Scriptures that Address Lust (not what you think)

"You keep saying I have a choice, Rick, but when this temptation hits me I don’t feel like I have a choice. I just have to follow through on my desires." 

I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. Frankly, some variation of this conversation has been pretty common my entire time as a pastor and digging into the lives of men.

Listen, I’m not distant from this feeling, I’ve experienced it myself.

In those moments, what I am looking for is a lifeline.

Actually that isn’t it.

What we are looking for is a way to get what we want from our sin without actually doing it. We want to forget our troubles, feel strong and competent, feel desired, maybe just have a “release”, without the attendant feelings of guilt, shame, and the cycles that go with it.

Let’s be honest, you made your way here because this is exactly what you want.

I get it, and I’ve been there. 

Here’s the problem:

The Word of God is living and active but cannot make your decisions for you.

When we come right down to it, lust, like every other sin, is simply a twisting of something good into something we want to meet needs we were made to have met in God Himself. You see, that is the crazy part about all the behaviors we struggle with, all the desires we think are so incredibly powerful, and they are.

But, and here’s the key, the problem is that we are settling for so little when we answer these desires with sinful behaviors.

I cannot provide you with verses that will convince you to not click on that website, linger too long looking at that person in the gym, or watch that episode you know will give you what you want. If there was such a list, no Christian would deal with this.

I think you know this.

If you don’t or didn’t I’m sad but not sorry that you learned it from me. 

The Scriptures I can give you speak not to God telling you how wrong this behavior is, because you already know that. They don’t communicate how broken you are or how you should do better.

We all feel that constantly.

What they do is show us that the problem is NOT in our desire, at the core desire, the problem is that we settle for too little to meet that desire.

Read more: Prayers against lust

Jeremiah Chapter 2

Jeremiah chapter 2 is a beautiful place where the prophet is speaking to the people of God turning from Him. We can all connect to that. But the way he speaks to it is very different from how we normally speak to it, either with one another or even ourselves. Verse 13 says this, 

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. ~ Jeremiah 2:13

Look up the verse: Biblevise

Notice how God addresses this.

When we have these desires, when that thought enters our heads that we must go look at that website or that we must look up if some star has had a photo leak or whatever, we try to fight it with telling ourselves how bad we are, how we “can’t believe” that these thoughts have entered into our minds.

God’s answer is not like that.

It isn’t to shame you for being thirsty, it is to grieve that you want to quench your thirst in a place that can’t do it.

John Chapter 7

Jesus speaks in a similar way in John 7. 

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” ~ John 7

We tend to think God is so upset that we are thirsty, that we have desires, that we are needy.

Don’t you see?

The problem isn’t that you are needy, the problem is that you - and I - want to meet our needs apart from God.

The problem is that we don’t think He is enough and don’t think that He will fulfill these powerful longings in our souls.

Isaiah Chapter 55

To that end, let me leave you with one more passage. The prophet Isaiah, in chapter 55, says this to a needy people like us, 

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live;  and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David ~ Isaiah 55

Silver bullet?

You want a silver bullet, and there isn’t one.

You want a way to get what you are hoping for apart from God, giving up control of how that desire is met, and that can’t happen.

I’m sorry.

At the same time, I’m here to tell you that what you want is far too meager. Your bar is far too low and your hopes are far too little. Your desires, the core of them, the desires that you satiate with lust, were meant to be fulfilled in Jesus. 

So what do you do?

More than likely you are searching for this article not before you run off the rails but as a result of running off the rails. Reading this is a part of the cycle. You messed up and now you are trying to figure out how to make it different next time. You want Scripture passages or verses to go to next time.

You’re not going to like what I’m going to say but I’m going to say it anyway.

By the time you get to next time, it will be too late.

This is not a battle to get your behaviors straight, it's battle to reorient your life away from finding whatever mudpuddle you can to quench your thirst to understanding that you were created for God and that your deepest desires are only fulfilled in Him. 

Instead of looking for a silver bullet, I’m going to call you to some hard work.

Answer the why question, why do you look?

In other words, what are you actually thirsting for?

You can’t see where to quench your thirst until you figure out what it is you are thirsting for. I can tell you right now, it isn’t sex. 

Let me say that again, you aren’t thirsting for sex or even pleasure; there is something deeper.

If you can’t identify it, ask a friend to help you, or a pastor, or a counselor but you cannot fight this battle without understanding where the actual war is being fought. If you need help, contact me. I can’t make things better, but I might be able to point you in the right direction.

Comments section is the best way to get in touch, or you can look me up at the church I pastor (info below).

More Support for Quitting Pornography