passions and desires
After escaping North Korea and entering South Korea, a reporter asked her a question about conditions in the North. She reported about the malnutrition of millions of people and the strict rules, and how when those rules were broken, they could execute the entire family. The reporter asked if there was any happiness under those appalling conditions. She informed him that even in their hunger; they were very happy people who laughed a lot.
She told the reporter that it amazed her to discover in the South and indeed other countries; the people did not seem happy. When asked why, she said, “I think they have so much that it produces tension and happiness eludes them.”
The U.S. could be one country where people are not happy. We have everything, yet when we glance around; we don’t see lots of cheerful people.
Unhappiness can drive us to some serious situations, and the Apostle Paul addressed the Church of Galatia about that as we read in Galatians 5:16-18 NIV.
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Can the pressures of getting ahead, keeping up with the neighbor, how we act and look, getting more toys, form views that make us unhappy? Are our passions and desires bigger than our faith? What if we shoved all those things from our lives and lived in the Spirit? What If we did that?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
It is a fact that Christianity grows faster in impoverished countries than in wealthy countries. They are not distracted as we are in the Industrial societies. They have found Christ to be their strength and the Holy Spirit to be their mentor. Can you do a self-audit?
Where are you regarding the “flesh” versus the “Spirit?” On which side are you living? Take a bite of the good “fruit.”
