Lusts are the desires that are born of "pathos"--the human condition, the diseased condition of the soul, the alienation from God which is the condition of the "natural person." 

These desires are inadequate means to fill the void left by the absence of the peace of God.  We delude ourselves into thinking that allowing these desires to guide our lives will fill that void but they will not. 

These are the desires that the carnal world appeals to and encourages in us so as to keep us in it and of it, adding our energy to it and thereby adding vitality to it.    We are conditioned by the world to respond to the emptiness we feel by satisfying these desires, rather than by turning to the Spirit and allowing it to work in us to create the peace that will truly fill the void.   A part of that work is an awareness that any relief we get from our lusts, any filling that they do, is temporary and unsatisfactory, like the way that sugar satisfies hunger.  Without that awareness we continue to throw good energy after bad--redoubling our efforts to satisfy our lusts as a means of finding relief from the suffering caused by our alienation from God.

6:38:26 AM