Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22
Greetings to all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was not able to write for some time as I was busy with other works. In this article, I would like to focus on one of the very important aspect of temptation which is lust. It is very crucial to understand lust in order to overcome it. Overcoming lust is very important to lead a successful Christian life and I believe this will be very useful for the readers.
First, let's understand lust. Lust is the sexual attraction towards opposite sex in order to satisfy our own self desires. Unlike other habitual sins like smoking or drinking or gluttony, this is something that comes in built in our body. There are lot of hormones in our body that energize us and when we attain certain age, the sexual hormones in our body start to work. Before understanding lust, let's ask this question. Is sex a sin? Is sexual thoughts are sinful? Why it is required? To answer these questions, I have to refer all the way back to creation in Genesis. It was written when God created human beings, He created them as male and female. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Gen 1:27 Why? In order to fulfil His purpose. What is the purpose? The next verse states that, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:" v28. So, God wanted us to multiple and fill these earth. To multiply, the design of God is male and female to unite and bring forth younger ones. This is applicable not only to humans but to every creation like animals, birds, sea creatures and plants.
When we see further detail in 2nd chapter, we see the order of God saying, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen 2:24. One flesh states that they are one in their bodies and they are inseparable and there is nothing hidden between them, including their bodies. So, now to answer our question. Is sex sin? The answer is No, not at all. Because it is written in Timothy, "Every thing God created is good". I Timothy 4:4. So, sex is not a sin. In fact, Sex is a beautiful thing created by God and it is holy when it is between two right persons (male and female) and performed at the right place at the right time (after marriage, i.e, after getting the approval of God by entering the wedding covenant). You may ask that the child birth is due to the act of sex which is considered as sin because it is written, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5 where David laments after he lusted after Bathsheba and committed adultery with her. Even my understanding was like that for a long time after the Holy Spirit clarified the truth behind that verse. The truth was the seed of man was corrupted after Adam committed sin. So, whoever borns of a seed of man is a sinner by birth and that is the actual meaning of the verse. It is not the act of sex that is sin but it is the seed of man which is sinful and hence it makes every human being a sinner except one, the Lord Jesus Christ who was concieved in a virgin and it was the only virgin birth because a man's seed is not qualified to atone for the sins of others so Holy Spirit gave that seed and Jesus is considered as the seed of a woman. Please refer to Gen 3:15 and Gal 4:4 that says "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman." Hope it is very clear now that the sexual act between a husband and wife is never ever considered as a sin in the site of Holy God.
In order to fulfill this God given purpose of multiplication and filling the earth, there are sexual hormones and physical feelings that are generated in our body. We need to understand this very clearly. But, when these feelings overtake God's standards, then it turns as lust which is a sin. When these feelings go out of control, then it will lead to lot of sinful practices like adultery, pornography, extra marital affairs and other illicit sexual practices. The world that we live in today promotes lust and sex are very casual and they give a feel like nothing wrong in that. All the mainstream media like cinemas, movie songs, advertisements, news and even games like cricket matches promote lust by showing male and female in inappropriate postures, half dressed women and all the indecent stuff. No wonder John wrote "the whole world lieth in devil." I John 5:19. All these things are running based on money making business and behind the scenes, the world runs this show and behind the world, the satan works. All the stuff that you see in the world are designed in order to deceive you to make you fall under sin and separate you from the living God who loved you and gave His life for you and to stop you from attaining eternal life. If you have this clarity, the way you feel about lust will be different.
But, knowing this clear idea alone is not going to help you to overcome the lust. In one of my previous companies, I attended an induction program. The trainer quoted a very good example. He asked a question first saying, "How many of you believe doing exercise for 30 minutes per day is good for health and help you to stay fit?" and he asked those who believe that to raise hands up. Almost all of the participants raised their hands. Then, he asked the second question, "How many of you are actually doing 30 minutes exercise every day?" and when he asked to raise hands for that only a very few hands went up and we can finger count that. So, there is a difference between knowing and doing. Knowing the truth alone won't help you succeeding in the battle against lust. You may tell that Jesus said "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. Of course. But, the word also speaks a.bout walking in truth. 3 John 1:4. What Jesus really meant is, without knowing the truth one cannot practice it. So, without knowing the above facts about lust, we cannot overcome that. So, knowing is the first part of it. But, walking in the truth day to day is essential to live a victorious Christian life and overcome all these temptations.
