Fighting the Flesh

I have 3 forces fighting a battle within me.

One is spiritual. It’s the part of me that desires to get up early and spend time with The Lord.

The other force is professional in nature. The one that is driven to learn more about the things that will help me make more money.

The third one is the flesh. This force craves staying up late binging on shows like The Good Wife and Justified and sleeping late the next day. It’s a powerful force and knows me well. It knows just the right things to say in the mornings.

“The bed is so warm and I’m tired. I work 2 jobs and need the rest. Don’t I work 12-15 hours a day everyday? I didn’t get home til 11 o’clock last night, right? Sure, I watched TV til 1am but I earned it and needed to unwind. I’ll get up early tomorrow. God loves me and understands.”

And that’s how the flesh fights and wins. It uses the facts and argues logically always playing to my pride. It doesn’t have to scorch the ground and wipe me out completely. It just has to win one day a time.

And that day I get up just in time to do the necessary things, but nothing to feed forces 1 and 2. Or as my friend, Arthur says, “Work yourself sick just to be broke”.

He means financially but a person can be broke spiritually as well. And we will remain so until we break the cycle by punching our flesh in the mouth.

As Charles Stanley said, our discipline determines our destiny.

And as God says, in Hebrews 12:11 ESV, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Take that, flesh.