Memory Verse: “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.” - Galatians 5:17 (KJV)
Every believer who is genuinely seeking to live a godly life will, at some point, encounter a particular kind of internal conflict or a tension between two desires pulling in opposite directions. You want to pray, and yet something in you resists it. You intend to respond with patience, and yet irritation rises faster than you can suppress it. You resolve to walk in purity, and yet familiar temptations present themselves with a persistence that feels disproportionate to your resolve. You know what you ought to do, and you want to do it, and yet doing it feels like wading against a current.
This experience is not unique to you. It is not evidence that your faith is deficient or that God has abandoned you. It is the reality that the Scripture names plainly, addresses honestly, and provides a way through. And it is what today's passage speaks to directly.
Let us read it:
“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.” - Galatians 5:17 (KJV)
The verse identifies two agents and describes the relationship between them. The first is the flesh which is not merely the physical body, but the whole complex of fallen human desires, appetites, and instincts that remain in the believer even after the new birth. The flesh has its own cravings: it seeks pleasure, comfort, and self-gratification; it pulls toward what is easy, what feels satisfying in the moment, and what serves the self. The second agent is the Spirit — the Holy Spirit of God, who has taken up residence within every born-again believer and who has desires of His own: righteousness, holiness, and the glory of God.
These two are, as the Scripture states without softening, *contrary the one to the other.* They do not coexist peacefully. They do not reach a negotiated settlement. The flesh lusts — strenuously, urgently, persistently — against the Spirit. And the Spirit, with equal determination, moves against the flesh. The result of this ongoing contention is what Paul identifies at the end of the verse: *"so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."* The believer who is not walking carefully in the Spirit will find themselves doing what they did not intend and failing to do what they resolved.
This is precisely the tension that Paul unpacks in Romans 7, in terms so personal and transparent that they have resonated with believers across twenty centuries. He writes: *"For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do"* (Romans 7:19). This is not the voice of a carnal Christian who has given up trying. It is the honest testimony of a man who is deeply aware of the war within him. The awareness of the conflict is itself a mark of spiritual life — the unregenerate person does not experience this tension, because there is no Spirit within them warring against their flesh.
But Paul does not leave us in Romans 7. He brings us to Romans 8 — and Galatians 5 does the same. One verse before our passage, the solution is already stated: *"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh"* (Galatians 5:16). The answer to the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit is not self-discipline alone, not willpower, not religious effort. It is walking in the Spirit.
What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? It means orienting one's daily life — one's choices, attention, habits, and responses — around the leading and promptings of the Holy Spirit, rather than around the appetites of the flesh. It means making the things of the Spirit the things one consistently returns to: the Word of God, prayer, fellowship, worship, and obedience to what God has spoken. It means, when the flesh rises with its cravings, not negotiating with them but instead turning toward the Spirit — yielding, submitting, leaning into what He desires rather than what the flesh demands.
This is not a once-for-all achievement. The word "walk" implies something ongoing, rhythmic, and daily. Walking in the Spirit is not a summit to be reached but a road to be travelled — one step, one choice, one moment of yielding at a time. And the promise attached to it is unconditional: *"ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."* Not *might not* — *shall not.* When the Spirit is consistently given the upper hand, the flesh, though it does not cease to exist, does not prevail.
The conflict is real. But the outcome, for the believer who walks in the Spirit, is not in doubt. May the Lord help us to walk faithfully in Him. Amen.
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### 📖 Daily Reflection
It is worth noting that Galatians 5:17 does not say the flesh *might* lust against the Spirit, or that this happens occasionally in particularly weak believers. It states it as a present, ongoing reality for all who have the Spirit: the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to each other, and the contention between them is constant. The sooner a believer accepts this as the normal landscape of the Christian life rather than evidence of personal failure, the better equipped they are to navigate it wisely.
What changes the outcome of this conflict is not the intensity of one's feelings about it, but the daily, deliberate choice of what to feed. There is an old illustration — sometimes attributed to a Native American chief, but found in various forms across many traditions — of two wolves fighting within a person. When asked which one wins, the answer is: the one you feed. Whatever its origin, the principle is sound and thoroughly biblical. The flesh grows stronger when it is consistently indulged and attended to. The Spirit's leading becomes clearer and easier to follow when it is consistently responded to in obedience.
Ask yourself today: which side of this conflict am I feeding by my daily choices? What am I giving my attention, my time, and my appetite to? And where the flesh has been winning ground in your life — bring it honestly before God. Not in condemnation, but in the recognition that walking in the Spirit is a choice available to you today, and that God's promise to those who make it is firm.
*"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."* (Romans 8:5–6)
Prayer Session
Heavenly Father, I come before You today with an honest acknowledgement of the war that exists within me. I know what it is to desire what is right and to find resistance rising against that desire. I know what it is to intend well and to be pulled in a contrary direction. I thank You that Your Word does not pretend this conflict does not exist — it names it, and it shows me the way through.
Lord, I confess that there are areas in my life where I have been feeding the flesh rather than walking in the Spirit. Habits I have indulged that give the flesh ground. Choices I have made that moved me away from Your leading rather than toward it. Moments when I knew what the Spirit was prompting and I chose the easier, fleshly path instead. I bring all of this before You today and ask Your forgiveness.
By Your grace, I choose today to walk in the Spirit. I yield my desires, my appetites, and my daily choices to Your leading. Where the flesh cries out, help me to turn toward You rather than toward its cravings. Where familiar temptations present themselves, remind me that the one who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4), and that Your Spirit within me is more than sufficient to overcome what the flesh demands.
Help me to feed what is right - to give my time and attention to Your Word, to prayer, to the things that strengthen the Spirit's work in me rather than the things that embolden the flesh. Let this be a day in which the Spirit has the upper hand - not because of my strength, but because I am walking in Yours.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
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