Sin doesn’t grant you permission to do what you want. It gives you no option but to do what it wants. And worse yet, to believe the want has come from you.
Scalpel
Confession: All throughout school, I purposefully avoided any science class that included dissecting a frog. I didn’t want to be the guy passed out on the floor, because the thought of cutting through any body makes me a bit queasy. But this is also one of the reasons I became motivated to overcome lust. Lust dissects a man or woman against their will. It disassembles a person, cutting away any...
The Macaroni and Cheese Effect
At their core, your desires are not the problem. They’re a gift, pointing to a good, God-given desire. And this is true even if the desire you’re feeling is for something sinful. Usually when I go on a dinner date with my wife, we make a simple meal for the kids before we go. Chicken nuggets, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, or fish sticks. They love it. I’m a sucker for the macaroni and cheese:...
When Experience Isn’t a Good Thing
Nothing on earth has the authority to define you. Your identity—your true identity—is who God created you to be. And yet, what you experience regularly informs your sense of who you are. In other words, your experiences—your circumstances, interactions, feelings, temptations, actions, etc.—all give you their opinion about who you are. And as you might guess, their opinion frequently doesn’t align...