How do y'all deal with Lust?

Holy Ghost and great heapin' handfuls of mercy and forgiveness.

Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have ... - Bible Hub

https://biblehub.com/galatians/5-24.htm
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts ... And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. ... Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. NET Bible
Galatians 5:24 Commentaries: Now those who belong to ... - Bible Hub

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/galatians/5-24.htm
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. ... touches all the generous feelings of the heart, and excites us, from gratitude to ...
7 Bible verses about Crucifying Our Flesh

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Crucifying-our-flesh
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin ... belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

^that's real nice and all but do you have victory in this area or not?

What Does the Bible Say About Victory In Christ ? - OpenBible.info

https://www.openbible.info/topics/victory_in_christ_
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

Luce said:

I been single for 4 years. I never thought about sex till recently. I have to admit that lately I been watching videos and I told myself I would stop. I hate myself and feel disgusted for my actions. I have a hard time resisting the devil. I haven't been to church because I been busy with school, but now that we are out I'm trying to read my bible and attend church.

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Practice what you preach, what I mean is have discipline in your life.

Teach your self discipline, stop watching it all together, if you do then discipline your self by telling your self you must stop it then make a agreement with your self to stop.

The agreement is not to watch any more trash, call it trash, look at it like trash. every day do this, in time you will be disciplined. Then you will not think about it any longer.

When you please your self think about anything but lustful images and movies.

Think about romance and love and a connection with a real wife. Then you will not lust after others.

Get old.

Yeah, getting old helps, but only if the getting older has made one experienced enough to exercise self-control. There is no addiction humans are more hard-wired for than to the lust chemicals released in the brain. The Oxytocin is an opioid that pretty much amounts to a type of heroin made in-house. This is why inappropriate content has become one of the worst epidemics of secret sin out there, and why many are able to reason away that many other people are looking at it to some degree so it must not be that dangerous. Well, keep in mind the XXX was originally used to label the strongest of moonshine. The only way out of any addiction is cold turkey, any connection to it is the one that can lead you back to it. Cut it out completely before you wake up one day and aren't able to walk down the street without lusting over any half-decent looking member of the opposite sex. Because when the body has essentially been allowed to defeat the mind and soul over and over again, the mind and soul becomes less and less able to resist it.

Shut the thought down immediately, and as mentioned, practice makes perfect, something that definitely aplies to the area of sin.

Also, that is a generally a sin of temptation for the Christian, and is categorized as not damnable, or at least understandable by God, but like all other sin, you still need to ask forgiveness and do your best to stop.

Sin of temptation is specifically something you hate doing and never plan on, it just happens, and I'm assuming that's what's happening here, but you decide that for yourself.

Guilt and shame are terrible motivators - I doubt that God would ever use them on you. He'd want to give you a hobby, a focus, or a passion to take its place that not only best utilised your time, but also fulfilled His plan.

In fact, I'm sure of it. Sin only means that you're unfocused and drawing away from your spiritual authenticity. So work at tuning back in, and stop with the guilt trips you put yourself on.

Danielwright2311 said:

call it trash, look at it like trash

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But love the people who do the inappropriate content shows. Do not consider them to be trash, but ones Jesus suffered and died for, on the cross. Have hope for them. Care for them, instead of using them.

Love does not have us only using anyone.

Roidecoeur78 said:

Yeah, getting old helps, but only if the getting older has made one experienced enough to exercise self-control.

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I am now 71 years old, and I can get in more trouble, now that I am healthier in love and more able to enjoy sharing with other people. In my church, I need all the time to stay prayerful and caring for all the people in the church, not only noticing what certain women look like. Healthy women who know love can be much more nice looking than ones deeply sick and selling themselves for money. So, I find it easier to say no to inappropriate content, than to get away from eyeballing and imagining with women I see in church.

But I have been feeding on how love does not use anyone. And trusting God to do real correction, not my own guilt-tripping and controlling of my own self.

Hebrews 12:4-14

And the improvement in relating with various people in love is a wonderful reward, and proof that God and loving is so better and truly enjoyable. But it is better than only feeling better. But God's love does feel nicer than any pleasures I ever have experienced physically with my body, and better than emotions and sensations of imagining using any woman.

"Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
.My lips shall praise You." (Psalm 6:3)

Plus, I have a conscience with really Christian ladies, that I am being real in love with them, and being a good example for ones who need to get healthy in God's love.

ReesePiece23 said:

Guilt and shame are terrible motivators - I doubt that God would ever use them on you. He'd want to give you a hobby, a focus, or a passion to take its place that not only best utilised your time, but also fulfilled His plan.

In fact, I'm sure of it. Sin only means that you're unfocused and drawing away from your spiritual authenticity. So work at tuning back in, and stop with the guilt trips you put yourself on.

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I tend to agree with this. Things got easier when I stopped beating myself up over having sexual feelings. God made me a man, and wanting a wife is part of being the man that I am (and I'd like to think the woman I eventually marry feels similarly about being a woman and wanting a husband). In the meantime, I have other, more productive, things to do with the excess energy.

As weird as it sounds, I pretty much just ignore it and it goes away.

Luce said:

I been single for 4 years. I never thought about sex till recently. I have to admit that lately I been watching videos and I told myself I would stop. I hate myself and feel disgusted for my actions. I have a hard time resisting the devil. I haven't been to church because I been busy with school, but now that we are out I'm trying to read my bible and attend church.

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Hi Luce, as far finding the best ways to not sin goes, the Bible is very helpful. For instance:


When I first became a Christian (more than 32 years ago now, at age 30), I struggled greatly with what I guess would be called my "thought-life" (probably because of the mental "baggage" that I brought along with me from my former, very sinful life in my 20's ). I was in God's word for hours each day and was praying for relief for those horrible thoughts as well, but they just kept coming.

In the end, I didn't find the answer to my problem by simply being in the word of God every day, I found that I needed to go a step farther and "treasure" His word in my heart (which for me anyway, required "memorizing" it .. part of it, that is, 1-2 topical verses and/or passages per week, not entire books or chapters or anything like that ).

A pastor (Chuck Swindoll) told me that memorization would not only keep God's word on the "front burner" (so to speak) of my mind .. e.g. Deuteronomy 11:18-21, but that it would also 'fill' my mind in such a way that it would end up pushing all the old, stale garbage that was up there to the 'back burner', and then eventually out of my mind altogether And you know what, it worked far better than I had hoped or even imagined that it would

Memory work is just that, "work", but the blessings that you will receive from doing it make the hard work it requires pale in comparison. I used the Navigator's Topical Memory System to get started, and I still use it today to memorize new verses/passages (and after nearly 100 years of the Navigator's using the Topical Memory System to prepare their missionaries, it's now available as both iPhone and Android apps .. we were still using business card-sized flash cards back when I started).

If you think you'd like to to do Scripture memory work, PM me if you'd like to as I'd be happy to help get you started.

Merry Christmas! (Luke 2:8-15)

--David
p.s. - another thing about memorizing God's word is this, it becomes far more difficult to sin, because every time you are tempted to do so, the Holy Spirit brings a few of your perfectly memorized verses to very forefront of your mind to remind you why you shouldn't

.

Luce said:

I have a hard time resisting the devil. I haven't been to church because I been busy with school, but now that we are out I'm trying to read my bible and attend church.

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Hi again Luce, I wanted to add a few thoughts about daily living (I'd also like to say sorry for what will probably be a long post, but I'm hoping that you may find at least some of it useful in the midst of the battle that you've in).

First off, know/remember that you are in good company (and plenty of it) as far as having a, "hard time resisting the devil", is concerned (as that is true for all of us). Sadly, Satan and his minions are 'very' good at what they do , and resisting them & the temptations that they bring our way each day can be both frustrating and exhausting, but resist them we must nevertheless .. cf 1 Corinthians 15:58. (always remembering too that what we struggle with, in the end, will be turned into something wonderful because of Him .. Romans 8:28)

The Bible tells us what to do, and the Lord has made some wonderful promises to us as well in regard to this business of resisting temptations (of the world, the flesh and the devil .. cf 1 John 2:15-16), if we choose to wait patiently upon Him, trusting that the One who saved us in the first place has also promised to see us safely through this life to Glory .. cf Isaiah 40:31, 41:10; Romans 4:20-21; Philippians 1:6, 2:13; Hebrews 7:25).

