43 Bible Verses about desires

Do not put young women on the list of widows, for when their youthful vigor comes between them and Christ, they want to marry,

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

That is why God has abandoned them to degrading passions. Their women have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural,

It is God's will that you should be consecrated, that you abstain from immorality, that each of you learn to take a wife for himself from pure and honorable motives,

You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry.

So God abandoned them, with their heart's cravings, to impurity, and let them degrade their own bodies.

They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error;

Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clear conscience, and I mean in every way to live an upright life.

That command gave sin an opening, and it led me to all sorts of covetous ways, for sin is lifeless without law.

But if you knew what the saying means, 'It is mercy, not sacrifice, that I care for,' you would not have condemned men who are not guilty.

But men who want to get rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish, harmful cravings, that plunge people into destruction and ruin. For love of money is the root of all the evils, and in their eagerness to get rich, some men wander away from the faith and pierce themselves to the heart with many a pang.

No one should think when he is tempted that his temptation comes from God, for God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil, and he does not tempt anyone. When anyone is tempted, it is by his own desire that he is enticed and allured. Then desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin is mature, it brings forth death.

You must go and learn what the saying means, 'It is mercy, not sacrifice, that I care for.' I did not come to invite the pious but the irreligious."

First of all, you must understand this, that in the last days mockers will come with their mockeries, going where their passions lead

If any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to everyone, and does not reproach one with it afterward, and he will give it to him.

We all lived among them once, indulging our physical cravings and obeying the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were doomed to God's wrath like other men.

You must pursue love, while you are cultivating the spiritual endowments, and especially inspired preaching. For anyone who speaks ecstatically is speaking not to men but to God, for no one can understand him, though he is uttering secret truths. But the inspired preacher does his fellow-men good and encourages and comforts them.read more.
Anyone who speaks ecstatically does himself good, but the inspired preacher does a congregation good. I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically??nless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good.

especially those who yield to their physical nature and indulge in passions that defile them, and despise authority. Rash, headstrong men! They stand in no awe of majesty, but deride beings

Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it. And God has placed people in the church, first as apostles, second as inspired preachers, third as teachers, then wonder-workers; then come ability to cure the sick, helpfulness, administration, ecstatic speaking. Is everyone an apostle? Is everyone an inspired preacher? Is everyone a teacher? Is everyone a wonder-worker?read more.
Is everyone able to cure the sick? Can everyone speak ecstatically? Can everyone explain what it means? But you must cultivate the higher endowments.

Jesus said to her, "Believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem. You worship something you know nothing about; we know what we worship, for salvation comes from the Jews. But a time is coming??t is already here!??hen the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and sincerity, for the Father wants such worshipers.read more.
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in sincerity."

That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said, "You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me. You never cared for burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin! So I said, 'See, I have come! as the Book of the Law says of me, O God, to do your will!' "read more.
At first he says, "You never wished or cared for sacrifices or offerings, or burnt-offerings or sacrifices for sin"??ll of which the Law prescribes??9 and then he adds, "See, I have come to do your will!" He is taking away the old to put the new in its place. And it is through his doing of God's will that we have been once for all purified from sin through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ in sacrifice. Every other priest stands officiating day after day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices, though they were powerless ever to remove people's sins. But Christ has offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, and has taken his seat at God's right hand, from that time waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by that one sacrifice he has forever qualified those who are purified from sin to approach God.

This is a trustworthy saying. Whoever aspires to the office of superintendent sets his heart on a fine work.

Those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the physical nature with its propensities and cravings.

People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical, and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of what is spiritual. For to be physically minded means death, but to be spiritually minded means life and peace. For to be physically minded means hostility to God, for it refuses to obey God's law, indeed it cannot obey it.read more.
Those who are physical cannot please God. But you are not physical but spiritual, if God's Spirit has really taken possession of you; for unless a man has Christ's spirit, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in your hearts, though your bodies are dead in consequence of sin, your spirits have life in consequence of uprightness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you. So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to the physical nature, to live under its control, for if you live under the control of the physical you will die, but if, by means of the Spirit, you put the body's doings to death, you will live. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

All this especially, because you know this critical time and that it is time for you to wake from your sleep, for our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is at hand. So let us throw aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us live honorably, as in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, or in immorality and indecency, or in quarreling and jealousy.read more.
But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about gratifying your physical cravings.

You must understand this, my dear brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to be angry, for men's anger does not produce the uprightness God wishes.

You must lay aside with your former habits your old self which is going to ruin through its deceptive passions. You must adopt a new attitude of mind, and put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God, with all the uprightness and holiness that belong to the truth.

So treat as dead your physical nature, as far as immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed are concerned; for it is really idolatry.

Fly from the cravings of youth, and go in pursuit of uprightness, faith, love, and peace, in company with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts.

Like obedient children, do not adapt yourselves to the cravings you used to follow when you were ignorant, but like the holy Being who has called you, you must also prove holy in all your conduct,

Dear friends, I beg you, as aliens and exiles here, not to indulge the physical cravings that are at war with the soul.

Since Christ therefore has suffered in our physical nature, you must also arm yourselves with the same resolve. For he who suffers in his physical nature has done with sin, and no longer lives by what men desire, but for the rest of his earthly life by what God wills. You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry.read more.
They are amazed that you no longer join them in plunging into the flood of dissipation, and they abuse you for it; but they will have to answer for it to him who is ready to judge living and dead.

I mean this: Live by the Spirit, and then you will not indulge your physical cravings. For the physical cravings are against the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are against the physical; the two are in opposition, so that you cannot do anything you please.

For I know that nothing good resides in me, that is, in my physical self; I can will, but I cannot do what is right.

What causes wars and fights among you? Is it not your cravings, which are at war within your bodies?