New Book: 33 Days to Freedom From Lust: INTRODUCTION
I grew up in an evangelical church that loved Jesus, His word, one another, and others. As teens, we were taught much good, truth, and beauty, but we were taught a few errors as well. One was the idea that, for men, lust is inevitable. It’s just part of who you are in this fallen world, your sinful burden in this life. They did teach us not to act on the lust, but it would be there our whole lives.
My church was right that you don’t have to act on your indwelling lusts, but they were wrong in telling us that inward lusting was part of being a man. Adam didn’t lust before the Fall (Gen 2). Jesus didn’t lust (2 Cor 5:21). And you don’t have to lust. No Christian man or woman has to lust.
In the power of the Holy Spirit, you can put lust to death in your heart. Remember what Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome and Colosse, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13); and, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).
That’s why I wrote this devotional: to give you hope.
My prayer is that as you read God’s Word, the Bible, and you receive it, believe it, and live it, your thoughts will be more and more obedient to Christ. You will think God’s thoughts after Him, which will bring you victory over your indwelling lusts and other sins in your heart.
Now, in this life, there must be sin in Christians, because our flesh is full of sin (Rom 7), but our flesh does not have to desire the same particular sins continually. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can put to death particular lusts of our flesh. But how?
We must develop holy habits by thinking God’s thoughts after Him and having greater affection for God than we do for lust. By the Holy Spirit’s power, we create new habits by starving the lust in our hearts when it moves, one day at a time, until it’s starved to death and a new holy habit is formed. According to some scientific studies, the least time to form a new habit is 21 days, with the average being 66 days. Thus, I chose 33 days to freedom from lust because it’s greater than 21 days and half of 66 days.[1]
For some of you, 33 days will be enough for you to repent and form new holy habits. For others, you may need to repeat this book twice, or your second read can focus on memorizing the Freedom From Lust Shorter and Larger Catechisms. The goal is to develop greater affection for God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and His morals, and to increase in your hatred for your lust and sin.
Are you ready to leave lust behind?
[1] Phillippa Lally, Cornelia H. M. Van Jaarsveld, Henry W. W. Potts, and Jane Wardle, “How are habits formed: Modeling habit formation in the real world,” European Journal of Social Psychology 40, no. 6 (2010): 998-1009, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.674.