Too focused on my flesh

I find myself too focused on my flesh. Not just from time to time, but constantly. Perhaps my biggest enemy to overcome is my own fleshly human nature, with its lusts and desires. The enemy knows my weaknesses and plays on them. Too often I give in to my fleshly desires.

How can I be a true servant of the Lord if I’m constantly in my flesh? Not in a physical sense, because I can’t escape my flesh altogether, but in a mental and spiritual sense.

Jesus said His Kingdom is not of this world and neither are those who are of His Kingdom. Which means that we enter a new and different kingdom when we are born again of the Spirit. While we must remain in these earthly bodies as long as we live and breathe, we can live as citizens of God’s kingdom. While we are in this world, we don’t have to be friends with this world. James wrote:

James 4:4-6 NLT
[4] You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. [5] Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. [6] And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.4.4-6.NLT

So perhaps I’m still a friend of the world too much; more often than I realize or am willing to admit.

Paul wrote extensively about this flesh against the spirit dilemma in Romans and the other Epistles. It’s because of our flesh and our inability to overcome the flesh that Jesus came. What the law could not do, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of human flesh, to defeat the flesh by nailing it to the cross.

When I attempt to overcome and defeat my flesh with my own strength and efforts, I fail miserably. I may experience temporary, short lived bursts of success when I put my mind to it, aka willpower. But I need to realize I don’t have to fight against my own flesh by my own wit.

I must relinquish lordship of my own life and heart in holy surrender to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and allow my Counselor, my Helper,my Comfortor and Teacher to lead and guide me. This is what it means to worship Him in spirit and in truth; to love Him with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I must give Him all of me. I can’t give him most of me but keep a little bit for my own foolish pleasure. Unless and until I’m fully surrendered to Him, I’ll remain in the flesh, a carnally minded Christian, having a form of belief, but denying His power within me.

Am I still focusing on and struggling with my flesh? When will I learn to completely let go? This battle does not belong to me, but to Him who shed His blood for the forgiveness of my sins. My best recourse and response is total abandonment my life, my will, my all, so that Christ can live in and through me.

I find myself, lately, surrendering to God and His will all day, every day. I’m constantly denying myself, taking up my cross and following Him, because the way of my flesh only leads to destruction and death.

So am I too focused on my flesh? Not as much as I was previously. It’s a daily repentance, resurrection and restoration. It’s a lifelong journey, lived day by day. When I focus on Him through daily prayer and meditation on scripture, my focus changes. He has the best plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11)