All of us. Every. Single. One. It doesn't matter if you are a born again Christian or not, you still have a sinful nature. That part inside you which rebels against God and all that He wants. Call it our natural selves, if you will. We all have it, and it's hungry. What it feeds on is us. It's a parasite that will devour it's host until both are destroyed.
Don't feed it.
What do I mean by that? You've probably heard some version of the story where there are two dogs inside of every man, fighting to control him. Which one will win? The one who's fed the most.
How do you feed your sinful nature? Oh, you know, don't you? Of course you do. The things you know you shouldn't do, but you like to do--those are square meals for your sinful nature. "Little white lies," "this won't hurt anybody," and "nobody will ever know" are perfect snacks. Knowingly and openly defying God's will is a gourmet banquet.
Your sinful nature feeds on sin. Like raw meat to a wild dog, the more you feed it, the more it wants. The braver it gets. The more likely it is to attack you. You cannot tame it. You cannot make it your friend. The more you feed it, the more it wants to eat you.
Starve it.
The sinful nature has more or less control over us depending on, among other things, how much we feed it. The more we sin, the stronger our sinful nature. Naturally, the opposite is true as well; the less we feed it, the weaker it gets. We know this to be true because the more we sin, the harder it is to resist sin. That's because our sinful nature has become stronger, taken more control of us.
Stop feeding it!
Stop playing with sin. If you look at sinful things, read sinful things, listen to sinful things, you are feeding your sinful nature. You choose whether your actions are righteous or evil. You choose what words come out of your mouth. You choose how you treat other people, where you allow your mind to roam, what you do, or don't do. It's up to you.
Your sinful nature is the mouth that bites you.
We sometimes hear, "The Devil made me do it." That's not true. Satan cannot make you do anything. He can tempt. He can mislead. He can lie, and manipulate and whisper and even scare, but he cannot force. It is you who chooses to sin or not. Your sinful nature is the mouth that bites you, and it has no trouble biting the hand that feeds it.
Choose wisely who you feed.
The opposing force within us to our sinful nature is our spiritual selves, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As sin feeds our sinful nature, God feeds our spiritual selves through His Word, prayer, Christian fellowship, obedience, faith, love . . . all things which are good.
You decide which self to feed--sin or spirit.
Which one do you want to control you?
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