Following the Lead of your Emotions into Situations you think will make you Happy.
The flesh is so powerful it is not easily ignored. It is like a crying baby waking in the middle of the night. The flesh will not be quieted until it is fed. The flesh has many different appetites. What your flesh is screaming for may differ from what my flesh craves.
The problem is the appetite of the flesh is like a bottomless pit. Much like that screaming baby that needs to be fed every three to four hours. The flesh is insatiable. It may take a few hours, a day, or even a week, before it awakes, demanding to have its fill from the plate of lust it requires, turning our quest for happiness into addictions.
What does your flesh crave, attention, seduction, manipulation, sex, drugs, money, food, or alcohol? Does your flesh have a name, or is it a buffet that feeds the desires of your flesh? Money, a little sex, some attention accompanied by hands of desire with a taste of alcohol, is that the recipe to silence the cry of your flesh?
When does your flesh cry? When you are hurt, lonely, afraid, feeling unsure, unconfident, ugly, or used, do you awake to the outcry of your flesh? Does the hunger of your flesh rock you to sleep at night, or are you so busy feeding it that you never feel the ravenous appetite of your flesh?
I have been so uncomfortable by the cry of the flesh that I have perused the buffet, sampling if you will, to quiet the desire. I have succumbed to the cries of the flesh so often that I understand the recipe to suppress my flesh. I know what my desires taste like. However, I cannot say with any truth that feeding my desires has led to happiness.
Yes, the truth is that feeding the flesh has allowed true happiness to escape my grasp. I recognize that the fleshly appetite leads to temporary or momentary happiness followed by another outcry of the ravenous appetite of the flesh. Other times what I believed to be happiness was just another form of bondage. Knowing the recipe of my lust, to silence the flesh, is not the answer.
The answer to silence the cries appears to be as various as the appetites of the flesh. The obvious answer would be to control the emotional aspects of your life. I have observed those who live a disciplined life of rules and laws that prevent their falling into temptation. I have witnessed those who change the appetite of their flesh with the word of God exercising their spirit until it is strong enough to overpower the desire of the flesh. In both instances they appear to be content on their spiritual journey. Yet, as I live by grace and mercy, the laws of the land do not suffice in quieting my flesh. I, too, have to change my mindset and build my spiritual man less I will be tempted to Follow the Lead of my Emotions into Situations I think may make me Happy.
Chinaz Love 