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Author
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Topic: How Can I Overcome Sin
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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Overcoming Lust As a Christian
"Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." To most men, this statement by Jesus seems unrealistic. Looking with lust is so big a part of their lives that to do otherwise seems impossible.
Count me among those who have been perplexed by what Christ said. However, that has changed. I now know that it is possible to avoid adultery in the heart. Here is how this works. Whenever I see a woman, or an image of a woman, which could stir a lustful reaction within me, I immediately stop this from happening. That is, I prevent my mind from developing lustful thoughts through a variety of methods, whether by averting my eyes, redirecting my thoughts, switching the channel or turning the page.
Most Christian men appear not to be taking these steps. Rather than obeying Jesus, they hear what He said and then do the opposite. Here are some reasons for this disobedience.
Misunderstanding the nature of lust
The way lust works is often misunderstood. Lust is commonly described as being identical to strong sexual desire. However, this description of lust leaves out the key fact that the object of this desire is forbidden to us. Strong sexual desire for one's spouse is not the same as lust for someone else. In fact, lust is more than mere desire because it has within it an element of fulfillment. It is like drinking from a cup, not merely thirsting.
Here is a better definition: "Lust is gaining sexual gratification or a 'buzz' from anyone or anything except your wife." This definition draws the line at the earliest stage of sexual arousal, exactly where Jesus zeroed in. It recognizes that when we lust, we are not passive participants, but rather, actively engaged as we fix our attention on a woman, an image or a fantasy.
Unfortunately, even in the Church, many assume that the buzz is not lust and just an unavoidable reaction to temptation. As a result, they consume all available eye candy much like everyone else and treat it as a risk-free source of pleasure, both harmless and fun.
This overlooks the fundamental role that lustful looking plays as the earliest and most critical stage of lust. Our minds are able to generate powerful images and fantasies. Looking lustfully, even briefly, harnesses this ability in a way that is unacceptable and sinful.
It does not stop there. Once we have begun, the seed is sown for an ongoing harvest of "blowing it" in ways that are not as easily minimized. Waiting until a later stage before we care to call it sin means missing the obvious. Since we initially brought lust into our lives as a playful pet, we should not be surprised when it grows into a ferocious animal.
Rather than being puzzled by our condition, we should heed the words of our Master, retrace our steps, and be aware that lustful looking is the point at which we started to sin. This awareness of when we are engaged in lust is central to any plan for gaining victory. The only effective response to this as to all sin is to immediately repent, confess and receive forgiveness without letting it take root.
Refusing to believe that obedience is possible
Tragically, most men are resigned to the false idea that they are "hardwired" to lust. This causes them to conclude that the standard laid down by Jesus is both unnatural and contrary to how we are designed. However, since we routinely stop ourselves from obtaining a buzz from a family member, such as a sister or daughter, we know that we are not reflexive when it comes to lust. In fact, a simple test of obeying our Savior's commandment as to lustful looking will quickly reveal that we can apply the same sort of discipline whenever we face the temptation to lust. With some practice, each of us can quickly learn to separate visual or mental stimuli from feelings of sexual gratification. It is not long until we become acutely aware and distressed whenever the "way" we look has crossed the line.
Being "in Christ" means we are dead to sin. Stopping ourselves from lusting is a great way to demonstrate this truth for ourselves and to learn that we have already been empowered to turn from sinning if that is what we choose to do. If you have been in a long struggle with lust, the prescription of eliminating lustful looks may seem simplistic and inadequate even though our Savior mandates it. Nonetheless, rejecting a habit that we may have practiced since childhood by bringing our eyes into obedience to Him is an amazingly effective solution.
One reason that some Christians reject this approach is that they view sexual purity as something that God and not they must establish. While they would not condone other sins, like stealing, they somehow have been convinced that lust is different. Unfortunately, victory over sin is not automatic. Rather, as with other sins, this thorny bush must be thoroughly uprooted. Otherwise, it will entangle and prevent us from being fruitful. Far from making us prideful, succeeding in this must cause us to say, "we are unworthy servants, since we have only done our duty." (Luke 17:7)
Obeying the law of God in this regard strengthens us, since it means we are performing in the way we were designed. Our Christian life is meant to be one of exploring new and exciting possibilities and fully utilizing all of our capacities as we walk "in Him." We are unable to flourish in this new life if we persist in the sin of lust, as it will relentlessly occupy our thoughts if given an opening.
Thinking there is a better way
By focusing fully on the lustful look, Jesus did not ignore all the other lustful behaviors in which men regularly engage. Instead, His teaching directs us to where the battle is won. Unfortunately, rather than choosing to permanently close the stable door as He taught, many of us opt to busily chase and corral runaway horses on a daily basis.
