My previous post was about the presence of demons... And this post comes in a similar light because I am MORE and MORE convinced that the enemy is wiping out our generation by undermining our purity through an overwhelming spirit of:
LUST.
LUST.
Yep, you heard me right. Revelation moment for me.
Now before you get all worried-
Don't see what I'm not saying. I'm not here to preach doom and gloom--
BUT... please DO hear what I AM saying- The Bible tells us about lust and how wrong it is (Matthew 5:28). In fact, the word "lust" is found over 30 times in the NIV.
And yet, if you ask almost any young person, they have struggled or still struggle with some form of lust. Whether it be: idolatry of a celebrity, lusting after someones body, or checking out "hot guys", the lie is STILL the SAME.
Ladies and gentlemen- I hate to break it to you, but unfortunately we've all struggled with this at some level or another...
We've identified the problem. IS there a solution?
Here's where the revelation comes in! :)
We often rationalize lust: we assume its just "because we're young" and because we have "new hormones" or its "that time of life", etc, etc, etc. I've heard them all-- many from young people, bu even more from adults with (apparently) low expectations of young people in the church. I could go on forever with the utter EXCUSES we make in order to KEEP our lust. But here's the TRUTH: LUST is LIE!
If we're going to live up to God's best, we have to stop making excuses and rationalizing the things that the enemy wants to bring into our lives. The reason pornography is such an epidemic in the church and society today is because we haven't put a STOP to the lies of lust.
Don't you see? When we (you or I or anyone else for that matter) allow lustful thoughts to enter our mind, or we look at sexual images, or we allow ourselves to dwell on "romantic" thoughts, or we are constantly remarking on girls/guys bodies we are GIVING VICTORY TO THE ENEMY!
Whew. That's some crazy business.
I don't know about you... but that's just the beginning for me. It's the beginning of something new... new thoughts, new words, a new focus.
Who's gonna rise up? Who's gonna go beyond status quo? Who's gonna change this generation one pure thought at a time?
I appreciate your zeal Jazz-funk.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a good point that we need to acknowledge real issues before we can find real solutions. People don't like the idea that they're living in a lie, unfortunately.
I had another insight for you that God taught me earlier this year:
There's always something deeper going on. I realized for my own struggles with lust, infatuation, and loneliness that the common root was a need for intimacy. As you know we were created to have genuine relationship and intimacy with God. Since we reject Him that need remains unmet and we start to look for other things to meet it. When I realized that the deeper root of my different struggles and addictions was a lack of intimacy with God I was able to begin to seek Him in a new way, allowing Him to begin to meet that need, and I experienced a lot of freedom.
I think acknowledging deeper issues like this are crucial because otherwise we are relying on our own will-power to overcome the surface-level issues instead of identifying the roots (which will always in some way connect back to our relationship with God).
Keep up the good work.
~Samuel~
Sam-
ReplyDeleteI love when you comment, and I really like hearing about what God is teaching you... Thanks for the insight!
Keep leaving thoughts!
Jasmine