How You Can Stop Lusting in Your Heart

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The Word of God has power and we need that power in order to resist temptation so here’s how to defeat it where you meet it.

Covenantal Eyes

During the many times that I’ve tried to help men overcome their battle with pornography, I included having them memorize Scripture. The psalmist wrote, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). It’s as if the psalmist is saying, “I memorized Scripture so that I might not sin against You God.” I think that’s the context, so someone who’s battling with lust must realize that Scripture has power (Isaiah 55:11; Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18)…the power to change lives, to sanctify lives, leading to more godly lives. Jesus prayed for the Father to “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17), so God’s Word sanctifies but it also convicts. If we neglect the Word of God, we’ll not receive the power of God, and we need that power to overcome the temptations of the flesh, and we must strive to overcome lust.

Adultery in the Heart

Jesus said “that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:48), and that’s the last thing we should want to do. Here is one of the most powerful Bible verses there are in the Bible about fighting lust. We find in in Job 31:1 where Job says, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” What this may mean is that when Job (or when we) see someone who is beautiful and we’re tempted to lust in our hearts, we should look away. When you make a covenant to look away when you see lustful images on the Internet, on TV, or in public, “look away!” Don’t hesitate. If it’s me, I change the channel, close the browser, or anything that I can do to stop it at the “eye-gate.”

A web filter is a great way to screen out potential Internet websites that contain pornography.

God’s Will

There is no great mystery in trying to find God’s will for your life. Scripture plainly tells us that “this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor” (1 Thess 4:3-4). God’s will is not some hidden thing where we must search high and low to find it. Clearly, it is God’s will that we abstain from sexual immorality, and that means where it starts…in the mind! Remember Job’s covenant with his eyes? The Apostle Paul has something that agrees with that as he writes, “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Tim 2:22). For me, I have installed a “G” filter on my Internet browser so I can rest assured that no revealing images will suddenly appear.

Memorizing Scripture

If we can remember Scripture, we can remember to look away or run when we’re tempted to lust in our hearts. Of course, that’s easier said than done because “all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16). That’s why we have to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5). This is why Paul again reminds us to “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (1 Cor 6:18). It should be a disgusting thought to know that having sexually immoral relationships, is like being “joined to a prostitute [and] becomes one body with her” or him (1 Cor 6:16).

Plucking out the Eye

Jesus once used hyperbole or an extreme exaggeration about getting rid of something sinful lusts in our lives. He said that “if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire” (Matt 18:9). Jesus is saying we must take extreme measures to rid ourselves of sin, and if it’s sexual immorality, then it will likely take extreme measures. You might have to get rid of the Internet or put a password protected filter on the computer that only your accountability partner has. Keep in touch with someone who is trying to help you and pray for you to overcome lust in your life. Maybe it takes getting rid of the Internet (plucking out the eye stuff) or getting rid of the smart phone and getting a flip phone. I don’t know what that looks like for you or what works best for you, but I do know that you and I are “as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Pet 2:11).

Lust and Death

Proverbs 6:25-26 is exactly right in saying, “Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.” God wired us to have sexual desires, but to have these desires in a godly relationship which is found in marriage. We are responsible since “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). What do we do then? Memorize certain Scriptures that have to deal with your issue of lust. It might be lusting after someone, or lusting after something, but either way, Scripture is where your real source of power. Combine that with daily prayer time, and you’ll be better equipped to resist the devil, flee temptation, and covenant to not look upon a man or woman with lust in our heart.

Conclusion

I pray you have put your trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If that has not happened yet, my friend, you are in real danger of hell fire. And I mean, in immediate danger. You’re one breath, one heartbeat…one accident away from eternity when it will be too late to repent. Today is the best day to believe (2 Cor 6:2) since tomorrow is no guarantee. If Jesus Christ came today, here is your fate (Matt 7:21-23). This is why I plead with you as you read this, repent today…and I mean right now. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you do not, you will face God’s judgment after death guaranteed (Heb 9:27) or at Jesus Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), which could happen at any moment.

Here is some related reading for you: Bible Verses About Lust: 17 Helpful Passages

Tagged as: Adultery, lust, Temptation