Hope the explanation is clear and clarified many doubts concerning it based on biblical truths. Now, let's see how to overcome this. We have seen that lust is not like other temptations and very difficult to overcome and many times we fall in it because the roots for lust are present within ourselves and it overcomes us often. To overcome this temptation, one must desire holiness and Godliness more than the physical desire to fulfill the lust unless it is impossible to overcome this because this is going to be a life long struggle and not a one time stuff. I would like to quote a short story. A grand father told his grand son "My child, there are two animals living inside every person. One is good and another one is evil and they keep on fighting." The boy asked back, "So, who wins at the end?". For that, the grand father replied calmly saying, "the one which was fed often wins the other one". That forms the crux of the idea. Let's see what do we need to do in order to overcome lust on a day to day basis.
1. Read and meditate the Word of God regularly. The scripture is insipired by God and it will make you holy. Jesus said this in John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." So, sanctification is through the Word of God. One more verse says, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. So, make a decision to read and meditate the Word of God for one hour everyday (morning 30 minutes and evening 30 minutes) and make it a habit like brushing everyday. Making decision is in your hands. If you do that regularly day-in and day-out, it is 100% sure you will be purified. That's why whenever you get into a sinful habit, the first thing it attacks is your scripture meditation and prayer time. Because, sin could separate you from God whereas living a holy and righteous life bring you nearer and nearer to God. There is a video that shows a glass cup filled with ink but pouring out water continuously inside it slowly removes the ink and eventually makes the cup full of clean water. Exactly that can happen to your mind as well. Your mind may be full of filth but pouring out the word of God continuously inside it will remove all the sinful thoughts and make your mind and heart pure. Remember, it is not an easy process and you need to be very consistent, otherwise it will not yield. It never works if you read 20-30 chapters per day and then ignore the Word of God for next 5 days. You need to read day in and day out. We shouldn't complain we don't have time. God gave us 24 hours per day and if we are not able to spend 1-2 hours with God everyday, our life will go waste.
2. Control what you see. Our eye is entrance for our heart. What you feed your eyes, directly gets into the heart. A major application is lust. The desire starts from our eyes not only for lust but for any greediness, we are attracted towards beauty in all forms. If we see a beautiful house or a beautiful painting or a natural scene, we are all attracted towards that. That's why Jesus said in Matthew "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matthew 6:22, 23. The last 2 of 10 commandments speak about lust and the origin of both starts in eye. It is not enough to read Word of God but seeing whatever we want. We should avoid every pitfall to the extent we should not read a sexist news if we think it will occupy our mind. Better be ignorant of such news insted of corrupting our mind. Should stop every kind of movie song or scene or anything that could corrupt us. In the example mentioned in first point, if you pour both water and ink in the jar, definitely you will not get a pure water. So, this is also a decision that we should make, however much we are tempted in lust in our flesh, make a decision that we will not yield to the pressure and will not feed the eyes.
3. Tell your problems to God and sought the help of Holy Spirit. We should not think that we can overcome this temptation by ourselves. Definitely we will fail. Instead ask for the power of Holy Spirit to overcome this. Tell God frankly about your problems, how you are tempted and tell God that you want to live a holy life, pleasing to Him and need His help for that. God will definitely help you out with giving you the power to overcome the lust.
4. Spend a calm time of prayer everyday with God. Bring back the scripture memorizations, recount the promise verses and praise God. You may feel like there is no effect after continuing for certain times. But, persist in prayer. In my experience, persistence with prayer and scripture meditation is more important to lead a victorious Christian life. It is about depending on the strength of God and not fighting the battle alone. Jesus told to His disciples, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:4,5.
5. Realize that the resurrection power of Jesus which is working in you is more powerful than any other power in this world. It overcomes the power of lust, temptation and possibly everything else. Remember one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. When you ask for more power, God unleashes more power in you. Remember without knowing the truth, you cannot walk in truth. Everyday morning declare that you are going to walk this day in power, the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Romans 8:11. Don't focus too much on the power of lust and attraction instead change your focus to the power of resurrection.
