Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for purity and integrity reflects exactly the heart God desires. The desire to make a covenant with your eyes, to keep your heart true to its commitments, and to guard your mind from what does not honor Him is pleasing to Him, and He will help you walk it out.
In Job 31, Job is speaking with deep seriousness about faithfulness. When he says in verse 10, then may my wife grind another man's grain and may others sleep with her, he is not making light of marriage. He is calling down the most painful consequence on himself if he were guilty of lust or unfaithfulness. He is saying, if I have betrayed my covenant, even in my heart and eyes, then let my own life and marriage bear that same betrayal. It shows how gravely God views purity, and how seriously a person who wants to walk with integrity should view it. Job understood what you prayed, that God sees every step we take, and that hidden sin is never hidden from Him.
Temptation itself is not sin. Every person experiences it, and even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. The sin comes when desire is allowed to conceive and we yield to it. Temptation is often a solicitation to evil that promises immediate fulfillment if we will just step off God's path for a moment. It appeals to desires that already live in our fallen nature. That is why Scripture says a person is drawn away by his own lust and enticed, and when that lust is allowed to grow it brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished brings death.
Satan's temptations will always fall into one of three kinds that Scripture names, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These do not come from the Father but from the world, and the world with its lusts is passing away. The world constantly plants images and ideas about what it means to be a man or a woman that are contrary to God's Word, and they feed those very lusts. You are right to ask God to protect you from being deceived by them. True manhood and womanhood are found not in those pictures but in being made in God's image and living according to His design, and that is far more valuable than anything the world offers.
There is a battle within every believer, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. You must make a choice in each temptation whether you will walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. Lust is never satisfied by feeding it. The only way to deal with it is to starve it and to feed the Spirit instead.
God has given you two great helps for this. First, His Word hidden in your heart. When Jesus was tempted He answered each temptation with what is written. The Scripture is your defense against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. As you keep the Word before your eyes and in your mind, it gives you truth to stand on when wrong desires arise.
Second, God Himself is faithful in temptation. No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all people, and God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. With every temptation He will provide a way of escape so that you can endure it. You must take that way when He shows it, turning away, walking away, shutting off what stirs wrong desire, calling on Him for help. He is not asking you to fight alone.
You also have a High Priest who understands. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin, and He was tempted with an intensity we will never know because He never gave in. He knows the pressure of temptation and He is touched by your weakness. He has mercy for you in the struggle and grace to help you overcome.
And your hope does not rest on your own ability to keep your covenant perfectly, but on God's faithfulness to keep His covenant with you through Jesus Christ. The old covenant failed because it depended on human faithfulness. The new covenant stands because it depends on God's faithfulness to forgive and cleanse all who trust in His Son. As you trust Him, He will keep you and make you the man or woman He created you to be.
Yes, Jesus is the Word of God and the true Bread of Heaven. He said He is the Bread of Life, and to feed on Him and His Word is to find life and strength for purity.
May the Lord guard your eyes and keep your heart true. May He train your mind to love what He loves and to turn quickly from what would draw you away. When temptation comes, may you remember that He sees you, that He has made a way of escape, and that He will give you the power to take it. Walk in the Spirit, stay in the Word, and starve what would destroy you. God will honor your desire for integrity and will shape you day by day into His likeness. In Jesus name, amen.
In Job 31, Job is speaking with deep seriousness about faithfulness. When he says in verse 10, then may my wife grind another man's grain and may others sleep with her, he is not making light of marriage. He is calling down the most painful consequence on himself if he were guilty of lust or unfaithfulness. He is saying, if I have betrayed my covenant, even in my heart and eyes, then let my own life and marriage bear that same betrayal. It shows how gravely God views purity, and how seriously a person who wants to walk with integrity should view it. Job understood what you prayed, that God sees every step we take, and that hidden sin is never hidden from Him.
Temptation itself is not sin. Every person experiences it, and even Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. The sin comes when desire is allowed to conceive and we yield to it. Temptation is often a solicitation to evil that promises immediate fulfillment if we will just step off God's path for a moment. It appeals to desires that already live in our fallen nature. That is why Scripture says a person is drawn away by his own lust and enticed, and when that lust is allowed to grow it brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished brings death.
Satan's temptations will always fall into one of three kinds that Scripture names, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These do not come from the Father but from the world, and the world with its lusts is passing away. The world constantly plants images and ideas about what it means to be a man or a woman that are contrary to God's Word, and they feed those very lusts. You are right to ask God to protect you from being deceived by them. True manhood and womanhood are found not in those pictures but in being made in God's image and living according to His design, and that is far more valuable than anything the world offers.
There is a battle within every believer, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. You must make a choice in each temptation whether you will walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. Lust is never satisfied by feeding it. The only way to deal with it is to starve it and to feed the Spirit instead.
God has given you two great helps for this. First, His Word hidden in your heart. When Jesus was tempted He answered each temptation with what is written. The Scripture is your defense against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. As you keep the Word before your eyes and in your mind, it gives you truth to stand on when wrong desires arise.
Second, God Himself is faithful in temptation. No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all people, and God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. With every temptation He will provide a way of escape so that you can endure it. You must take that way when He shows it, turning away, walking away, shutting off what stirs wrong desire, calling on Him for help. He is not asking you to fight alone.
You also have a High Priest who understands. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin, and He was tempted with an intensity we will never know because He never gave in. He knows the pressure of temptation and He is touched by your weakness. He has mercy for you in the struggle and grace to help you overcome.
And your hope does not rest on your own ability to keep your covenant perfectly, but on God's faithfulness to keep His covenant with you through Jesus Christ. The old covenant failed because it depended on human faithfulness. The new covenant stands because it depends on God's faithfulness to forgive and cleanse all who trust in His Son. As you trust Him, He will keep you and make you the man or woman He created you to be.
Yes, Jesus is the Word of God and the true Bread of Heaven. He said He is the Bread of Life, and to feed on Him and His Word is to find life and strength for purity.
May the Lord guard your eyes and keep your heart true. May He train your mind to love what He loves and to turn quickly from what would draw you away. When temptation comes, may you remember that He sees you, that He has made a way of escape, and that He will give you the power to take it. Walk in the Spirit, stay in the Word, and starve what would destroy you. God will honor your desire for integrity and will shape you day by day into His likeness. In Jesus name, amen.
