Warring Passions

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 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. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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.
James 4:1–4
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Warring Passions
            As Christians, we know that we are sinners. We know that we were conceived and born with sin. We know that we would remain in that sin if not for the love of God in sending His Son Jesus Christ to take our sins and die with them so that we could be reconciled to the Father. As Christians we know we are forgiven for the sake of Christ, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. Yet within us wages a war. Our passions and sinful desires fight against the new person we are in Christ. The devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh entice and enflame these passions to battle against the new creation we are in Christ. We become friends with the world that promotes these sinful passions and in doing so create enmity with God. Yet God does not abandon us. He comes to us through His Word and Sacraments, giving relief and rest from the ravages of battle. The water of Holy Baptism quenches our thirsty souls as we are fed on the Bread of Life. Our war-torn spirit is healed and made whole through the assurance of forgiveness pronounced in Holy Absolution. And all this comes to us freely out of pure divine goodness so that the passions are defeated, and we reign victorious in Christ.