6. Avoid situtations that could make you sin. For example, if you are often tempted by a girl, just forcefully avoid her completely. If you tend to stare the bodies of women, don't go to beach. Avoid friends who talk about lust and sex. I think a better example is if you have the drinking habit and freed of it, never walk in the street that has a wine shop. You better know about yourself and you should act accordingly during times of temptation. Remember how Joseph fleed away pothibar's wife when she tried to force him to commit adultery. Another example is explained in Proverbs 7 and Proverbs 6:25 says "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids." This is often difficult but that's why I told earlier the desire for Holiness and Godliness should overcome the desire for temptation and only if you have such an attitude, you can overcome lust.
7. When you are alone or if you are not getting sleep, often you would tempted by the sinful thoughts. That's where the scripture memorization and reciting it in our mind comes handy. The way I overcame it was, I memorized a list of psalms. As of this day, I know around 25 psalms by heart and whenever I was aroused while I am in bed, I start recounting the psalms and by the time I say around 3-5 psalms, I usually sleep. If I don't get sleep within the time of reciting 5 psalms, I will recite around 10 psalms. We should defend and attack the problem of lust with a specific strategy, otherwise we are prone to fail. Remember it is not an easy battle because it comes day in and day out and we need to win each and every moment to be on top of this.
8. The final and most important suggestion is when you fail at times, never lose heart or never condemn yourself or give up saying "This is my nature or I am like this". Because, say if you are avoiding a sinful habit for 50 days and then you are falling back, then the sin will pull you back all over again will try to make you worse than previous time. Remember our God is a loving God and He is interested in you standing up and running again instead of laying down where you had fallen. He promised that He neither leaves you nor forsakes you. He gave His own life to redeem you so He will not leave you as such. But, you have to take the positive steps agian and should not yield back to the habit. Don't think you are a sinner if you fall back. Instead, say that you are righteous and a saint before God not because of your actions but because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. Just tell the enemy back, "I acknowledge you won in this round but in next round I will have an upper hand and you know what, the final victory is going to be mine no matter what" and start fresh all over again.
I believe it is a huge post but I believe it is really an important and helpful for the readers. I declare that if you committed to do the steps mentioned above, you will overcome the lust 100%. No doubt at all. It may even take 2-3 years to get into a winning practice of overcoming lust everyday. But, persistence and patience is the key. May the Holy Spirit guide you and assist you in this battle and directs you to success.
Praise to the God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. All glory, honor and praise to you Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Greetings to all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was not able to write for some time as I was busy with other works. In this article, I would like to focus on one of the very important aspect of temptation which is lust. It is very crucial to understand lust in order to overcome it. Overcoming lust is very important to lead a successful Christian life and I believe this will be very useful for the readers.
First, let's understand lust. Lust is the sexual attraction towards opposite sex in order to satisfy our own self desires. Unlike other habitual sins like smoking or drinking or gluttony, this is something that comes in built in our body. There are lot of hormones in our body that energize us and when we attain certain age, the sexual hormones in our body start to work. Before understanding lust, let's ask this question. Is sex a sin? Is sexual thoughts are sinful? Why it is required? To answer these questions, I have to refer all the way back to creation in Genesis. It was written when God created human beings, He created them as male and female. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Gen 1:27 Why? In order to fulfil His purpose. What is the purpose? The next verse states that, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:" v28. So, God wanted us to multiple and fill these earth. To multiply, the design of God is male and female to unite and bring forth younger ones. This is applicable not only to humans but to every creation like animals, birds, sea creatures and plants.
When we see further detail in 2nd chapter, we see the order of God saying, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen 2:24. One flesh states that they are one in their bodies and they are inseparable and there is nothing hidden between them, including their bodies. So, now to answer our question. Is sex sin? The answer is No, not at all. Because it is written in Timothy, "Every thing God created is good". I Timothy 4:4. So, sex is not a sin. In fact, Sex is a beautiful thing created by God and it is holy when it is between two right persons (male and female) and performed at the right place at the right time (after marriage, i.e, after getting the approval of God by entering the wedding covenant). You may ask that the child birth is due to the act of sex which is considered as sin because it is written, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5 where David laments after he lusted after Bathsheba and committed adultery with her. Even my understanding was like that for a long time after the Holy Spirit clarified the truth behind that verse. The truth was the seed of man was corrupted after Adam committed sin. So, whoever borns of a seed of man is a sinner by birth and that is the actual meaning of the verse. It is not the act of sex that is sin but it is the seed of man which is sinful and hence it makes every human being a sinner except one, the Lord Jesus Christ who was concieved in a virgin and it was the only virgin birth because a man's seed is not qualified to atone for the sins of others so Holy Spirit gave that seed and Jesus is considered as the seed of a woman. Please refer to Gen 3:15 and Gal 4:4 that says "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman." Hope it is very clear now that the sexual act between a husband and wife is never ever considered as a sin in the site of Holy God.