Both the world and the Church suggest that by sheer determination, we can turn off harmful habits such as viewing pornography, dabbling on the Internet and masturbation. To this end, they commonly recommend the help of counselors and support groups and various regimens and techniques, like installing Internet filters or avoiding R rated movies for this purpose. Unfortunately, these approaches do not directly address the real issue.
Since it is lustful looking that creates our irresistible and ongoing cravings for more, striving to change other behaviors instead is as ineffective as mowing the lawn to get rid of weeds. Getting to the root of the problem requires making a covenant with our eyes to not "look lustfully" as Job described (Job 31:1). If we eliminate the fuel, the fire will die. Those who fail at reigning in "addictive" behavior should make this their first step. Once lust has been set loose, fighting off its demands by means of our feeble willpower is impossible.
That is why we should not borrow from the world's playbook, which assumes that men can curtail their behavior to some degree without fully eliminating lust. This approach is coupled with surprise at those who tumble over the cliff. We are all painfully aware of the many who have shipwrecked their lives because they could not maintain rules of conduct. The problem has become especially pronounced as the morals of our culture have spiraled steadily downward. Few sexual activities are taboo and almost anything goes if it feels good, especially if it is make-believe. In this environment, establishing a comfort zone with some but not too much lust is problematic.
Christians are prone to take a more religious approach. They believe that they can keep lust in check by depending on religious activity. Through increased prayer, Bible reading, fasting, Church attendance and mutual accountability they hope to overwhelm the sin brooding in their hearts. Certainly there is much to be gained from all of these practices, but they cannot take the place of obeying our Savior's clear directive to eliminate lust. In fact, maintaining outward appearances without zero tolerance in our hearts results in hypocrisy and weakness when we are tempted. Of course, anyone walking in victory will do all he can to avoid temptation.
We are the light of the world. Darkness has no power unless we make a place for it in our hearts and minds. We must not give in to lust regardless of our levels of stress, our spiritual mood, the state of our relationships, or the temptations we face.
Jesus delivered His clear-cut standard as part of His Sermon on the Mount. This great message and blueprint for how we are to live, ends with the sobering parable of the man who built his house on a foundation of sand, and a warning. If we hear His teachings and do not obey them, we will collapse when the storms of life envelope us. On the other hand, if we love Him, we will obey His clear call for inner righteousness, build on a stable foundation and be secure in the time of peril.
Not acknowledging the danger and dreadfulness of lust.
Maybe you are unconvinced. Like many men you may think that a little bit of lust is unavoidable, all the while being acutely aware of where too much of it can lead. Heartbreaking tales of broken homes, careers, and lives are sadly familiar. Lust can be a wreaking ball in a man's life, bringing complete devastation. However, none of us expects this to happen to us and usually it doesn't. Instead, the norm is to incorporate lust into our lives at a "safe" level. We keep this carefully tucked away and are quick to turn back whenever it seems to get out of control. Instead of a deadly disease, it more closely resembles a low-grade fever or chronic condition. However, nurturing lust at this level will nevertheless still cause significant damage.
First off, sexual impurity inevitably injects duplicity into our lives. Jesus deplored hypocrisy more than any underlying sin. If we are Christians who harbor sexual fantasies, we are hypocrites- double-minded, unstable men. Most men are said to think about sex once every ten minutes. If we have allowed lust a foothold, we can readily identify with this statistic. Even while we are professing our faith and acting clean on the outside, we are actually "dirty cups" on the inside. Jesus sees inside the heart and knows our thoughts. He demands that we maintain an inner purity that would leave us unafraid to have our thoughts read by anyone.
An even more grievous consequence, however, is that our choosing to lust means breaking the greatest commandment. We are told to love God with all our hearts, our minds and our strength. Giving in to lust hijacks our thoughts and creative energies and displeases our Father who demands the attention we expend as we chase sinful desires. Is it any wonder that our walk with God is uncomfortable and our spiritual lives stunted? Our powerful imaginations and intricate thought lives were designed for God's kingdom. They have a part in His plan. Why turn these faculties over to sin? Once we make room for lust in our lives, it will assert its power unexpectedly, even at those times when we desire to draw close to God.
Knowing that we can overcome but choosing not to has ominous implications. We dare not overlook the rest of what Jesus taught on this subject in Mathew 5. His provocative suggestion that we pluck out our eyes if they cause us to lust is meant to alarm us and makes perfect sense if, in fact, our eyes were the problem. However, we know that our eyes are not the problem. Instead, it is our determination to employ our eyes as a means to lust that is so grotesque in His sight and dangerous for us.
