come home. | A Redemptive Roadmap from Lust Back to Christনমুনা

Running Away or Coming Home?

Prefer to read? I've provided the transcript for today's teaching below.

When you habitually find yourself walking through Lust’s door, you can be overwhelmed with guilt and shame. And when the high is over and that temporary thrill is gone, coming back home—back to relationship with Jesus—is so difficult. There was a season of my life where I felt so separated from Him that I thought surely He wouldn’t want me to share my soul with Him after I had just shared it with Lust. Since I’ve been there myself, I know women who are struggling with something similar question why it feels seemingly impossible to resist temptation. For most of us, the biggest stumbling block isn’t that we don’t want to connect with God but that we don’t know how to practically pursue intimacy with Him, especially while we're trapped in this constant cycle of sexual sin.

We need a divine rescue from sin’s grasp, and in the book of Romans, Paul gives us some insight into just that. In Romans 12:1 (ESV), he urges believers to present their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” Paul warns them that committing their lives to God isn’t possible without being transformed by the “renewing of their minds.” This means allowing God’s wisdom to inform their perspectives in life (Romans 12:2). This principle is the same one we must apply to our lives today to break free of lust’s grasp on us.

When our thoughts and beliefs are in alignment with God’s word, our actions begin to reflect the inward makeover God’s truth gives our hearts. This imperfect process of matching up our behavior with our inner (renewed) thought-life is what I like to call embracing the purity mindset. How do we do this? We’re going to dive into how, but first I want to share a little more of the mindset we have to embrace before we get there.

Since you and I are pursuing lasting transformation here, our long-term goal is to develop the spiritual habit of renewing our minds. This is ultimately where our decisions and behavior originate. To do this, we begin by 1) Identifying what we believe; and 2) Examining those thoughts to see if they align with God’s word. 

As I reflected on all the ways I struggled with lust, I’ve examined times in my life when enticement got the better of me, my struggle to break free from the cycle of defeat being only one of many. The more I examined these experiences, the more I recognized three lies that kept recurring:

1.   “I’ve sinned too many times to be forgiven.”

2.   “I can’t change.”

3.   “Embracing sexual purity won’t satisfy the desires of my heart.”

Over the next few days, we’ll look at each of these lies that keep us bound to sexual compromise so we can learn to identify and eliminate them with scriptural truths. We’ll end our study with my mental blueprint for successfully living out the purity lifestyle. 

At this point, you may be absolutely sure that you want to come home to God. For some who are listening, however, you’re not so sure. You think you want to, but you fear the cost of giving up your past ways. Or maybe you’re unsure if this time it can really happen after trying so many times. 

The journey of coming home to God is a process. Let God’s love and unconditional acceptance strengthen you. No matter what our sin, we never have to clean ourselves up before coming home to Jesus. The cleanup process is His job. Giving Him our hearts is ours. This process starts by saying: 

“God, I don’t know fully how, but I give myself to you above anything else and any other desire I have. Will you exchange my desire for my own passions for what you can offer me?” 

This is an honest prayer that will help you begin to walk through the door of forgiveness and healing He has for you. 

Only by coming home will you experience the fullness of God’s love and the identity you’ll find in Him. Only in the safety of God’s love can you embrace sexual purity. And it’s only by removing lust’s interrupters and distractors that you can take up the sacred romance and thrilling adventure that God has in store for you. Are you ready to start? Are you ready to feel whole and pure again, or maybe even for the first time? It's time to come home.

Exercise for the day:

Reflect on the phrases or statements you have spoken over yourself as you have strived to overcome lust. On a blank sheet of paper, list the thoughts that come to mind on the left. Take some time to research and record Bible verses that correspond to each thought on the right. (Google “What does the Bible say about …”, or “Bible verses on … “.) Record any contradictions you discover between your thoughts and God’s word at the bottom of this page. Set your mind to cling to these verses and fight your doubts with God’s truth. Download the worksheets for this plan using the link on Day 5 under the "Exercise for the day."

Questions for Reflection:

Until now, which of the three lies mentioned in the teaching above have you most identified with? In what ways has rehearsing your thoughts lead you away from Christ?