There was a time when it didn’t seem I could resist the urge to lust. The temptation to lust felt like a tidal wave overpowering all my resolve.
Lust is not just sexual desire. Lust visually or mentally uses another person for one’s own selfish sexual gratification. You can read more of a Definition of Lust here.
I’m still on the journey away from lust, but I enjoy a great deal of freedom compared to how I used to live. Here are five things I’ve learned to do when I’m tempted to lust:
- I admit it to myself, to God, and to at least one trusted brother. When I act like everything’s fine, then there’s nothing to change, no battle to fight, no sickness needing treatment. Admitting it was especially important when I was regularly struggling with other sexual sins. I thought lust was no big deal compared to those other sins, so I’d give myself little permissions. I’ve since come to see that lust is the door to other sexual sins, Admitting I’m tempted to lust means I quit playing games, quit skirting around the edges, and instead break out of my isolation, and connect honestly with those who care about me.
- I ask God to show me what He sees. Lust always includes fantasy—a fictional alternate reality that turns a person into an object. To paraphrase the late Pope John Paul II: The problem with lust is not that we’re looking at too much but that we’re seeing too little. Lust doesn’t want to see a person’s soul, their family, their deepest hopes, their heartbreak, their childhood dreams, their needs, their faults, their richest joys. Seeing these aspects of a human being opens me up to love him or her, and it’s impossible to lust and love at the same time.
- I tell Jesus how I long for Him. If men and women are made in God’s image (and they are), this means that when I find myself desiring a male or female body, on a deeper level I’m longing for the Real behind the image. I’m longing for God Himself. Specifically, different body parts represent to my soul real attributes of God—things like comfort, strength, nurturance, security, life, home. So I consider how I’m tempted and cry out, “Jesus, I’m longing for Your comfort,” “Jesus, I long for Your strength,” “Jesus, I long for the warmth of Home,” “Jesus come to me, I long for you!”
- I run away. Sometimes I just need to get out of the situation I’m in. Maybe today I just don’t feel within me enough resolve to resist, or maybe despite my efforts, I’m faltering. The great Apostle Paul wrote, “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). That word ‘flee’ in the Greek means flee. Out of respect to the other person and to myself, sometimes my best shot at love is to get up and go somewhere else.
- I aim never to beat myself up for feeling temptation nor even for giving in to temptation. I struggle with this one because it feels like being hard on myself is only right when I encounter a strong desire to do wrong in me. But in my experience, beating myself up is rooted in a faulty belief that God is angry with me and turns from me when I falter. The truth is that God knows my condition more accurately than I do. As I acknowledge my weakness and sickness to Him, He draws near to me quickly because in those moments I need His loving strength the most.
This isn’t a prescription, and certainly not an exhaustive list. I didn’t even mention calling Scripture to mind, praying for the other person, or recalling to mind the truth about who I am in Christ.
How about you? What can you do when you’re tempted to lust? Leave a comment here.
Learning to see,
Josh
Since there are times that I simply can’t avoid seeing or interacting with the person I am experiencing lust towards, I have found that thanking God for how He made that person beautifully, or strong, or with a great personality, or with whatever else is attracting me, helps. It reminds me that that person is made in God’s image and is for God’s glory.
Also praying for that person can help me. It reminds me – as you mentioned in pt 2 – that this individual has needs just as I do.
Thank you. You hit the exact problem I have been struggling with.
Great suggestions here, Josh. Thanks for the encouragement!
amen brother, this is just what i needed to hear.
Glad it helped, Chris.
Thank you for this message that I was needed.
This is what exactly I’m facing and struggling to overcome. But from now on taking your advices I’m working on my self and promise to improve and bettering myself
Thanks Joshua.
Your welcome, Richard.
It’s very hard to open up about this kind of thing to another person. I feel scared, embarrassed and don’t know what to do.
Tyler – the people on our team know how that feels. Please reach out to us. We’d be honored to walk with you.
Is playing games makes me tempted?
Not sure I understand your question Jermine. Can you explain?
Wow, that third point really hit me where it hurts. While I may not struggle with lust, exactly, that basically explains all attraction in the world at all, including the fair bit I actually struggle with. Awesome work.
Well just in case you didn’t know there are a good number of women that struggle with this. Please pray for us as our hormones try to get the best of us especially during the peri menopause years. For me, after my divorce it became a bigger struggle than it ever was. Looking for love once again I became sexually active like never before and it spiraled me into a life of lust and seduction. I have recently been meditating on the life of Joseph. I don’t believe he didn’t lust over that woman but there came a point where he knew if he didn’t run it would ultimately destroy him. I think we should all take this into account and know our boundaries. May the Holy Spirit cover us all and lead us out of temptation when it comes knocking on our door. I’ll be praying for your guys as you pray for me. Much love in the Lord.
What would be some good pointers if your going to lust for comfort, instead of god?
Good, good question, Luke. One thing I’ve done is to ask God to show me images of his comfort and then to use my imagination to see myself in that scene, being comforted by God. For example, you might imagine yourself as one of the little children being held and blessed by Jesus, or as the lamb who was lost being carried home by the Shepherd, with Jesus as he washes your feet, or as the prodigal returning home and being hugged and kissed by the loving father. Ask God to show you how he desires to comfort you and see what comes up, Luke. If you’d like to schedule a time when one of our coaches can pray through something like this with you, let us know!