Just thoughts... (yeah right).

Ephesians 2:1-10

(verse 3) “… gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.”

Hm… in reading this verse, it dawned on me that the sinful nature doesn’t just have cravings and desires- the combo is complete with thoughts. We may often recognize these thoughts as those which “pop up” or randomly come to us, and we *gasp* because of how “off” they are. Yet, it’s not the revelation that our sinful nature has thoughts that caught my attention in this verse, but the fact that the sinful nature seeks to follow those thoughts. Because we are of the flesh, our minds must be trained DAILY to think on those things which are true, noble, right, etc (etc. Philippians 4:8). No, it is not uncommon for Christians to experience those thoughts because of our fleshly condition. What is uncommon and that which we need to uplift our brothers and sisters in prayer about is the sinful nature’s want to gratify and follow those thoughts.

*Notice that desire and thought are put together in this particular sentence. One can have a thought and not act on it. What makes the difference between them and the other person who had the same thought then acted on it is the level of desire they have on the inside. If your flesh’s desire to gratify itself is greater than your spirit’s desire to gratify God, your flesh is going to win. So my question is, what do you honestly desire more- to satisfy the flesh or please God?

I’ll stop here on this for now, but I’ll keep the same closing…

Step 3:
In being honest with God, we need to be honest with ourselves. Do we feel prone to satisfying our fleshly desires rather than our spirit’s desires? If we really want to reconnect the spiritual lines to the Heavenly Father, this question must be addressed. Yes, God knows every detail about us, even that which we are going to talk or ask Him about before we even say it. Yet, no matter how far or close you are to Him, He still expects us to worship, or glorify Him through our actions, in spirit and truth.

*So, true or false?: Did we disconnect the spiritual line to Him on purpose because we wanted time to do the things WE wanted to do (gratify the thoughts and desires of the flesh)? Have we been rebellious towards the calling on our lives?
*What was the one thought or many thoughts that revealed some deep, inner desire of our flesh leading us into sin? What are those desires within us we attempt to hide from others and even God?

Whatever the case or scenario may be in our lives, it is note too late. If we repent of our sins, asking God to remove those desires within us that are not of Him, He will forgive us and restore us, molding our desires to become His desires for our lives. It won’t be until then that we can rest assured that our spirit’s desires stand stronger than our fleshly desires, not wanting and easily prone to following the desires and thoughts of the sinful nature.