One thing that helped me was to stop looking at the 'big picture' all the time, and to stop asking myself, "will these thoughts EVER stop"? Once I did, I began to deal with the thoughts and temptations of the day/of the moment I was in instead, which was at least somewhat less overwhelming/easier to handle. I would try to deal with each temptation as they came along and take each thought "captive" (again and again and again if necessary) by giving them over to the Lord to deal with for me .. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (and I would ask Him for forgiveness if I ever felt that I'd let the temptations turn into sinful thoughts instead .. 1 John 1:9).

1 Corinthians 10:13 is a great verse, especially as a reminder that we are hardly alone in our daily struggles against temptations and sin (that what we are experiencing is actually commonplace for other Christians). It's also a reminder that the Lord is in this fight with us too (as He promises to protect us from being overwhelmed by a temptation that is too much for us to handle, as well provide us with a way out of each and every temptation that we face), so be sure to remember to look for the way(s) of escape that He gives you whenever you are tempted.


Finally, be sure to follow the Lord's instructions to resist the devil .. James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-9, because He promises that when we do so, the devil will eventually give up his assault and flee from us

The Bible also admonishes us to put on the full armor of God which, once again, is principally done by growing in your knowledge and understanding of His word, and by choosing to believe/trust in Him and in His love for us (as well in His great promises to us), knowing that He was fully aware of what He was getting Himself into, IOW, who and what we were, and what would be like today, before He chose to save us .. cf Jeremiah 31:3).

The thing is, Satan's voice is loud and compelling (granted, in a very negative way), because he always seems to know just what he needs to say to cause us to doubt the sure word, promises, and love of God. So again, to fend off the devil's attacks against us, we need to know, understand and remember God's word (what it 'actually' says), and when we do, we also need to remind ourselves/train ourselves to trust Him, His truth and His great promises to us, even as the devil is firing his flaming darts at us as he tries to confuse and convince us that all of this is just a sham (and even if it's real, that we are worthy of God's love anyway).

Merry Christmas! (Isaiah 9:6-7)

--David
p.s. - you need to begin to make a practice of guarding your heart, of guarding what you allow your eyes and your mind to engage with/dwell upon When you see someone who is attractive to you (a even a picture of a such a person), you need to learn to look away (it takes time to learn to do so, so don't be frustrated, especially at first). As Pastor Swindoll reminded himself each day as an overseas Christian with the Marines (in a place that was simply LOADED with all kinds of temptations for a young man such as he was back then), "eyes straight ahead, Charlie, eyes straight ahead"

.

Luce said:

I been single for 4 years. I never thought about sex till recently. I have to admit that lately I been watching videos and I told myself I would stop. I hate myself and feel disgusted for my actions. I have a hard time resisting the devil. I haven't been to church because I been busy with school, but now that we are out I'm trying to read my bible and attend church.

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Just stay busy.

I don't know how old you are, but juggling work, kids, housework, and grad school seems to do the trick for me.

com7fy8 said:

But love the people who do the inappropriate content shows. Do not consider them to be trash, but ones Jesus suffered and died for, on the cross. Have hope for them. Care for them, instead of using them.

Love does not have us only using anyone.

Click to expand...

Yes, true, love all people no matter what, but what they do is trash, thinking this way will help.

Luce said:

I been single for 4 years. I never thought about sex till recently. I have to admit that lately I been watching videos and I told myself I would stop. I hate myself and feel disgusted for my actions. I have a hard time resisting the devil. I haven't been to church because I been busy with school, but now that we are out I'm trying to read my bible and attend church.

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How to deal with the lust of the flesh? You have to kill it, daily.

How you kill those little annoying weeds? Gotta take out the roots with great care, dig up the soil and water the healthy sprouts. Like a garden, you're responsible into tending to it, watching over it, and making sure its in a good environment to produce fruits.

So you gotta root out the weeds choking your plants, what you see, who you hang out with, reoccuring thoughts. Take time to search and destroy. Everyone encounter weeds at some point, leave it unattended is the worst thing you can do.

Then you gotta reevaluate your soil, is it good soil? Is it supplying nutrients to your plants? Get the word into your heart and life,meditate let it be nourishment. Have the Holy Spirit water those sprouts in your daily life.

And make sure you upkeeping the growth. The lustful weeds will be kept at bay.