Have you crucified your flesh- its affections and lusts?

Seriously, have you? We tend to cling to our affections and lusts as if we'd perish without them.  You say you have no affections and lusts to crucify? Praise God! So many of us have them both and many of them, not just a few. 

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 

What sort of affections do you have?  What sort of passions do you have that supersede Christ in your life?

Is ANYTHING supposed to be before God in our lives? Seriously, is ANYTHING supposed to come before God?

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 

Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment. 

We are to love God with ALL our heart, with ALL our soul, with ALL our mind.

If God is FIRST in our lives then we are crucifying our affections and lusts because they are not of God.

Too often we put things and OTHERS first in our lives and we tell ourselves that God wants us to put them first, but He doesn't, He really doesn't. God wants to be first in our lives and then with HIM first we truly can love others. If we put others before God- what love are we really loving them with? Ask yourself that question- what love can you give others if it's not God's love? It certainly isn't a real love but a love that mimics real love.

There is A LOT of false love that is completely disguised as being true, selfless love when in fact it is very selfish and not in the least bit selfless. We don't want to think about these things though. We don't want to believe any love that seems selfless and wonderful could be false love. 

We need God first in all things and when that happens, truly we are crucifying our affections and lusts, our selfishness, our self-serving.

May God HELP us all by the grace of our loving heavenly SAVIOR Jesus Christ our LORD now and forever!

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.