The question: What do you do to try and prevent lust from growing?
If you are here reading these blogs we can assume you are seeking help in overcoming an issue with porn and sexual habits that are not healthy or edifying. You want to know how can I fight this thing that keeps attacking me and causing loss of joy, hope, and peace of mind. Simply put here is an interesting illustration.
“Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog, all of the time.” When asked which dog wins, I reflected for a moment and replied, “The one I feed the most.”
If you have known the Lord for very long I’m sure you have heard the phrase taught that we are to make ourselves “dead to sin.” The simple instruction is just say, “ I am dead to that and will no longer participate in that.” Seems like it should be easy right? We have been told deal with addictions and “Just say NO!” If only it was that easy huh. What we too often forget is the rest of that verse in Romans chapter 6:11 “Consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” We must be alive to something…
I would guess that everybody has at some point or many points in dealing with addiction just said one day that we were just going to stop. We decide we are not going to do it again. That works for maybe a few days. As the verse states, we need to take the next step and replace that action with being alive to the things that Jesus says we need to do. We need to put Him first. We need to make that decision. We need to listen to what He says, we need to read the Bible. Simply put we are needy people. We need interaction with other people. We need affirmation form other people. We are built to need relationship with God, which He also desires to have with us. Apart from knowing God we try to fill that gap with things like sex, porn, drugs, food etc. We need to be alive to something. Romans 6 is all about overcoming sin. We can say we are dead to it, but unless we make ourselves alive to God, the old self resurrects itself and its old habits that are only a false representation of the love and acceptance we are supposed to get fro a relationship with God.
1 Peter 4:3 sums it up pretty well, “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do–living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”
Enough already, it’s time to move on to something that will bring life not death and frustration. But we need to live in a different area, not try to live better in a cesspool. Like the old saying, “Polish a turd, it’s still a turd.”
Feed the good dog. Don’t even leave table scraps for the bad dog. To do it you have to want it. Really want it! You will fail. There is not a quick fix. But there is a fix. Just keep heading the right direction and when you fail, get back up and do better the next time. It may mean you need to get a partner to help you. You may even need some counseling. That doesn’t mean you are too weak. None of us is strong enough to do it on our own will power. But we are strong enough to get back up and try again and do better when we decide to die to the old self and feed the healthy good self with the right food. It says in the Hebrews 4:15 that Jesus was tempted in all things just like us, yet He remained sinless. Yes, He was tempted by sex. Don’t think that there was never a sexually suggestive prostitute or someone that He saw. He knows what it means to be tempted, by more than we ever have been. He understands and loves us completely.