ON SAYING “NO.”

The flesh wants what it wants but if the Child of God wants to live in victory, it must learn to tell the flesh “No.” This begins every morning by stressing it with discipline. We must teach it to obey us, by dictating our terms of interaction. This is not because we don’t enjoy an extra minute of sleep, an extra helping of dinner, or the easy dopamine of spying a naked body, but because we have chosen to let nothing dominate us but Christ. So we fast, to rebuke it. We exercise, to rebuke it. We stay awake, to rebuke it. We starve it until it submits, and then once it does, we discipline it with Scripture and make it obey us. So that our flesh might be redeemed. We learn to tell it “No!,” as a father does to a child he loves. We can have hope that one day, the things that the flesh craves may be satiated by only beautiful things, through God’s discipline. Lust becomes love. Gluttony becomes nutrition, and sloth transforms into industry. This starts with everyday saying, “No!”