We must keep in mind that the wages of sin is always death. We will reap what we sow. Assuming that we can engage in lust and yet escape the consequences is foolish. Sin always results in death. Our lust may be killing our relationships with our wives or obliterating our testimony before those who know us. It certainly will stifle our prayer life and a closer walk with God. We should not act surprised by the resulting havoc or delude ourselves into thinking that receiving forgiveness is equivalent to obedience. God has not suspended the law of the harvest.
The poster boy for this truth is King David. The sin of lust produced tragedy in his home and in his kingdom. Despite his repentance and determination to obtain a "clean heart", the consequences of his sin continued. Should we hope to escape a similar fate? Turning away from our sin and living our lives in Christ is what we are repeatedly told to do. If we don't, be assured that our sin will find us out.
Lacking clear teaching and models of sexual purity.
Admittedly, this approach is not commonly taught. Yet, treating lust this way is neither radical nor rarely practiced. Questioning men who have a deep walk with God will reveal that they habitually recoil from the lustful look. Typically, they will have adopted this habit early in their Christian walk and are unaware of how this differentiates them from those stumbling around them. As a result, these same men are not passing along practical teaching about lust and the means of overcoming it as Jesus taught causing many to flounder unnecessarily.
Although I paid more than average attention to this issue during fifty years as an active Christian, I still failed to learn these truths. My past ignorance makes me sympathetic to those who are confused and frustrated by how their faith seems powerless in helping them overcome lust. Perhaps those who have been trapped and then escaped are best equipped to help others. This is what David wanted to do. After Nathan the prophet confronted him about his sin, he cried out for a clean heart and hoped that at some point, he could teach "transgressors their ways" so that "sinners will turn back to you" (Ps 51:13).
Those who disciple others after gaining victory can demonstrate that lust is not an unconquerable force, but rather, just one of many sins from which we can be freed. A patient and compassionate one-on-one study using Every Man's Battle, written by Fred Stoeker and Steven Arterburn, was decisive in my struggle and has also proven effective in assisting others. There is also an excellent and free on-line self-study course available at settingcaptivesfree.com. In order to help others, it is essential that we model success and transparency while relying on resources that take a non-compromising approach. Standing with Paul as ones who have been delivered from doing that which we hate can open the door for others.
The entire Biblical message relating to sexual sin is a call for uncompromising purity and inner righteousness, qualities the evangelical church has had in short supply. As the teachings of Jesus and the apostles emphasized, there is a constant temptation to retreat into legalism, which substitutes outward rules in place of obedience and forms a cloak for an unrighteous heart. Observing a slippery set of man-made rules cannot eliminate the lustful look. Righteousness can only be established at a much deeper level where we refuse to fool ourselves, and choose to turn from our wicked ways and thoughts. Only then will the meditations of our hearts become acceptable to Him.
Certainly, demonstrating power over sin accomplishes much more than angrily scolding or blaming the decadence of our society. After all, if Christians cannot resist temptation, why shouldn't the world keep catering to them? We may even help turn the putrid tide rising around us once we stop ingesting eye candy, reflexively resist all sexual temptations and deny ourselves illicit gratification.
Being obedient in this regard does not doom us to a life of deprivation. Rather, it frees us to walk in and enjoy the deeper pleasures God has for us. Obedience also opens us up to more of the Sermon on the Mount and its claim on our lives. Our world, including those who embrace competing religious claims, will only notice the difference when we really are different in our innermost being.
Best place for help.
If you are struggling with lust in your life, there is hope. I urge you to consider the resources developed by Setting Captives Free. See the link below. This group offers a free, effective, sixty-day internet study called The Way of Purity, which I strongly recommend. Not only will you find powerful and practical Biblical teaching, but also mentors for interaction and numerous testimonies from those who have been freed from crushing sin. You too can be set free from the bondage of lust. "If the Son has set you free, you will be free indeed."
If you need help in this area, consider this- http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/courses/way-of-purity/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Overcoming-Lust-As-a-Christian&id=953237
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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How can I overcome sin in my Christian life?
The Bible presents several different resources to aid us in our effort to overcome sin. In this lifetime, we will never be perfectly victorious over sin (1 John 1:8), but that should still be our goal. With God’s help, and by following the principles of His Word, we can progressively overcome sin and become more and more like Christ.
The first resource the Bible mentions in our effort to overcome sin is the Holy Spirit . God has given us the Holy Spirit so we can be victorious in Christian living. God contrasts the deeds of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:16-25. In that passage we are called upon to walk in the Spirit. All believers already possess the Holy Spirit, but this passage tells us that we need to walk in the Spirit, yielding to His control. This means choosing to consistently follow the Holy Spirit's prompting in our lives rather than following the flesh.
