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| Image taken from weheartit.com |
Yeah, let’s talk about it open-mindedly. Do away with your prejudices for a moment. It’s a topic so unusual for me to write about, yet it’s one of the most interesting, right?
Lust. It isn’t just a guy problem. It’s a problem of both the macho and the unmanly-- a human problem.
Most people young and old have issues with this. Those who think they don’t may freely stop reading the next lines and click the “X” button on the upper right. This is for all people single, dating, married, or separated who is most probably facing the same habitual sin.
While writing about it is easier said than done, lust has become a confidential sin that lie in wait of people in distinctive yet common ways. I won’t make up for all the right solutions and judgment on this matter. None of us come to anything with conspicuous analysis. Everyone is but civilly passing on premises and speculations according to the decipherability of an idea and some personal influences.
Thrashing out this topic, though would demand more than a few thoughts and deliberation. But touching a fraction of it would, I think do you more justice than acquainting you with litany of estimations. So I promise to sum this up to a few descriptive.
This post has been inspired by a book that speaks of sexual morality by Joshua Harris, a good Christian Author who “rightly beguiles” you into yielding and seeking for the best author and giver of love, life, and faith. I may not agree in everything that he’s written there but reading his books and understanding his points somehow makes me feel eligible to meditate on moral dedications and be responsible in sharing these ideas without being too anecdotal lest faulty opinions lead me self-righteous.
Here’s a familiar scenario:
A sexy and attractive lass is walking down the hallway in spaghetti straps and miniskirts. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating the attractiveness of this head turner and that staring at her and trying to imagine a little bit more is very minimal in comparison to actually walking up to intentionally harass her. Or, purposely or accidentally clicking on porn tube instead of youtube to watch few videos is not as grave as engaging into fornication with several sexual compulsives. Do you agree?
While some people may not have the same opinion, agreeing to this is like tantamount to saying that not giving up 100 % to lust is still acceptable; that there is a precise limit of percentage of it that won’t make that much of damage for so long as you know how to control yourself.
But how do we know if we’re on the right measure of lust? What are the things that we could consider as justifiable whenever we try to lust? Or if a little amount of it is fair, then why is lust still ever found in the 7 capital sins?
- Sexual Drive is not the problem
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| Image taken from weheartit.com |
We are all sexual beings. God freely designed both men and women with built-in sex drives that allow both to desire sex and appeal to the opposite gender. Although, men’s sexual drives are stronger than that of women’s. Most probably because the anatomy of their brain is drafted to be more visual and their sexual organs are more exposed and easily triggered.
Considering that sexual urges are natural and normal, human tendencies are likely to entice both men and women to engage in lust. And when a man feeds up to this appetite, the thirst and craving gets to grow and grow.
The desire to consume few calories of lust becomes a desire to swallow the whole taste of it. And once it gets fed, it’s easier to get tempted the next time around. Once you pop you can’t stop; which also means to say that entertaining a small amount of lust would only lead to desiring and sinning for more.
- So what's the applicable dosage?
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| Image taken from weheartit.com |
God allows us to engage into lust for not even a hint. That’s right! Whether it’s thinking of impure thoughts, watching pornographic films, lusting silently in mind or browsing lustful magazines or other printed materials. There is no 50 %, 5 % or .1% ever acceptable when it comes to lust. Because 50 % leads to 75 % and 75 % leads to 100 %. And lust’s aim is not actually sex (which is also a gift of God in the parameters of marriage) but the forbidden. And when we fall into the forbidden that’s the time when we get out of balance-- physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Having that sexual autonomy to desire for sex and the opposite gender doesn’t validate the idea of engaging into lust. Remember that we are still given the choice to whether feed or starve ourselves with it. Once you get confronted, do a way to stay away from it. How?
- How to starve ourselves from lust
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| Image taken from weheartit.com |
I don’t attempt here to offer you step by step guidelines on how to kill the mocking lust inside your system. Every sin, whether it’s lust or another requires a powerful source to destroy it. And we cannot always rely on our own human selves. That is one reason why, as Harris explains in his book that whenever we try to combat lust using our own will-power, we lose the fight no matter how determined we are.
You get to have a really hard time erasing lustful thoughts in your mind especially when it haunts you at the time you’re at your weakest (Read: when you’re alone at night, early in the morning, or in a dim place). Why the idea of lust being a sin becomes rationally acceptable as time goes by?
There are far greater things which our human minds and capabilities cannot solve. And the key to resolving such a sin like lust is by setting our hearts in God. He is the creator and that’s the only way. God’s power to console us from wrongful human desires is something which we cannot argue with. Perhaps it can be expressed more exactly in this part of the book:
I don’t think we should make overcoming lust our primary preoccupation — we need to make the gospel and God’s glory our focus. We need to give ourselves to knowing Him, worshiping Him, and meeting with Him every day. The result will be the weakening of lust and a growing passion for godliness (170-71).
Dissatisfaction with God is the kind of sin that leads to more sin (158)
When we turn our back on God to do our own way and seek our own pleasure, we forsake the fountain of life to hew out for ourselves broken cisterns that hold no water. Those of us who have been caught up in our lusts (“such were some of you — BUT GOD”) understand that it comes down to God or self. Lust has everything to do two alternatives: either giving up on God and living for the pleasures of the moment – or else flinging all on God and living in the light of eternity.
I could not think of any other way to end this post. Maybe giving you a “preview” of Harris’ end-liner in his book, Not Even a Hint would serve you better:
Throughout this book we've looked at many practical ways to avoid temptation. But we also have to know how to do battle when temptation has us in its grip. I want to teach you how to combat the lies of lust with the truth of God's Word. My goal is to do more than just suggest a few memory verses - I want to help you develop a conviction that Scripture is the only weapon that can successfully fight off lust. (Page 150)
Postscript: I highly recommend you to read Not Even a Hint by Joshua Harris. I hope my attempt to get clearer view of how we should all try to resolve such habitual sin made an impact on you. I encourage you to leave your opinion below. God bless you and may he guard your heart against lust!
Photo Credits:
weheartit.com
Reference:
amazon.com
Photo Credits:
weheartit.com
Reference:
amazon.com
