This morning I was spending time in 1Peter and realizing how those that Peter was trying to encourage, faced the same battles we do today. It constantly amazes me how the scriptures are timeless. Today the battles of lusts and all the categories of it, are of biblical proportions. The sin of sex and pornography is available 24/7 on every phone we keep at our side. The sin of idolatry of anything is thrust at us in every media, and every thing someone else has, that we desire. Matthew Henry said, “The grand mischief that sin does to man is this, it wars against the soul; it destroys the moral liberty of the soul; it weakens and debilitates the soul by impairing its faculties; it robs the soul of its comfort and peace; it debases and destroys the dignity of the soul, hinders its present prosperity, and plunges it into everlasting misery. Of all sorts of sin, none are more injurious to the soul than fleshly lusts. Carnal appetites, lewdness, and sensuality, are most odious to God, and destructive to man’s soul. It is a sore judgment to be given up to them.” Pray for the strength to resist whatever temptation you are facing today, and tomorrow.
Temptations
1 Peter 2:11-12 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Today’s society breeds lust at every turn. We not only are subject to the lusts of the sins of sex, we are subject to the lusts of the sins of idolatry heavily in today’s world. It is a battle of biblical proportions to anyone who has air to breath another day. These fleshly lusts are part of an invisible war that rages deep within our souls. This is the spiritual war that how we respond to affects our daily walk with God. It is not something that we see, but we can feel. Our flesh will want to lash out, or pursue, or even just satisfy our desires in our mind. But the mind is the battlefield.
We only can prepare for these daily trials through the strength that God provides. Galatians 5:16-17 says,” Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” We must pray for strength to resist the temptations that will arise today. We must consistently pursue a relationship with Christ for our feet will only be here for a while, as we are described above “as sojourners and pilgrims”. He is the only way to obtain the strength to have victory if the battle that rages within us.
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