Lusts VS. Soul

Scripture Read: 1 Peter 2:11-12 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.  [12] Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. 

Application: This hits me where I am at, but do I know how this works. How do my lusts wage war against my soul? 1. They keep me thinking on the non-spiritual level. My soul desires to live in the spiritual realm, but cannot if my lusts are ruling. 2. The desire of the flesh is to please itself; this is detrimental to the condition of my soul. Selflessness brings growth. These desires even pervert that which is good for the soul. My soul loves sex and is edified by it if with my wife. But if my flesh lives in lustful fantasy about other women or even drives me to porno – then sex is perverted to something damaging. If I enjoy different foods, my soul rejoices in the gift of taste buds from the Lord, but if I glutton out – then food is perverted from being nourishing and enjoyable, to being enjoyable to the point of killing my health. This goes on in every area of life. So I must re-evaluate each and every item on a regular basis and make sure my soul is the one being pleased, not the flesh. God keep me close and help me be disciplined.