In order to fulfill this God given purpose of multiplication and filling the earth, there are sexual hormones and physical feelings that are generated in our body. We need to understand this very clearly. But, when these feelings overtake God's standards, then it turns as lust which is a sin. When these feelings go out of control, then it will lead to lot of sinful practices like adultery, pornography, extra marital affairs and other illicit sexual practices. The world that we live in today promotes lust and sex are very casual and they give a feel like nothing wrong in that. All the mainstream media like cinemas, movie songs, advertisements, news and even games like cricket matches promote lust by showing male and female in inappropriate postures, half dressed women and all the indecent stuff. No wonder John wrote "the whole world lieth in devil." I John 5:19. All these things are running based on money making business and behind the scenes, the world runs this show and behind the world, the satan works. All the stuff that you see in the world are designed in order to deceive you to make you fall under sin and separate you from the living God who loved you and gave His life for you and to stop you from attaining eternal life. If you have this clarity, the way you feel about lust will be different.
But, knowing this clear idea alone is not going to help you to overcome the lust. In one of my previous companies, I attended an induction program. The trainer quoted a very good example. He asked a question first saying, "How many of you believe doing exercise for 30 minutes per day is good for health and help you to stay fit?" and he asked those who believe that to raise hands up. Almost all of the participants raised their hands. Then, he asked the second question, "How many of you are actually doing 30 minutes exercise every day?" and when he asked to raise hands for that only a very few hands went up and we can finger count that. So, there is a difference between knowing and doing. Knowing the truth alone won't help you succeeding in the battle against lust. You may tell that Jesus said "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. Of course. But, the word also speaks a.bout walking in truth. 3 John 1:4. What Jesus really meant is, without knowing the truth one cannot practice it. So, without knowing the above facts about lust, we cannot overcome that. So, knowing is the first part of it. But, walking in the truth day to day is essential to live a victorious Christian life and overcome all these temptations.
Hope the explanation is clear and clarified many doubts concerning it based on biblical truths. Now, let's see how to overcome this. We have seen that lust is not like other temptations and very difficult to overcome and many times we fall in it because the roots for lust are present within ourselves and it overcomes us often. To overcome this temptation, one must desire holiness and Godliness more than the physical desire to fulfill the lust unless it is impossible to overcome this because this is going to be a life long struggle and not a one time stuff. I would like to quote a short story. A grand father told his grand son "My child, there are two animals living inside every person. One is good and another one is evil and they keep on fighting." The boy asked back, "So, who wins at the end?". For that, the grand father replied calmly saying, "the one which was fed often wins the other one". That forms the crux of the idea. Let's see what do we need to do in order to overcome lust on a day to day basis.
1. Read and meditate the Word of God regularly. The scripture is insipired by God and it will make you holy. Jesus said this in John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." So, sanctification is through the Word of God. One more verse says, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. So, make a decision to read and meditate the Word of God for one hour everyday (morning 30 minutes and evening 30 minutes) and make it a habit like brushing everyday. Making decision is in your hands. If you do that regularly day-in and day-out, it is 100% sure you will be purified. That's why whenever you get into a sinful habit, the first thing it attacks is your scripture meditation and prayer time. Because, sin could separate you from God whereas living a holy and righteous life bring you nearer and nearer to God. There is a video that shows a glass cup filled with ink but pouring out water continuously inside it slowly removes the ink and eventually makes the cup full of clean water. Exactly that can happen to your mind as well. Your mind may be full of filth but pouring out the word of God continuously inside it will remove all the sinful thoughts and make your mind and heart pure. Remember, it is not an easy process and you need to be very consistent, otherwise it will not yield. It never works if you read 20-30 chapters per day and then ignore the Word of God for next 5 days. You need to read day in and day out. We shouldn't complain we don't have time. God gave us 24 hours per day and if we are not able to spend 1-2 hours with God everyday, our life will go waste.
