love of God, but they reveal that we possess that love. If we surrender our will and way to God, we will not work for God's love; we will obey the commandments of God because it is right to do thus. The disciple John wrote, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The true spiritual life will be revealed in every soul who is doing service for Christ. Those who are alive to Christ are imbued with His spirit, and they cannot help working in His vineyard. They work the work of God. Let every soul think prayerfully, that he may act consistently.--Manuscript 120, Aug. 23, 1899, "Go, Work Today in My Vineyard."  {TDG 244.6}  

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The first step in the path of obedience is to surrender the will to God. This may seem a difficult thing to do; for Satan will present every possible objection, and will manufacture difficulties, and magnify perplexities before the mind; but take the first step, and the next step on the ladder of progress will be easier. This ladder must be climbed round by round; but God is above the ladder, and His glory will illuminate every step of advancement. The path of faith and self-denial is an upward path; its way is heavenward, and as you advance, the misleading clouds of doubt and evil will be left behind.  {BEcho, April 6, 1903 par. 1} 

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 Please read the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Deuteronomy. . . . Parents are to take every precaution to prevent their children from growing up with objectionable traits of character. Parents are to control themselves, for the sake of Him in whom they claim to believe as their Creator and their Redeemer. Parents, unless you prepare yourselves for the present and the future life, you will not be admitted into the city of God. The words addressed by Paul to Timothy are addressed to every member of the church, "Take heed to thyself and to the doctrine." "Thyself" comes first. The soul-temple must be cleansed. The inner lamp must be trimmed. Piety, virtue, and godliness must be revealed in the home life. God will not accept the most splendid service unless the one who offers it is first consecrated to Him by the entire surrender of the soul. Unless the root be holy, there can be no acceptable fruit. The great apostle, in commending the churches of Macedonia to his Corinthian converts for their benevolence and Christian liberality, tells in emphatic words the secret of the value of their good works, "They first gave their own selves to the Lord."  {7MR 14.3}  

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  Paul Adapted His Methods.--To the Gentiles, he [Paul] preached Christ as their only hope of salvation, but did not at first have anything definite to say upon the law. But after their hearts were warmed with the presentation of Christ as the gift of God to our world, and what was comprehended in the work of the Redeemer in the costly sacrifice to manifest the love of God to man, in the most eloquent simplicity he showed that love for all mankind--Jew and Gentile--that they might be saved by surrendering their hearts to Him. Thus when, melted and subdued, they gave themselves to the Lord, he presented the law of God as the test of their obedience. This was the manner of his working--adapting his methods to win souls.-- Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 6, p. 55. (1895)  {Ev 230.4}  

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December 13, 1887 Union With Christ.

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By Mrs. E. G. White.

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     "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing."  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 1}  

     There is a wide difference between a pretended union and a real connection with Christ by faith. A profession of religion places men in the church, but this does not prove that they have a vital connection with the living Vine. A rule is given by which the true disciple may be distinguished from those who claim to follow Christ, but have not faith in him. The one class are fruit-bearing; the other, fruitless. The one are often subjected to the pruning-knife of God, that they may bring forth more fruit; the other, as withered branches, are to be severed from the living Vine.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 2}  

     "I am the vine, ye are the branches." Can we conceive of a more intimate relation to Christ than this? The fibers of the branch are almost identical with those of the vine. The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the trunk to the branches is unobstructed and constant. The root sends its nourishment through the branch. Such is the true believer's relation to Christ. He abides in Christ, and draws his nourishment from him.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 3}  

     This spiritual relation can be established only by the exercise of personal faith. This faith must express on our part supreme preference, perfect reliance, entire consecration. Our will must be wholly yielded to the divine will; our feelings, desires, interests, and honor, identified with the prosperity of Christ's kingdom and the honor of his cause, we constantly receiving grace from him, and Christ accepting gratitude from us.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 4}  

     When this intimacy of connection and communication is formed, our sins are laid upon Christ, his righteousness is imputed to us. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We have access to God through him; we are accepted through the Beloved. Whoever by word or deed injures a believer, thereby wounds Jesus. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to a disciple because he is a child of God, will be regarded by Christ as giving to himself.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 5}  

     It was when Christ was about to take leave of his disciples that he gave them the beautiful emblem of his relation to believers. He had been presenting before them the close union with himself by which they could maintain spiritual life when his visible presence should be withdrawn. To impress it upon their minds, he gave them the vine as its most striking and appropriate symbol.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 6}  

     The Jews had always regarded the vine as the most noble of plants, and a type of all that was powerful, excellent, and fruitful. "The vine," our Lord would seem to say, "which you prize so highly, is a symbol. I am the reality; I am the true Vine. As a nation prize the vine; as sinners you should prize me above all things earthly. The branch cannot live separated from the vine; no more can you live unless you are abiding in me."  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 7}  

