Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this honestly and for asking for prayer. I am praying for you and I thank God that you want to be set free, because that desire itself is from Him and He is able to deliver you.
Scripture shows us that God created our bodies and our sexuality, and He created them good. But He designed sexual union to be within the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, where the two become one. Outside of that design, what is often called love is in truth lust, and God calls us to flee from it. Your body, if you belong to Jesus Christ, is not your own. You have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus, and your body is a member of Christ. We are not to take what belongs to Him and join it to sexual sin. He purchased you to set you free from being enslaved to the flesh so you can serve and worship Him in purity.
The Bible explains why this battle is so strong. All that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, and these are not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Satan attacks in those same three ways. He did with Eve when she saw the fruit was good for food, beautiful to the eyes, and desirable to make her wise, and he tried the same with Jesus when he tempted Him to turn stones into bread to satisfy hunger. In our day the opportunities to feed the flesh and the eyes are everywhere, and the flood of sexual images through magazines, screens, billboards and movies is meant to inflame desire and keep people bound.
James also tells us that temptation does not come from God. Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed, and when desire is allowed to remain it gives birth to sin. It begins in the heart, in a look that is not turned away, in a thought that is entertained. That is why the call is to cut it off at the very start, to not lust after beauty in the heart, to guard the eyes and the mind, and to flee. We do not overcome by staying close to the temptation and trying to resist, we overcome by fleeing and turning to Christ.
I know this can feel like a chain that cannot be broken. Many become slaves to their desires and find those desires destroying what is precious, yet Jesus is stronger. He does not only forgive sin, He delivers from its power. He came to save us from living according to the flesh and the mind, which by nature makes us children under wrath, and to make us new. Those who have lived to satisfy every fleshly craving find in the end that it is empty and leads to death, but God offers fullness and life.
Prayer is not a way to get God to bless what our flesh wants. We sometimes ask only to spend it on our own desires. True prayer seeks His will to be done in us. So I am praying not that God would make a way for these desires to be satisfied, but that He would cleanse your heart, renew your mind, and fill you with His Holy Spirit so you can walk in holiness. Friendship with the world and its lusts is enmity with God, but to draw near to God is to find Him drawing near to you.
I pray for you now that God would give you repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and forgiveness, that He would wash you and make you clean, that He would give you strength to make a clean break from every source of temptation, to remove what causes you to stumble, to bring trusted and godly help around you for honesty and accountability, and to fill your heart and mind with His Word. May He teach you to see your body as His temple, to walk in purity even as Christ is pure, and to find that His grace is sufficient to keep you day by day. He is faithful and He will give you a way of escape as you trust Him.
Keep seeking Him, keep turning away at the first thought, and keep filling your life with what is pure and holy. God sees your struggle and He is able to set you free and keep you free.
Scripture shows us that God created our bodies and our sexuality, and He created them good. But He designed sexual union to be within the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, where the two become one. Outside of that design, what is often called love is in truth lust, and God calls us to flee from it. Your body, if you belong to Jesus Christ, is not your own. You have been bought with a price, the blood of Jesus, and your body is a member of Christ. We are not to take what belongs to Him and join it to sexual sin. He purchased you to set you free from being enslaved to the flesh so you can serve and worship Him in purity.
The Bible explains why this battle is so strong. All that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, and these are not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Satan attacks in those same three ways. He did with Eve when she saw the fruit was good for food, beautiful to the eyes, and desirable to make her wise, and he tried the same with Jesus when he tempted Him to turn stones into bread to satisfy hunger. In our day the opportunities to feed the flesh and the eyes are everywhere, and the flood of sexual images through magazines, screens, billboards and movies is meant to inflame desire and keep people bound.
James also tells us that temptation does not come from God. Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed, and when desire is allowed to remain it gives birth to sin. It begins in the heart, in a look that is not turned away, in a thought that is entertained. That is why the call is to cut it off at the very start, to not lust after beauty in the heart, to guard the eyes and the mind, and to flee. We do not overcome by staying close to the temptation and trying to resist, we overcome by fleeing and turning to Christ.
I know this can feel like a chain that cannot be broken. Many become slaves to their desires and find those desires destroying what is precious, yet Jesus is stronger. He does not only forgive sin, He delivers from its power. He came to save us from living according to the flesh and the mind, which by nature makes us children under wrath, and to make us new. Those who have lived to satisfy every fleshly craving find in the end that it is empty and leads to death, but God offers fullness and life.
Prayer is not a way to get God to bless what our flesh wants. We sometimes ask only to spend it on our own desires. True prayer seeks His will to be done in us. So I am praying not that God would make a way for these desires to be satisfied, but that He would cleanse your heart, renew your mind, and fill you with His Holy Spirit so you can walk in holiness. Friendship with the world and its lusts is enmity with God, but to draw near to God is to find Him drawing near to you.
I pray for you now that God would give you repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and forgiveness, that He would wash you and make you clean, that He would give you strength to make a clean break from every source of temptation, to remove what causes you to stumble, to bring trusted and godly help around you for honesty and accountability, and to fill your heart and mind with His Word. May He teach you to see your body as His temple, to walk in purity even as Christ is pure, and to find that His grace is sufficient to keep you day by day. He is faithful and He will give you a way of escape as you trust Him.
Keep seeking Him, keep turning away at the first thought, and keep filling your life with what is pure and holy. God sees your struggle and He is able to set you free and keep you free.
