Ephesians 4:22 edited “Forget the former conversation you had with Satan, who corrupted your thinking because of your appetites;”

That is a drastic change of text. If you did not read yesterday’s devotional, this will make more sense if you back up and read that one first.

Appetite has a wider range of meaning than lust but the essentials are still the same. You developed an appetite for something, anything, because you tried it. We left off with Matthew 5:6 yesterday in which we identified hunger and thirst as acceptable, if you hunger and thirst for the right things. Truth, righteousness, and holiness are good things. Hunger and thirst are natural to the human condition, God built us that way for growth. In this case, growth in Christ.

The conversations we do not remember with Satan are self-satisfaction. Partaking of anything which is pleasing to self is what forms our appetites. It could be money, power, influence, fame, or things of a more personal and insidious nature. We partake of many things which form the basis of our behavior. Connect anything with appetite and a close examination of that appetite will reveal the driving force behind choices.

Proverbs 30:14-16 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

Key to understand of this Proverb is the horseleach (leech) which devours the poor and needy. A leech cares for nothing but itself. These appetites will never be enough, they only consume and kindle a fire within which is selfish in nature.