Devotional Day 2: Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing ~ Repenting of: Eagerness to Sin (Lust)

Pray that God will deliver us from putting pleasure and sexual and bodily gratification above His commandments. 

Sin is often pleasurable but short term gain most often leads to long term pain. As a man I have struggled with pornography. A naked woman is a beautiful sight and releases dopamine into my brain’s pleasure centre but does that mean I should be looking at naked women? The short answer is “no”. The only naked woman I should be looking at is my wife because I have entered into a holy covenantal relationship with her and promised to love her till death do us part.

Still the challenge looms for me, as it does for men and everyone. The cerebral cortex in our brains lights up at the thought of sex or food, but should we be ruled by this process? Again the short answer is “No”.

Moses was a ‘type’ of Christ and it says of Moses in Hebrews that he chose to endure the affliction of the people of God rather than, as it says in the King James version, “sin for a season”.

The world we live in is awash with pornography and sexual sin abounds not only in the world but in the church. However God is calling us to live holy lives. That’s why this period of ‘Ten Days of Awe’, leading up to the International Day of Repentance, Prayer and Fasting on Yom Kippur, Friday 4 October 2014, is so important. 

It is a chance for us to confess our sins to God knowing that He will, as it says in 1 John 1:9, “forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

The simple biblical definition of repentance is to have a ‘change of mind’. Sex is a beautiful gift from God and food is a necessary pre-requisite for our continued existence but we should not be ruled by either. Hebrews 12:16 says, “See that no-one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the older son”. Esau was ruled by the pleasure centre in his cerebral cortex and it cost him his inheritance. 

So yes, disobedience to God’s plan might result in short term pleasure but long term disaster. All the more reason to follow the words of the writer of Hebrews 12:1 & 2, “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run the race with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith”.

Father in Heaven.  Help me to see the deceitfulness of sin. Help me reject short term gain that results in long term pain. Cleanse me of secret sin, renew my heart and let me throw off the sin that so easily entangles me. Help me not to be ruled by my cerebral cortex but your words of life. Help me repent and have a change of mind about sin. Help me to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. ~Amen