Lust

"I believe my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit."

“Lust is the craving for salt of the man who is dying of thirst.” -Frederick Buechner

"God didn’t create one Adam and five Eves and say ‘Go ahead, date around and see which one you like the best.’ He said, ‘Adam, I know what you need and I’m going to create that for you.’" -Lauren Barlow

"If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,

¹⁰ then may my wife grind another man's grain,
and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹ For that would have been shameful,
a sin to be judged.

¹² It is a fire that burns to Destruction;
it would have uprooted my harvest." -Job 31:9-12

Part IX of the “I Love–lust you” series..

Team KGKL Joshua De Gracia

God doesn’t want you to live in a cycle of defeat when it comes to lust.

It is hard? Yes. Will you fail and give into temptation from time to time? Yes.

The Key to escaping the grasp of lust the devil has over you is to embrace God’s standard for Holiness. We need to look to Him as our source of power to overcome and declare victory on lust and sexual impurity. Lust seeks to use what we know about the weaknesses of the opposite sex to manipulate and get what we want out of them. A “hit it, quit it and move on to the next thing lust craves for.” When it comes to embracing God’s Holiness, we need to look at the opposite sex not as a piece of meat, source of temporary satisfaction, but as men and women created in His image in which Christ died to save. If Jesus died for the sake of all of our sins, there is no doubt that with His power, you can overcome lust as well.

1 Peter 5:8-9

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

When thinking of a lion and how they attack, they do so with stealth and deception. They wait patiently for the right time to strike and focus primarily on the stragglers of the pack. This is how the devil works in our lives especially when it comes to lust. He waits till we are vulnerable and sends temptations our way in hope that we will become “devoured” by sin.

Alright, let’s get into a few practical things. Overcoming lust starts in the “battlefield of the mind.” A thought goes a long way. You could be walking around at a mall and see this gorgeous guy or beautiful girl walk right past you. The thought comes in, “wow, you are really hot/attractive” and then you may begin to check that person out or undress them with your eyes. Bam, you already fell victim to lust. Let’s take it a step further. Then you decide to ask for their number, go on a date and are alone together on a cold night (like it is here in Hawaii). Tempted by feelings and hormones, you lean over for a kiss and that “sparks” it up (honestly, once you are in the moment and start kissing or what this generation calls “sucking face,” you can’t stop). Then who knows, it may lead to sex, oral sex, heavy petting, unwanted pregnancy, etc..

People don’t see the consequences of their actions and thoughts because they get too caught up in the “moment” of things and how it makes them happy and satisfied. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians to take every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Back to the example, by looking lustfully at a person, we have already committed adultery in our hearts. When the enemy attacks you with lust, pray and ask God to take those thoughts away (it works for me).

To strive for Holiness, we need to constantly eliminate any kind of impurity in our hearts. Reach into your heart and take out that greed of lust that is constantly looking for a new sexual thrill. Starve the flesh, feed the spirit. It’s only through sacrifice that something can be renewed. Choose to give God those impure thoughts and sow into His spirit. When you feel like falling into self indulgence, pray or put on some worship music. Draw near to Jesus and those thoughts of sin will soon vacate your mind, trust me.

You can’t overcome lust and sexual impurity by yourself. You need accountabilities to help you and hold you accountable. Guys, if you feel like doing a lustful act, know you have spiritual people you can call that know what you’re going through and can pray for you and what not. Besides having accountabilities, wanting to turn away from lust is a choice. Even though you read these strategies and strive to overcome lust in your life, if you don’t have the heart to want to change and take responsibility, you’ll end up in sin every time.


Part VII of the “I Love–lust you” series..

Team KGKL Joshua De Gracia – Summer Nakamura

“When I saw her, it was simply love at first sight”…*sigh

Get over it. It was more like “lust at first sight.”

Lust is perhaps one of the biggest sins that our generation struggles with today. How does one define lust? One definition is a strong sexual desire or appetite. It also means to obtain something that you don’t have and weren’t meant to. It is more than a want, feeling or temptation and focuses on taking the “desire” and make it more important than God. People all over the world struggle with not only lust but sexual impurity and there are numerous testimonies from both men and women in which small compromises lead to regret and heartbreak.

Ephesians 4:19

“Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”

Lust can never be satisfied. As soon as the object of lust is attained, it craves something more. People that don’t have the discipline to stop become trapped in a never ending pursuit of wrong desires, always reaching for something that can not be quenched.

