I've been in groups of guys who start talking about how to overcome lust. The conversation often quickly turns to how to change the heart. This is a good thing! It is our hearts that ultimately must change for anyone to defeat any sin. But in many cases, before the heart can change, you must first take yourself away from the bait. Consider this quote from the Puritan Thomas Brooks:
"The best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest distance from it; he who will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the brink of the pit, may find by woeful experience that it is a righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit."--Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
If you don't agree, think about this: what is the first thing you would tell an alcoholic who's trying to recover? Your would probably tell them to avoid the bar! And it's the same thing for lust. Here are some Bible verses that communicate this idea (all from the ESV translation):
"Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished."--Proverbs 6:27-29
"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."--2 Timothy 2:22
"Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body."--1 Corinthians 6:18
You may be thinking that this doesn't apply to you because you haven't literally committed adultery or had sex outside of marriage. But remember Jesus' words about lust:
"“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."--Matthew 5:27-30
Now time for some practical advice. How do you flee from temptation? The pastor at the church I went to when I was in grad school once gave the advice that if you struggled with porn, you should get rid of your computer. And if you needed your computer for your job, you should get another job. Drastic? Yes. But some members of our church did start looking at other jobs as a result of that advice. Here's what I tried to do:
* During the spring and summer, the quad at our university was filled with college age women trying to get as much of a tan as possible. There was no way I could walk through there and not be tempted, so I walked around the quad instead of through it. Sometimes, this meant an extra 10 minutes of walking, so I left 10 minutes earlier in those cases.
* I didn't go anywhere near the bars on Friday or Saturday nights. Yes,bar evangelism is a great thing for Christians to do, but not for those who struggle with alcoholism or lust.
* I gave up my Ethernet card. I still had a modem, but the university limited dial in access to 5 hours a week for those who lived on campus. I needed those 5 hours to get work done, drastically reducing the temptation to go wandering around the Internet.
* Committed to the idea that I wouldn't kiss until at least engagement, if not marriage. Not because I think it's somehow more holy or lets me fit into a specific group of people, but rather because lust can be a struggle in relationship even more so than with random strangers.
You may consider some of these drastic, and I'm certainly not saying you should do all of these, but look at what Jesus tells us to do at the end of the Matthew passage above. I don't think Jesus meant that there should be a whole bunch of blind people walking around, but the point is that drastic measures are sometimes required to defeat sin, and very much so in the case of lust.
So now it's your turn. What is one thing you can do to avoid flirting with lust? Is there a woman at work whose office you glance into to see if she's wearing something short? Find another route when you need to walk somewhere. Do bikinis give you pause? Then don't go to the beach. Do you struggle with porn? Besides sharing that struggle with someone else (more on that next week), put on some kind of filtering software and have someone else set the password. If that doesn't work, see if there's a way you can get rid of your computer. Jesus calls us to make drastic change to defeat our sin.
Yes, ultimately your heart needs to change. But your heart likely won't change unless you first stop flirting on the edge of the temptation.
Next week: sharing the struggle with others.
"The best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest distance from it; he who will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the brink of the pit, may find by woeful experience that it is a righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit."--Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
If you don't agree, think about this: what is the first thing you would tell an alcoholic who's trying to recover? Your would probably tell them to avoid the bar! And it's the same thing for lust. Here are some Bible verses that communicate this idea (all from the ESV translation):
"Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished."--Proverbs 6:27-29
"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."--2 Timothy 2:22
"Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body."--1 Corinthians 6:18
You may be thinking that this doesn't apply to you because you haven't literally committed adultery or had sex outside of marriage. But remember Jesus' words about lust:
"“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."--Matthew 5:27-30
Now time for some practical advice. How do you flee from temptation? The pastor at the church I went to when I was in grad school once gave the advice that if you struggled with porn, you should get rid of your computer. And if you needed your computer for your job, you should get another job. Drastic? Yes. But some members of our church did start looking at other jobs as a result of that advice. Here's what I tried to do:
* During the spring and summer, the quad at our university was filled with college age women trying to get as much of a tan as possible. There was no way I could walk through there and not be tempted, so I walked around the quad instead of through it. Sometimes, this meant an extra 10 minutes of walking, so I left 10 minutes earlier in those cases.
* I didn't go anywhere near the bars on Friday or Saturday nights. Yes,bar evangelism is a great thing for Christians to do, but not for those who struggle with alcoholism or lust.
* I gave up my Ethernet card. I still had a modem, but the university limited dial in access to 5 hours a week for those who lived on campus. I needed those 5 hours to get work done, drastically reducing the temptation to go wandering around the Internet.
* Committed to the idea that I wouldn't kiss until at least engagement, if not marriage. Not because I think it's somehow more holy or lets me fit into a specific group of people, but rather because lust can be a struggle in relationship even more so than with random strangers.
You may consider some of these drastic, and I'm certainly not saying you should do all of these, but look at what Jesus tells us to do at the end of the Matthew passage above. I don't think Jesus meant that there should be a whole bunch of blind people walking around, but the point is that drastic measures are sometimes required to defeat sin, and very much so in the case of lust.
So now it's your turn. What is one thing you can do to avoid flirting with lust? Is there a woman at work whose office you glance into to see if she's wearing something short? Find another route when you need to walk somewhere. Do bikinis give you pause? Then don't go to the beach. Do you struggle with porn? Besides sharing that struggle with someone else (more on that next week), put on some kind of filtering software and have someone else set the password. If that doesn't work, see if there's a way you can get rid of your computer. Jesus calls us to make drastic change to defeat our sin.
Yes, ultimately your heart needs to change. But your heart likely won't change unless you first stop flirting on the edge of the temptation.
Next week: sharing the struggle with others.
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