How can you tell if you are getting addicted to sex or pornography?
Can't you overpower, control your lust? Where does lust originates from? Why do we lust? For whom or for what do we lust? Can we lust for sex with anyone or anything?
How about materials goods, can we lust for them the same we lust for human sex? Answer: Yes!
In the Bible the apostle Paul understood our dilema. He told the Romans, "I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:18-19).
I'm not implying that Paul struggled with compulsive sexual behavior, but that he did struggle with sin-just like the rest of us. And he would make up his mind not to commit a certain sin ever again. Did he succeed? No way! Now, if the apostle Paul couldn't overpower his sin, why should you and I think we can?
In the other side of the world like the Middle East, you find countries free of erotic images. In those countires where men force women dress codes of covering from their head to their feet and do not permit women to hang out with men, the males are still struggling with lust. Prostitues are visited often.
How can we in the west, men and women feel that we can control our sexual urges when we constantly bombarded with erotic images and messages. Is all over the place, we see it when we drive in our cars half naked women billboards, at work, at home, schools, at the shoppings centers, internet, tv, radio, magazines and the list is has no ending. It is an infestation of moral decay.
With that kind of sexual stimulation assault on our brain daily, do you honestly believe we can can control our sexual thoughts and actions? It is a lie when men think that women do not lust as they do. When you say you do not have a problem with sexual lust you are either lying to yourself or in la-la land. Just because you don't think about it often or you resolved to cut down on your stimulations, you think yourself free. But you haven't is only laying dormant inside of you. When you least expect it, it takes over you. That is the truth, you and I cannot defeat lust alone.
Even Christians who think that becoming a follower of Christ means the lust problem is solved because their sinful nature was transformed. When they discover that the lust is still there anxiety over the problem escalates.
Paul's words. In Romans 7:10-11 he said, "The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong."[1]
We are sinful human beings. God's law forbid sins of sexual nature. Some like that, it make them more
tempted to commit their sin, because of the forbidden laws. God says don't and our flesh says go ahead.
Your sinful nature doesn't go away when you enter a church. Take a look at the way some people dressed to go
church. Some women wear short skirt, tight blouses, tight jeans. Some men wear tight jeans, muscle shirts and or dressed up so pretty that some woman is going to get aroused just to see a man looking pretty.
Putting your faith in Christ is wonderful and honorable. Reading the Bible helps you recognize and fight those impulses. Praying daily , leading a ministry is a good battle plan. But is a life battle and the enemy waits his turn, the opportunity when we are of guard our weakest moments. We need a general to direct our battle plan. Christ Jesus is the only general with enought power and savvy to help you out. But first we have to acknowledge the fact that we on our own cannot win this battle of the sinful nature.
In the Bible, Paul said, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature" (Romans 7:18).
Ignoring, denying, does little but hide the facts that our nature is not free of evil. Without God's control over our minds and hearts we be surprise how much evil we can do even when we think we are good people. All the good we do in the world will not kill that nature we were born with. We need to recognized that this evil force is waiting dormant in each of us, that without God it is impossible to conquer lust or any sin that plagues our lives. Brake away from God and we are an open field for all those nasty messages that Satan and his foot soldiers keep sending into our mind. Their influences is always there trying to trip us.
Don't we understand that we are doing battle with something that is so evil and so nasty that its only purpose is to hold us captive and deny us a true relationship with our creator. Satan does not care that you are good, that does not matter to him, for that will not earn you a ticket to paradise. He is against you knowing Jesus Christ. He wants you to be blinded to his blood sacrificed that cancel your sins and opened the way for you and God to have a loving relationship, for you to enter paradise.
It is Chirst that he is against. He knows the truth and the way to paradise. However, he is banned from there for eternity and cannot access any form of entrance. In these hate rivalry he has against God he is resolved to crush his creation, to make us his trophies.
As Paul stated in Bible, In desperation he cried out, "Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from … this deadly lower nature?" (Romans 7:24 LB).