The difference the Holy Spirit can make is demonstrated in the life of Peter, who, before being filled with the Holy Spirit, denied Jesus three times—and this after he had said he would follow Christ to the death. After being filled with the Spirit, he spoke openly and strongly to the Jews at Pentecost.
We walk in the Spirit as we try not to quench the Spirit's promptings (as spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 5:19) and seek instead to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-21). How is one filled with the Holy Spirit? First of all, it is of God's choosing even as it was in the Old Testament. He selected individuals to accomplish a work that He wanted done and filled them with His Spirit (Genesis 41:38; Exodus 31:3; Numbers 24:2; 1 Samuel 10:10). There is evidence in Ephesians 5:18-21 and Colossians 3:16 that God chooses to fill those who are filling themselves with the Word of God. This leads us to the second resource .
The Word of God , the Bible, says that God has given us His Word to equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It teaches us how to live and what to believe, it reveals to us when we have chosen wrong paths, it helps us get back on the right path, and it helps us to stay on that path. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is living and powerful, able to penetrate to our hearts to root out and overcome the deepest sins of heart and attitude. The psalmist talks about its life-changing power in-depth in Psalm 119. Joshua was told that the key to success in overcoming his enemies was not to forget this resource but instead to meditate on it day and night and obey it. This he did, even when what God commanded did not make sense militarily, and this was the key to his victory in his battles for the Promised Land.
The Bible is a resource that we too often treat lightly. We give token service to it by carrying our Bibles to church or reading a daily devotional or a chapter a day, but we fail to memorize it, meditate on it, or apply it to our lives; we fail to confess the sins it reveals or praise God for the gifts it reveals to us. When it comes to the Bible, we are often either anorexic or bulimic. We either take in just enough to keep us alive spiritually by eating from the Word (but never ingesting enough to be healthy, thriving Christians), or we come to feed often but never meditate on it long enough to get spiritual nutrition from it.
It is important, if you have not made a habit of daily studying and memorizing God's Word, that you begin to do so. Some find it helpful to start a journal. Make it a habit not to leave the Word until you have written down something you have gained from it. Some record prayers to God, asking Him to help them change in the areas that He has spoken to them about. The Bible is the tool the Spirit uses in our lives (Ephesians 6:17), an essential and major part of the armor that God gives us to fight our spiritual battles (Ephesians 6:12-18).
A third crucial resource in our battle against sin is prayer. Again, it is a resource that Christians often give lip service to but make poor use of. We have prayer meetings, times of prayer, etc., but we do not use prayer in the same way as the early church (Acts 3:1; 4:31; 6:4; 13:1-3). Paul repeatedly mentions how he prayed for those he ministered to. God has given us wonderful promises concerning prayer (Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 18:1-8; John 6:23-27; 1 John 5:14-15), and Paul includes prayer in his passage on preparing for spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:18).
How important is prayer to overcoming sin in our lives? We have Christ's words to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before Peter's denial. As Jesus prays, Peter is sleeping. Jesus wakes him and says, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). We, like Peter, want to do what is right but are not finding the strength. We need to follow God's admonition to keep seeking, keep knocking, keep asking—and He will give us the strength that we need (Matthew 7:7). Prayer is not a magic formula. Prayer is simply acknowledging our own limitations and God's inexhaustible power and turning to Him for that strength to do what He wants us to do, not what we want to do (1 John 5:14-15).
A fourth resource in our war to conquer sin is the church, the fellowship of other believers . When Jesus sent His disciples out, He sent them out two-by-two (Matthew 10:1). The missionaries in Acts did not go out one at a time, but in groups of two or more. Jesus commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together but to use that time for encouraging one another in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24). He tells us to confess our faults to one another (James 5:16). In the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, we are told that as iron sharpens iron , so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17). There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12).
Many Christians find that having an accountability partner can be a huge benefit in overcoming stubborn sins. Having another person who can talk with you, pray with you, encourage you, and even rebuke you is of great value. Temptation is common to us all (1 Corinthians 10:13). Having an accountability partner or an accountability group can give us the final dose of encouragement and motivation we need to overcome even the most stubborn of sins.
Sometimes victory over sin comes quickly. Other times, victory comes more slowly. God has promised that as we make use of His resources, He will progressively bring about change in our lives. We can persevere in our efforts to overcome sin because we know that He is faithful to His promises.
http://www.gotquestions.org/victory-over-sin.html
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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