Every day you wake up, you are faced with many decisions to make, choices with consequences and each decision you make is based on certain beliefs and desires, those deeply seated in your subconscious mind which determine your actions.
That is why you must pay attention to your frame of mind. The source of lust is in our thoughts and what we desire that drag us away from the norm as God’s children.
Sexual lust is a wicked vice, one of the vices almost every man grapples with as they sojourn on earth and trumping over it is not something you do by cutting the branches or felling the tree. It is something you do by cutting from the stump, from the source. You must get your hand dirty, fight and be deliberate to attack it from the source.
One of the easiest ways to stop a stubborn tree from growing is to cut it from the stump. This severs the hope of growing even if it scents water. When a house has a leaky roof, you know just putting a bucket under where it leaks won’t cut it, the best way around the problem you face is to look for the source and block them. That is the only way to stop the roof from leaking permanently. The solution to a problem is solving it from the source, and that is the wise thing to do, you can’t keep patching it and expect it to be solved holistically.
The ultimate solution to pulling down the stronghold of lust in your thought life is a recapture of the mind. Cut lust from the stump, its source, your thoughts. Because your thoughts become desires, desires become a sin which is an action and sin begets death. If you don’t want the devil to have a smooth ride in your life you must be ready to fight and win over lust from its mainspring.
What do you fill your mind with? Our subconscious mind follows the rule, “You get what you focus on”. The media and society we find ourselves in today have been so unkind to the point of no mercy that they assault us every moment with images and content that pollute our minds and grease lust in our lives. Just a click gives you access to a plethora of them. They become triggers.
What you fill your mind with deliberately or inadvertently will shape your thought pattern, the seat of your desires which entice us and drag us away to sin, and gives birth to death.
The devil is not playing, he is looking for who to devour. What he can’t destroy, he tries to corrupt. And he knows corruption eventually leads to destruction if the specimen is not saved, it is only a matter of time.
That is why you must not allow him to win. More than you want to be free and overcome lust, God wants you to win. You can trust God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit in you to win this battle against lust.
When you catch yourself concocting images or fantasies in your mind you must be ready to arrest those thoughts before they are mature enough to produce offspring. You can do that by:
1. Praying
Praying is a vital tool for severing lust from its source. Jesus told His disciples twice to “pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40, 46). J. Garrett Kel from his article, “4 Ways to Fight Sexual Temptation” using the scriptures shows us examples of prayers we can pray when we are tempted:
- “Lord, save me” (Matt. 14:30).
- “Lord, help me” (Matt. 15:25).
- “Jesus, Master, have mercy” (Luke 17:13).
- “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” (Ps. 116:4).
- “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! / O Lord, hear my voice!” (Ps. 130:1–2).
- “Lead [me] not into temptation, / but deliver [me] from evil” (Matt. 6:13).
- Lord, you promised not to “let [me] be tempted beyond [my] ability,” but to “provide the way of escape” (1 Cor. 10:13). Show me the escape!
- “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
2. Study the word of God
When you study the scripture, your spirit and mind are inundated in the word and that is the way you put off the old and put on the new. That is the way you cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Study the scripture well to live a life of victory.
3. Don’t fight alone.
Shame and guilt, the fertilizer of lust thrive in secrecy. Learn to be accountable to someone you can trust. The devil assures us that asking for help is weak, shameful, and unnecessary. But that is a lie. Don’t let him isolate you and then overcome you. Don’t try to fight alone because you are at a disadvantage that way, take leverage of the amazing and godly friends you have around so that you won’t fall.
Your thought life is important, that is where you win or lose many battles. Take care of what you focus on and sever lust through the help of God from the source. Remember, more than you desire to be free and overcome lust, God wants you to win.
THE BRIDGE HUB 