Fallen Man

The following is an excerpt from something I'm piecing together.

* "Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul." - 1 Peter 2:11*

Abstain from sinful desires? Resisting the temptation of sin & flesh? Now that is a lot easier said than done. How easy is it for us to go around saying, don't give in, just fight it. I don't care what you're dealing with, it is not easy to just walk away from temptations; I mean c'mon they're just so tempting. But it is clear, we are urged to abstain from those sinful desires. Why? They wage war against your soul. That sounds just crazy, but it is true. We are going to face these temptations and situations throughout the day and daily, but we must resist. Besides the fact the God commands us not to sin, but the sin has consequences. So many consequences to our sin, that we may, including myself, not even be aware of. Trust me, I fall short consistently, but the more I fall, the more I realize the effects and affects. I see how by not fighting through things, that the effects are obvious. They affect me. They change my mood. They change my desire. They change my mindset. They change my everything. Sin leaves you feeling ashamed, unworthy, disgusting, and just flat out terrible. Which in result causes you to be discouraged and down. Because of that, then sin leaves you vulnerable to falling more to more sin. It's like a chain reaction. Starts here, then there, then back there, then over there, and you're left falling apart to pieces. All the while fighting to get your feet back firm in Him. That seems like a lot of chaos to go through just because why not right? See sin really does wage war against your soul; I personally like to think it eats away at you. It's why we are urged to stay away from those sinful desires and fight them. 

But like I said it's not easy though. Well, especially not easy to do on our own. We absolutely can't do it on our own. So how do we get past and abstain from those sinful desires. The answer is found in Galatians.

* "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." - Galatians 5:16*

If we are walking by the Spirit, we will not fall. That again is hard, but so possible when we remain in Him, when we depend and rely purely on Him. That's the key, that's how we truly walk by the Spirit. When everything is on Him, it makes everything possible. It can't just be a sometimes thing or a part time thing, it needs to be a full time, nonstop, all day, every day, twice on Sunday thing. We need to be living, breathing, serving Him that will keep us from gratifying the flesh. When we take the focus off of us, and place it on Him and only Him, then does it become easier to bypass the flesh. We actually seem to forget about it, because we are so consumed in Him. 

That is my goal to make everything that was about me, now about Him. He is it, He is all there is.

* "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." - Acts 20:24*

with love as always,

- Adam