Back to “love at first sight.” When you actually look (check out) someone for the first time and think you are suddenly in love, guess what, you’re not. (Lemme talk to the men) Honestly, what are you guys thinking, looking at, feeling when you get that feeling. Are you thinking, “gosh, she’s a hot tamale because of her sparkling personality?” “I think I’m in love because she loves Jesus.” NO!!! You guys aren’t thinking any of this. Lustful thoughts have penetrated your head and you can’t think anything about how good different parts on her body may look to you. C’mon guys, just admit it. See a girl walking down the street that just so happens to catch your eye, your immediate response runs a long the lines of “dang, she’s hot” and not “that girl must love Jesus.” True story..

Rather than falling in love with that person’s heart, you are falling in love with that person’s flesh hence “lust at first sight.” We lust at their physical appearance and fantasize what it would be like to make out, have sex, whatever goes through your mind with them. At this point, we feel and give way to emotions and hormones rather than with our heart. Give the devil an inch and he’ll take a mile.

Matthew 5:28

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

If God is love, then love must be patient. Therefore, love waits. Next time you look at a man/woman that may catch your eye, remember to watch, catch and kick out those lustful intentions.

"Do you know why there are no windows on adult bookstores? Or do you know why there are no windows on certain kinds of nightclubs in the city?

I suppose your answer would be, “Well, because they don’t want people looking in and getting a free sight.”

That’s not the only reason.

You know why? Because they don’t want people looking out at the sky.

You know why? The sky is the enemy of lust.

And I just ask you—you think back on your struggles. The sky is a great power against lust.

Pure, lovely, wholesome, beautiful, powerful, large-hearted things cannot abide the soul of a sexual fantasy at the same time.

I remember as I struggled with these things in my teenaged years and in my college years —I knew how I could fight most effectively in those days. And I’ve developed other strategies over the years that have proved very effective. And one way of fighting was simply to get out of the dark places, get out of the lonely rooms, get out of the boxed-in places, get out of the places where it’s just small me and my mind and what I can do with it, and get out where I am just surrounded by color and beauty and bigness and loveliness.

And I know that when I used to sit in my front yard at 122 Bradley Boulevard with a notepad in my hand a pen and trying to write a poem—at that moment my heart and my body were light years away from the sexual fantasizing I was tempted by again and again in the late-night, quiet, secluded, in-house moments.

There’s something about bigness, there’s something about beauty, that helps battle against the puny, small, cruddy use of the mind to fantasize about sexual things.

And then turn it around: it works this way too. We know from experience that if we give way to sexual fantasies and yield to lusts and dwelling on unwholesome things, our capacities for seeing the sky are cut in half. And then cut in half again. And then cut in half again—until you’re just a little worm on the ground as your language and your mind is nothing but smut. It can happen to anybody!

And so I just commend to you: don’t let that happen. Battle lust—among all the other weapons that you’re given in Scripture—battle it with the upward glance of the magnificent blue and the thunder and the lightning and the sunrises and the sunsets and the glory of God. And say to yourself, “If I give way in this hour to that kind of thinking, I won’t enjoy this, I won’t have a large heart, I won’t have a capacious mind, I won’t be a noble person—I’ll just be an old gutter person.” Preach to yourself like that! And then give yourself over to the ministry of the sky. And let it help you free from lust." -John Piper

"...sex just isn’t about genitalia, and it’s not about being physical. It’s really about the heart. And if, in your battle against sexual sin, the passion that you have for Jesus doesn’t become greater than the passion you have to have sex, then you’ll always be fighting an uphill battle." -Mars Hill Church

"Sexual sin is a heart that doesn’t trust God.

Sexual sin basically says, “I can’t trust God to meet these needs. I can’t trust God to provide these needs in the way that he chooses, therefore, I need to go outside of his provision” —whether that’s through the internet and looking at women in ways you should never look at them, masturbation, sleeping around—it’s really saying, “You’re not true, God. I can’t trust You to be good. I have these desires and urges in the moment, and I need to go take care of them because I can’t trust You to.” So I think that’s really the heart of sexual sin. It’s a heart that doesn’t trust God. It’s a heart that, instead of worshipping the God who is trustworthy, who knows our every need, and who’s good to provide what we really need, we commit idolatry and say, “I need to worship sex instead of you, God.”

“The good news is Jesus changes hearts.”

And so if I can help a man begin to see that these issues are really heart issues, and then help him understand that the only way to change your heart is exactly … through the in-working of the Holy Spirit through the truth of the gospel, then we have somehwere to go." -Mars Hill Church