You Don’t Owe the Flesh Anything
Your flesh is a more sinister enemy to your spiritual life than you realize. In fact, it is the enemy. Your desires, your cravings, your ego - all these things are competing for the control of your mind. It’s so hard to do what we know is right. And the very things we tell ourselves we hate because they are wrong, we find ourselves doing anyway. (Romans 7:15-20)
The flesh and the spirit cannot both be full and healthy in your life. If you feed one you’ll starve the other. That’s just the way it works. But in this life, we have to contend with our bodies and flesh - our mind will drift into what naturally feels right, satisfying our physical desires and our ego.
Do not minimize what’s happening here, or rationalize your behavior, simply to avoid dealing with it. There’s a battle raging for the dominance of your mind. It’s an all out war.
Your mind is life’s steering wheel - whatever pulls your attention in this direction or that determines the path. And all along the way you’ll be forced to make choices that keep you on that path or redirect it.
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:5,6)
You don’t owe your fleshly cravings or your ego anything, they are not entitled to be fed by you or anyone else (Romans 8:12). We are however bought with a price and told to glorify God in our spirit and our body (1 Cor 6:19-20) Here’s the rule Paul is teaching us: you cannot offer your fleshly cravings, your ego, and the Holy Spirit a seat at the same table. They are hostile toward each other so you have to chose who gets your company. Scripture is unambiguous about this hostility:
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:7,8)
Now, you might be thinking, you e been asked to accomplish an impossible task. But how often do you say these words: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Did it ever occur to you that if you put God first, even you cannot be against yourself? In other words, the flesh and ego you carry in life cannot work against you because you’re putting God first in everything.
Just because something is a struggle does not mean it’s impossible. It is only a struggle because it is possible. The Bible says specifically to this issue, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). It’s not just a cliché or a charming sign you hang in your living room - It’s a promise of God to all those that mind themselves to put Him first.