Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
Our souls are slaves to our bodies’ needs to quench our passions and desires through the vehicle of our senses. We crave what we can see, touch, hear, smell and taste. Pleasures are gifts from God, who created us with the ability to enjoy them. Unfortunately, the pursuit to fulfill them often leads to various degrees of overindulgence and selfish endeavors, which, if left unchecked, results in addictions, damaged relationships and irreversible regrets.
When we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit begins a work in us that we must cooperate with. Repentance is not automatic and requires a devotion to turn from sin but also to seek the Lord with all our heart, who will then empower us to overcome temptations as we learn to trust and lean on him.
I like the way Madame Guyon illustrated this process when she wrote this in the late 1600s:
“When the vessel is in port the mariners are obliged to exert all their strength that they may clear her thence and put to sea; but at length they turn her with facility as they please. In like manner, while the soul remains in sin and creaturely entanglements, very frequent and strenuous endeavours are requisite to effect its freedom; the cords which withhold it must be loosed; and then by strong and vigorous efforts it gathers itself…pushing off gradually from the old port.
When the vessel is thus turned, in proportion as she advances on the sea, she leaves the land behind; and the farther she departs from the old harbour, the less difficulty and labour is requisite in moving her forward: at length she begins to get sweetly under sail and now proceeds so swiftly in her course that the oars which have become useless are laid aside. How is the pilot now employed? He is content with spreading the sails and holding the rudder. To spread the sails is to lay one’s self before God in the prayer of simple exposition, that we may be acted upon by His Spirit: to hold the rudder is to restrain our hearts from wandering from the true course, recalling it gently, and guiding it steadily to the dictates of the Blessed Spirit, which gradually gain possession and dominion of the heart, just as the wind by degrees fills the sails and impels the vessel. While the winds are fair the pilot and mariners rest from their labours, and the vessel glides rapidly along without their toil; and when they thus repose and leave the vessel to the wind, they make more way in one hour than they had done in a length of time by all their former efforts: were they even now to attempt using the oar they would not only fatigue themselves, but retard the vessel by their ill-timed labours.
This is the manner of acting we should pursue…it will, indeed, advance us in a short time, by the Divine impulsion, infinitely farther than a whole life spent in reiterated acts of self-exertion; and whosoever will take this path will find it easier than any other. If the wind is contrary and blows a storm, we must cast anchor to withhold the vessel: our anchor is a firm confidence and hope in our God, waiting patiently the calming of the tempest and the return of a favourable gale as David waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto him and heard his cry (Psalm 40:1). We must, therefore, be resigned to the Spirit of God, giving up ourselves wholly to His Divine Guidance.”
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Dwell in His secret place 