43 Bible Verses about desires

Keep the young widows off this roll, for when they get to indulging their lower nature in opposition to Christ, they want to marry,

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman so as to have an evil desire for her at once has already committed adultery with her in his heart,

This is why God has given them up to degrading passions. For their females have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural,

For it is God's will that you should keep pure in person, that you should practice abstinence from sexual immorality, that each man among you should learn to take his own wife out of pure and honorable motives,

For the time that is past is enough for you to have accomplished what the heathen like to do, leading lives that are steeped in sensuality, lustful desires, drunkenness, carousing, revelry, dissipation, and idolatry that leads to lawlessness,

So God has given them up to sexual impurity, in the evil trend of their heart's desires, so that they degrade their own bodies with one another,

For by uttering arrogant nonsense, through base desires of the lower nature, they entice into immorality men who are just escaping from those who live in error,

Pray for me, for I am sure that I have a clear conscience, and in everything I want to live a noble life.

Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless.

If you only knew what that saying means, 'It is mercy and not sacrifice that I want,' you would not have condemned men who are not guilty.

But men who keep planning to get rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish, hurtful desires which plunge people into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil, and some men in reaching after riches have wandered from the faith and pierced their hearts with many a pang.

No one must say, when he is tempted to do evil, "I have a temptation from God to do evil," for God cannot be tempted to do evil, and He never tempts anyone to do so. But anyone is tempted to do evil when he is allured by his own evil desire and enticed by a bait. Then evil desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin is completed, it brings forth death.

Go, learn what this means, 'It is mercy and not sacrifice that I want.' It is not upright but sinful people that I have come to invite."

First of all, you must understand this, that in the last days mockers will come with their mockeries, living in accordance with their evil passions,

But if any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God who generously gives to everyone and never reproaches one with its lack, and it will be given to him.

once lived while gratifying the cravings of our lower nature, as we continued to carry out the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were exposed to God's wrath, as the rest of mankind.

Keep on pursuing love, but still keep cultivating your spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophesying. For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths. But whoever prophesies is speaking to men for their upbuilding. encouragement, and comfort.read more.
Whoever speaks in ecstasy builds up himself alone, but whoever prophesies builds up the congregation too. I would like for all of you to speak in ecstasy, but I would rather that you prophesy. The man who speaks with real prophetic insight renders greater service than the man who speaks in ecstasy, unless the latter explains it, so the congregation may receive an uplift.

especially those who satisfy their lower nature by indulging in its evil passions which defile them, and who despise authority. Daring, headstrong men! They do not tremble when they abuse persons of majesty,

So you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it. And God has placed people in the church, first as apostles, second as prophets, third as teachers, then wonder-workers; then people with power to cure the sick, helpers, managers, ecstatic speakers. Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all are wonder-workers, are they?read more.
Not all are people with power to cure the sick, are they? Not all are ecstatic speakers, are they? Not all can explain ecstatic speaking, can they? But you must earnestly continue to cultivate your higher spiritual gifts. And yet I will show you a way that is better by far:

Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans do not know what you are worshiping; we Jews do know what we are worshiping; for salvation comes from the Jews. But a time is coming -- indeed, it is already here -- when the real worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and reality, for the Father is looking for just such worshipers.read more.
God is a spiritual Being, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and reality."

So, when Christ was coming into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not wish, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you never took delight. Then I said, 'See, I have come, just as the Scripture writes about me in the book, O God, to do your will.'"read more.
Although at first He said, "You never wished or took delight in sacrifices and offerings, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings" -- all of which are repeatedly offered in accordance with the law -- He afterward said, "See, I have come to do your will." He is taking away the first to let the second take its place. It is by this will of God that we are consecrated through the offering of Jesus' body once for all. Every other priest stands officiating day after day and over and over again offering the same sacrifices, although they are unable to take away our sins. But this One offered up once for all and for all time one sacrifice for sins, and once for all took His seat at God's right hand, from that time waiting till His enemies should be made the footstool of His feet. For by that one sacrifice He has made perfect for all time those who are consecrated to Him.

This is a saying to be trusted: "Whoever aspires to the office of pastor desires an excellent work."

And those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the lower nature with its passions and evil cravings.

For people who live by the standard set by their lower nature are usually thinking the things suggested by that nature, and people who live by the standard set by the Spirit are usually thinking the things suggested by the Spirit. For to be thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means death, but to be thinking the things suggested by the Spirit means life and peace. Because one's thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means enmity to God, for it does not subject itself to God's law, nor indeed can it.read more.
The people who live on the plane of the lower nature cannot please God. But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you. So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to our lower nature to live by the standard set by it; for if you live by such a standard, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons.

Do this in particular because you know the present crisis, that it is high time for you to wake up out of your sleep, for our salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. The night has almost passed; the day is at hand. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. Let us live becomingly for people who are in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, nor in sexual immorality and licentiousness, nor in quarreling and jealousy.read more.
Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and put a stop to gratifying the evil desires that lurk in your lower nature.

You must understand this, my dearly loved brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry; for a man's anger does not produce the uprightness that God requires.

to lay aside, with your former way of living, your old self which is on the way to destruction in accordance with its deceptive impulses; and to have a new attitude of mind and put on the new self which has been created in the likeness of God, which fruits in right and holy living inspired by the truth.

So once for all put to death your lower, earthly nature with respect to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is real idolatry.

You must keep on fleeing from the evil impulses of youth, but ever strive for uprightness, faith, love, and peace, in association with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts.

As obedient children, stop molding your character by the evil desires you used to cherish when you did not know any better, but in accordance with the Holy Being who has called you, you must prove to be holy too,

Dearly beloved, I beg you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the evil desires of your lower nature, because they are always at war with the soul.

So then, since Christ has suffered in our physical form, you too must arm yourselves with the same determination. For whoever suffers in his physical form has done with sin, so that he no longer can spend the rest of his earthly life in harmony with human desires but in accordance with God's will. For the time that is past is enough for you to have accomplished what the heathen like to do, leading lives that are steeped in sensuality, lustful desires, drunkenness, carousing, revelry, dissipation, and idolatry that leads to lawlessness,read more.
They are astonished that you are not still rushing hand in hand with them into the same excesses of profligate living, and they abuse you for it; but they will have to give account for it to Him who is ready to judge living and dead.

I mean this: Practice living by the Spirit and then by no means will you gratify the cravings of your lower nature. For the cravings of the lower nature are just the opposite to those of the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are just the opposite of those of the lower nature; these two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please.

For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right.

What causes wars and quarrels among you? Is it not your different desires which are ever at war within your bodies? You desire things and cannot have them, and so you commit murder.