I am Dead to Sin Romans 6:11 by Susan L.

  "Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." NKJ
  "So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin but alive to God through Christ Jesus." JCB
  "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts."  Rom 6:12

  "Lusts." Hmmm, that's a plural isn't it? It covers pretty much everything we covet, desire, want, or absolutely have to have that takes us away from God. How many of our actions are motivated by lusting after something?
  Lust flies in the face of trust.
  It separates us from exercising the faith, the belief, that anything and everything we need will be provided by our Lord. It turns us away from the greatest Source of anything and everything we need.
  It's all about choosing the higher road.

  I'm not very good at it sometimes.
  The phone rang the other day. It was from a man who claimed to be a manager at Fed Ex. He told me I'd won 2.3 million dollars, a Mercedes coupe, a microwave and a blender courtesy of the Clearing House and Readers Digest. I wanted to believe but after making a couple of phone calls, it was obviously a fraud. That's as far as I went with it.
  If a winning ticket isn't sitting in the palm of my hand, it's for sure a scam. That's sound advice from the Anti-Fraud people here in Canada.
  What this brief invasion from the land of the lost did was stir up discontentment with what I have. I went on a mental spending spree that ended up with me looking around my home and picking out its inadequacies: the kitchen, the bathroom, the driveway, the lawn, my bedroom, the tree stumps, the cat claw marks on the furniture (grrrr!)...yah. I mentally trashed the place.
   A phone call was all it took to wipe away the gratitude I usually have for my home, the sanctuary God provided, and sent me lusting after the most expensive renovations imaginable.
  Gratitude makes home improvements an exercise of stewardship. Gratitude means I can do these things when I have the means the Lord will provide. It doesn't have to be today. I don't have to go in debt to make it happen NOW! (That's something else the phone call stirred up, the need for instant gratification.)
  Lust is a garden that only grows toxic, invasive weeds.
  Gratitude is the weed killer we can use to overcome our foe: the thief who steals joy. The betrayer of souls wants nothing more than to keep us unhappy with the way things are.
  I am content to wait, to do a little bit at a time. I know the Lord has a master plan that far outweighs anything I could possibly imagine. He's got an amazing eye for design after all. :)
  Father, forgive me for the times I've let lust dictate my thoughts and actions. Grant me the insight to recognize lust and strength to chase ungodly desires from my life. In Jesus' name I pray. AMEN!