The fight against sexual lust is a common struggle among men. This battle for supremacy in a man's heart exists regardless of profession, civil status, age group, and personality. Contrary to what people think, it's also a fairly common struggle among men in ministry.
While this issue is common to all men (it even happens among women), one thing that we have to note is that God wants us freed from this struggle. God wants us devoid of any sexual lust towards any person, and is willing and able to help us become free from it. How can and will He do that?
Through His sinless Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you know that Christ Jesus, despite having women adore and follow Him around, did not struggle with sexual lust? He never fell for any sin, lust included. He was and is able to look at any woman, regardless of looks or garments, and see God's plan for each of them.
Because Christ overcame sexual lust, we can overcome it too. This is because He promised it:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." (John 14:12-14)
That said, I would like to offer three pieces of advice to help all men fight against sexual lust. We are all in this, brothers. We all get tempted, and thus we all should fight. And when we fight, we fight together with Christ.
Here are some tips for you:
1) Check your heart
Brothers, we have to check our heart. Averting our eyes can only do so much; we need to get to the core issue and that's the sexual lust in our hearts.
Truth be told, we can't blame our sisters for wearing revealing clothes. We can't blame them for having a physical beauty that we find attractive. Who we can blame, however, is ourselves for desiring what we shouldn't be desiring.
James 1:14 tells us that "each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." We will never be tempted by something we don't desire. And so, we should check our hearts if we desire women.
Brothers, we have to be very honest with ourselves. We can deny we feel desire for women and yet on the inside, be lusting after them. Unless we confess the ugly truth, God won't help us get rid of it (see 1 John 1:8-10).
2) Know you have a help in Christ
After confronting ourselves with the truth and admitting it to God, we can then rest assured that He will help us overcome it. We have a help, and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many of us get discouraged, thinking that God cannot and will not accept us because we are sinful. Well, He can't accept our sins but He loves us, and so He wants us cleansed. The Lord Jesus came to earth to defeat the power of sin and death so that we can be free. We need to run to Him!
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)
The Holy Spirit of God, who empowered Christ to live a sinless life and raised Him from the dead, lives in us and is able to help us. If He raised Christ from the dead, He can make us live free from lust.
3) Believe that you can overcome
Lastly, we all need to believe that sexual lust can be overcome. If we fail while trying, we shouldn't quit - it's a marathon, not a sprint. The fight against sexual lust will continue for a lifetime, and so we must continually ask God for His grace and help for us to overcome.
Who knows, friends. Perhaps we will get to a point in our walk with Christ that we'd begin to see our sisters how He sees them. That's pretty glorious and liberating, isn't it?
Keep praying and asking God for grace to overcome. If Christ lived a human life devoid of lust, we can, by His Holy Spirit, be freed from it too.
