1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

James 4:1-10 1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you 1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

The battlefield of the mind is where victory or defeat take place and our spiritual address is formed.

Sinful desires are one of the sources of spiritual battles in a believer’s life.

Romans 12:2 says—Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

God answers the righteous prayers when they align with His heart’s desire for us.

Instead of seeking worldly success, Christ followers close to the heart of God seek that which will bring glory to God.

“He hears the cry of the righteous.” (Ps. 34:15)

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Our idolatry comes from our heart seeking things of this world over the divine.

To choose the things of this world to adore is to make an enemy of God and drift away from real Christianity.

Our thoughts must be run through the grid of God’s Word so to live a life close to Christ.

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

To have victory in this life, we must surrender constantly to total control of the Spirit in our life.

Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

You cannot be conquered by urges or the devil when you continue to resist in the name of Jesus.

The address of Jesus is victory and it is much better to live at that address then create our own out of pride.

...Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

To be double minded, means to trust in the world’s ways and not in God’s Word which creates a distance from God and His victory.

To have the heart and mind of God is to hate and mourn sin’s effects and replace it with fear of God.

Only through humility and a ever present hunger for the divine will we ever be lifted up by God.