     All the followers of Christ have as deep an interest in this lesson as had the disciples who listened to his words. In the apostasy, man alienated himself from God. The separation is wide and fearful; but Christ has made provision to again connect us with himself. The power of evil is so identified with human nature that no man can overcome except by union with Christ. Through this union we receive moral and spiritual power. If we have the Spirit of Christ, we shall bring forth the fruit of righteousness--fruit that will honor and bless men, and glorify God.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 8}  

     The Father is the vine-dresser. He skillfully and mercifully prunes every fruit-bearing branch. Those who share Christ's suffering and reproach now, will share his glory hereafter. He will not be "ashamed to call them brethren." His angels minister to them. His second appearing will be as the Son of man, thus even in his glory identifying him with humanity. To those who have united themselves to him, he declares, Though a mother may forget her child, "yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me."  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 9}  

     Oh, what amazing privileges are proffered us! Will we put forth most earnest efforts to form this alliance with Christ, through which alone these blessings are attained? Will we break off our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by turning unto the Lord? Skepticism and infidelity are wide-spread. Christ asked the question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" We must cherish a living, active faith. The permanence of our faith is the condition of our union.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 10}  

     A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union must perish. Christ first chose us, paying an infinite price for our redemption; and the true believer chooses Christ as first and last, and best in everything. But this union costs us something. It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud being. All who form this union must feel their need of the atoning blood of Christ. They must have a change of heart. They must submit their own will to the will of God. There will be a struggle with outward and internal obstacles. There must be a painful work of detachment, as well as a work of attachment. Pride, selfishness, vanity, worldliness--sin in all its forms--must be overcome, if we would enter into a union with Christ. The reason why many find the Christian life so deplorably hard, why they are so fickle, so variable, is, they try to attach themselves to Christ without first detaching themselves from these cherished idols.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 11} 

     After the union with Christ has been formed, it can be preserved only by earnest prayer and untiring effort. We must resist, we must deny, we must conquer self. Through the grace of Christ, by courage, by faith, by watchfulness, we may gain the victory.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 12}  

     Believers become one in Christ; but one branch cannot be sustained by another. The nourishment must be obtained through the vital connection with the Vine. We must feel our utter dependence on Christ. We must live by faith on the Son of God. That is the meaning of the injunction, "Abide in me." The life we live in the flesh is not to the will of men, not to please our Lord's enemies, but to serve and honor Him who loved us, and gave himself for us. A mere assent to this union, while the affections are not detached from the world, its pleasures and its dissipations, only emboldens the heart in disobedience.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 13}  

     "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." He feels that he is the purchase of the blood of Christ, and bound by the most solemn vows to glorify God. The love of sin and the love of self are subdued in him. He daily asks, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The true Christian will never complain that the yoke of Christ is galling to the neck. He accounts the service of Jesus the truest freedom. The law of God is his delight. Instead of seeking to bring down the divine commands, to accord with his deficiencies, he is constantly striving to rise to the level of their perfection.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 14}  

     God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in his grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord. Are you ready? Have you the wedding garment on? That garment will never cover deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy. The eye of God is upon you. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We may conceal our sins from the eyes of men, but we can hide nothing from our Maker.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 15}  

     Such experience must be ours if we would be prepared to stand in the day of God. Now, while probation lingers, while Mercy's voice is still heard, is the time for us to put away our sins. While moral darkness covers the earth like a funeral pall, the light of God's standard-bearers must shine the more brightly, showing the contrast between Heaven's light and Satan's darkness.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 16}  

     To talk of religious things in a casual way, to pray for spiritual blessings without real soul-hunger and living faith avails little. The wondering crowd that pressed close about Christ, realized no vital power from the contact. But when the poor, suffering woman, in her great need, put forth her hand and touched the hem of Jesus' garment, she felt the healing virtue. Hers was the touch of faith. Christ recognized that touch, and he determined there to give a lesson for all his followers to the close of time. He knew that virtue had gone out of him, and turning about in the throng he said, "Who touched my clothes?" Surprised at such a question, his disciples answered, "Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?"  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 17}  

     Jesus fixed his eyes upon her who had done this. She was filled with fear. Great joy was hers; but had she overstepped her duty? Knowing what was done in her, she came trembling, and fell at his feet, and told him all the truth. Christ did not reproach her. He gently said, "Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 18}  

     Here was distinguished the casual contact from the touch of faith. Prayer and preaching, without the exercise of living faith in God, will be in vain. But the touch of faith opens to us the divine treasure-house of power and wisdom; and thus, through instruments of clay, God accomplishes the wonders of his grace.  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 19}  

     This living faith is our great need today. We must know that Jesus is indeed ours; that his Spirit is purifying and refining our hearts. If the followers of Christ had genuine faith, with meekness and love, what a work they might accomplish! What fruit would be seen to the glory of God! 

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  {RH, December 13, 1887 par. 20}