2. Control what you see. Our eye is entrance for our heart. What you feed your eyes, directly gets into the heart. A major application is lust. The desire starts from our eyes not only for lust but for any greediness, we are attracted towards beauty in all forms. If we see a beautiful house or a beautiful painting or a natural scene, we are all attracted towards that. That's why Jesus said in Matthew "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matthew 6:22, 23. The last 2 of 10 commandments speak about lust and the origin of both starts in eye. It is not enough to read Word of God but seeing whatever we want. We should avoid every pitfall to the extent we should not read a sexist news if we think it will occupy our mind. Better be ignorant of such news insted of corrupting our mind. Should stop every kind of movie song or scene or anything that could corrupt us. In the example mentioned in first point, if you pour both water and ink in the jar, definitely you will not get a pure water. So, this is also a decision that we should make, however much we are tempted in lust in our flesh, make a decision that we will not yield to the pressure and will not feed the eyes.
3. Tell your problems to God and sought the help of Holy Spirit. We should not think that we can overcome this temptation by ourselves. Definitely we will fail. Instead ask for the power of Holy Spirit to overcome this. Tell God frankly about your problems, how you are tempted and tell God that you want to live a holy life, pleasing to Him and need His help for that. God will definitely help you out with giving you the power to overcome the lust.
4. Spend a calm time of prayer everyday with God. Bring back the scripture memorizations, recount the promise verses and praise God. You may feel like there is no effect after continuing for certain times. But, persist in prayer. In my experience, persistence with prayer and scripture meditation is more important to lead a victorious Christian life. It is about depending on the strength of God and not fighting the battle alone. Jesus told to His disciples, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:4,5.
5. Realize that the resurrection power of Jesus which is working in you is more powerful than any other power in this world. It overcomes the power of lust, temptation and possibly everything else. Remember one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. When you ask for more power, God unleashes more power in you. Remember without knowing the truth, you cannot walk in truth. Everyday morning declare that you are going to walk this day in power, the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Romans 8:11. Don't focus too much on the power of lust and attraction instead change your focus to the power of resurrection.
6. Avoid situtations that could make you sin. For example, if you are often tempted by a girl, just forcefully avoid her completely. If you tend to stare the bodies of women, don't go to beach. Avoid friends who talk about lust and sex. I think a better example is if you have the drinking habit and freed of it, never walk in the street that has a wine shop. You better know about yourself and you should act accordingly during times of temptation. Remember how Joseph fleed away pothibar's wife when she tried to force him to commit adultery. Another example is explained in Proverbs 7 and Proverbs 6:25 says "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids." This is often difficult but that's why I told earlier the desire for Holiness and Godliness should overcome the desire for temptation and only if you have such an attitude, you can overcome lust.
7. When you are alone or if you are not getting sleep, often you would tempted by the sinful thoughts. That's where the scripture memorization and reciting it in our mind comes handy. The way I overcame it was, I memorized a list of psalms. As of this day, I know around 25 psalms by heart and whenever I was aroused while I am in bed, I start recounting the psalms and by the time I say around 3-5 psalms, I usually sleep. If I don't get sleep within the time of reciting 5 psalms, I will recite around 10 psalms. We should defend and attack the problem of lust with a specific strategy, otherwise we are prone to fail. Remember it is not an easy battle because it comes day in and day out and we need to win each and every moment to be on top of this.
8. The final and most important suggestion is when you fail at times, never lose heart or never condemn yourself or give up saying "This is my nature or I am like this". Because, say if you are avoiding a sinful habit for 50 days and then you are falling back, then the sin will pull you back all over again will try to make you worse than previous time. Remember our God is a loving God and He is interested in you standing up and running again instead of laying down where you had fallen. He promised that He neither leaves you nor forsakes you. He gave His own life to redeem you so He will not leave you as such. But, you have to take the positive steps agian and should not yield back to the habit. Don't think you are a sinner if you fall back. Instead, say that you are righteous and a saint before God not because of your actions but because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. Just tell the enemy back, "I acknowledge you won in this round but in next round I will have an upper hand and you know what, the final victory is going to be mine no matter what" and start fresh all over again.
I believe it is a huge post but I believe it is really an important and helpful for the readers. I declare that if you committed to do the steps mentioned above, you will overcome the lust 100%. No doubt at all. It may even take 2-3 years to get into a winning practice of overcoming lust everyday. But, persistence and patience is the key. May the Holy Spirit guide you and assist you in this battle and directs you to success.
Praise to the God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. All glory, honor and praise to you Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
