Inside Out: A 40 Day Journey to Transforming Your HeartSample

Lustful Heart --> Pure Heart

It can feel hopeless at times to try to keep our ways pure. Everything in our culture is sexualized, be it video games, movies, advertisements on billboards, novels, magazines, or the halftime shows in the Super Bowl. Sex entices. Sex seduces. Sex entraps us. And it’s everywhere.

One of the secret sins of the heart is lust. Lust is a psychological force producing an intense desire for someone or something.  We can lust over things like money and power, not just people. Lust is sinful even though it’s internal because we allow our impulsive urges to govern our thoughts and actions instead of controlling our thoughts so that we don’t act on what we are thinking about. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with a lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Just the thought of being sexual with someone who is not our spouse is just like committing adultery! Lusting after others is being unfaithful with our eyes. Looking at a man or woman and thinking about them sexually is not respecting and honoring them.  It’s seeing them as an object and not a person.  People are made in the image of God and should be valued as such. No one should be wanted only for their external appearance. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”  

If we don’t learn how to control the lustful thoughts that come into our minds, God will stop convicting us.  Romans 1:24 says, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.”  How do we dishonor our bodies? We send to others pictures of ourselves of body parts only our spouses should see. We fulfill ourselves sexually instead of fulfilling our sexual longings inside of marriage. We engage in intimacy with others outside of marriage.  This will significantly affect our intimacy inside our marriage, even if we aren’t married yet.  The thoughts of our intimate relationships outside of marriage will not disappear once we are married.  Our secret sins affect us and those we will get married to or are married to. 

We must guard our purity as if we are a soldier protecting a great treasure of the king.  We are that great treasure.  2 Timothy 2:22 says, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”  Our first step is to flee any situation that we know might entice us to sin sexually. Suppose our eyes glance at an attractive individual. In that case, we need to look away, walk in the other direction, and immediately remind our minds that that gorgeous individual is made in the image of God and is to be valued and respected. 

Our second step is to seek God in prayer and remind ourselves of scripture to focus on what is right and true and not allowing our thoughts to wander or daydream.  Psalm 119:9-11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.  With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commands! I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”  The Holy Spirit will empower us with self-control if we ask Him to do so. We invite Him to control us when we feel like our thoughts and emotions are out of control.  Then, we think about God’s commands. A good verse is 1 Peter 1:22, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”  This verse reminds us that there is a way to love others with a pure heart, not a lustful heart. We are encouraged that every time we chose to obey God, we are not only becoming purer in our hearts, but we will be able to love others we are attracted to in an earnest, God-honoring way! 

Pursuing a pure heart by turning away from temptation, inviting the Holy Spirit to give us self-control, and then filling our minds with scripture will not only honor the people around us but will enable us to love them in a way that is respectful and pure. Isn’t that the way we all want to be loved? 

Take a Moment:

• Where are you most tempted to fall into lustful thinking? 

• Why is it essential for you to fight for a pure heart now? What is at stake if you don’t?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, please help me to honor and respect the people around me that I find attractive. Help me to see them from a pure heart and not a lustful one.  When my eyes want to linger, help me look away. Help my mind immediately ask for the Holy Spirit to give me self-control, and may I focus on scripture to provide me with the strength to pursue purity. Amen.