What about JOY? Our fallen nature seeks to satisfy its JOY needs through seeking fun, excitement, happiness by the things that we do, the actions that we take to satisfy the desires of our flesh.

In our flesh, we want to have our physical body needs met. We want to eat delicious things, we want to have a nice massage, we want to sleep in a gorgeous comfy bed. We want to be dry when it rains outside, and many other physical things that may not even be appropriate to talk about here.

Also in our flesh we want to SEE exciting and titillating things.

Similarly, we also seek to get our joy needs met by the status and respect we receive from others. These three things are referred to in I John 2:16 which says, “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” (NIV) We have a natural tendency to do things that bring us more of these three things. And this is who we are, if we are carnal, if we are worldly, if we are walking by the flesh. This is how we seek to get our joy needs met.

…As opposed to what?

As opposed to when we are excited and fulfilled by the glory and majesty and holiness and love, the character, the person of God Himself through worship in all forms. We don’t have time to go into this here, but worship should completely consume every aspect our entire life, 24/7. Actually, it probably already does and you just don’t notice it. Everything we do is worship, all day long, seven days a week. Now we may not have processed that yet, but it actually is. The question is, what are we worshipping? And if you are worshipping God, and from His person and from His character, His face (a Hebrew expression of this), if that is fulfilling our soul, then our joy needs are being met that way. That is what walking by the Spirit is all about.

Have you ever noticed that maybe nothing has changed in your life relative to the physical world around you, but you get more joy by focusing on the beauty of God?