Knowing God: A Fight Against Lust, Part I

GUEST POST BY:MUENI

Hello beautiful ladies! We have been talking about bible reading, it’s importance and the benefits it has in and on our lives for the past few weeks. However, for the next two weeks, I would like us to put a pause on that, and talk about something that’s been on my heart since late last year: Sex and Purity

I have invited a friend of mine, her name is Mueni and she will be taking us through this important and sensitive topic as we aim to open the floor for us as women to share about our struggles with sexual sin and find redemption and healing in Christ.

Feel free to ask questions, comment, let both of us know what you think about this particular topic and share with us if you need someone to talk to or pray with you. I also pray gives you the freedom to lay down the shame and stigma that comes with the struggle of lust that many of us are subject to and will set you on the path of purity.

~Loads of love, Renee

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A little 7 year old girl is sits at the front of Sunday school with all of her sweet friends wearing the best the 2000s had to offer.  She then stands up and reads these nice looking words on the blackboard:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16

These nice looking words did eventually mean something to me after struggling with pornography and masturbation. I was 15 when I began to struggle. In spite of all the 21 day challenges and even getting saved later on, freedom still felt out of reach. I soon realized that the struggle with lust begun long before I ever knew what pornography was.

Though many of us may not admit it, usually  brush it off and sometimes justify it; we all struggle with lust. I used to think I was only girl who thought a bit too much when I saw an attractive person, whose mind wondered a little too far when I watched a romantic comedy and who looked for more than just a hug from a romantic interest. But the more I continued to share my testimony the more “me too-s” I got.

“Is it even possible to live a life free of any lust?”, “What is so wrong with lust?”, “Why should I stop thinking and acting lustfully?”.

The culture often tries to undermine purity with these questions. If we took a hard look at ourselves we realize that these questions also come from us. This begs for another introspection:

“If going against lust seems so unnatural and sometimes impossible, why fight it?“

It may sound far-fetched but at the root of all these questions is a lack of knowledge of God’s heart/innate nature. For when we know God’s heart we will see his glory expressed in our sexual design. Lust will be seen for what it truly is: a cheap counterfeit of God’s design. More importantly, we will meet the source of satisfaction who not only quenches our deepest desires but drowns them in an ocean. Jesus puts this truth well to the Samaritan woman:

 “Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life.” [John 4:13-14]

“Only when we realize that true satisfaction comes from being home in our father’s heart will we be able to stand up against our own desires.“

In the famous John 3:16 we see the innate nature of God’s heart. God loves us therefore he gave us himself.  He gives the undeserving believer life therefore he is good. When we know God loves us we will have a relationship with him. When we know he is good we will trust him. Trusting him will get us on the path of purity even when we don’t fully understand it. Our relationship with him will sustain us as we pursue purity. Thus the fight against lust will not seem like a drudging unnecessary  climb.

All we need to do to know God’s heart as believers is to apply Jesus’s  words:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” [Matthew 7:7-8]

Often in the conversation on purity we forget that we are not fighting for the ‘crown’ of virginity on our wedding day. We are fighting to draw closer to our maker’s heart. We fight for the joy of sacrificial obedience.

Freedom from lust is possible no matter how long you have fought a seemingly losing battle. But like all other sins, lust will not naturally go away. We need to make intentional decisions to leave it. Most of those decisions will not make sense and cannot be consistently made without knowing God and particularly his heart.

Before we explore part 2 I urge you sisters to ask to know God’s heart in prayer, to seek to know his heart in the bible and to knock for he has always been waiting on the other side.