You will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. My accountability group has been going over the book of Galatians for the past few months. I was reading in chapter 5 last night and I got into the difference between the lusts or desires of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit.
The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
Galatians 5:19-21
I was immediately confronted with something last night. Most people when they hear "works of the flesh" immediately turn towards sexual or physically impure actions. I know that was my initial thought. I was thinking I was doing pretty awesome because I don't go to explicit websites, I'm not engaged in a sexually impure relationship, and God has really done a work with my mindset on lust. I was patting myself on the back. "Good job, Jeff! You're doing so good! You're walking in the fruit of the Spirit!"
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
I was convicted. My attitude and my actions hadn't been lining up with that description of the fruit of the Spirit. I find that we tend to justify the things that we are doing that are bad so that we can feel like we're doing better than we really are. I will admit that there was a time in my life that I battled lust. It was a HUGE struggle in my life and a huge problem that affects most young men. I felt like since I had kicked that habit and that problem that I was all fine and dandy! Once I figured out that there are 15 things listed in the "works of the flesh" and sexual impurity or lust are only dealt with in 4 of them, I realized that the battle was only beginning. Sometimes, the devil will get you to focus on 1 area of your life that you really feel that you struggle in and let you totally disregard the rest of your issues. For me, the devil was bringing lust to the forefront in my mind. He was attacking my thoughts constantly and causing me to focus all of my energy and time on that one issue. While this was going on, I was constantly angry, depressed, and altogether defeated. So yes, I started walking in self control, but where was my joy? Where was my peace, patience, and kindness?
I started asking myself some questions last night. Why does my anger not disgust me like lust did? Why does my jealousy of some and down right hatred of other people not affect me in the same way? Why am I justifying the things that are just as ugly and just as stupid? I've been asking God to continually renew my mind so that I will not view these things as okay. They aren't okay. So if we walk in the fruit of the Spirit then our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control will totally outweigh and block out the desires of the flesh.
I would like to encourage you to look inside yourself. Ask God to reveal those things that are in you that need to be purged. Allow Him to show you the underlying and deeper issues that He may really want to get to and deal with. For me, I know that my attitude has inhaled rather profusely over the past few months. I'm frustrated many times over stuff that shouldn't frustrate me so much. I'm constantly having to battle to stay positive. I'm continually praying that God totally take all that junk away so that I can see Him more clearly and so that my heart can be in tune with His in a stronger and clearer way. Hope this helped you guys. Have a great and blessed week! I love you all!
