So how do you overcome the evil desires of your own heart so that you can experience "The Sexual Force Unleashed" and "Romantic World Peace" within a Christ-centered marriage? I have some bad news: You can't.
If you try to defeat your cravings for forbidden sex on your own, your "inner terrorist" (which God's Word calls your flesh) will, like a giant shark, swallow you whole. This is why so many people at church (some of whom are actually saved), not only lose their V-card before marriage, but also fall into all sorts of perverse and addictive behaviors even after they are married. They think that if they memorize enough verses, pray hard enough, get enough counseling for past wounds, and do enough good things at church that God will flip the "off-switch" on their Love Bratwurst/Vajayjay and that they will never, ever lust again. Unfortunately, God doesn't do things that way for one simple reason:
GOD WANTS YOUR HEART, NOT "STRAIGHT A'S" ON YOUR CHURCH MEMBER REPORT CARD!!!!!
Here are the problems with doing each of these activities without giving our hearts to Christ:
1) Memorizing Bible verses: Without giving our hearts to God, this is really just leisure reading to pass the time. It can become as pointless as reading a book on nutrition when you are never going to give up burgers, pizza and ice cream or reading a magazine on self-defense when you will never set foot inside of a dojo.
2) Praying hard enough: Without giving our hearts to God, this is basically the equivalent of asking Mom and Dad to bail us out when we get ourselves into trouble. If we have no intention of giving up our sin and just want a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, God will eventually stop bailing us out. He won't hesitate to leave us in a prison cell with the "Big Bubba/Bertha" of our consequences if that's what it takes for us to finally learn our lesson.
3) Getting counseling for past wounds: Without giving our hearts to God, this can rapidly degenerate into blaming others for our sinful behavior. The wicked deeds of others can exacerbate our forbidden desires and make us more creative in the way that we go about fulfilling them, but they don't cause them. For example, a babysitter may have molested you when you were six years old, but they didn't force you to knock up your girlfriend, refuse to pay child support, and leave her and your kid to fend for themselves when you were 25. Likewise, you may have been date-raped when you were 15. However, your attacker didn't make you commit adultery with your best friend's 19-year-old son and hire a crooked attorney to take all of your husband's worldly possessions in divorce court when you were 45. Getting counseling and legal help for what others did to us can accelerate the healing process. Using their sins as justification for our own wicked actions will only keep us from dealing with the root cause of our sexual desires (our heart) and lead us to self-destruction.
4) Doing good things at church: Without giving our hearts to God, church service is just a thinly veiled attempt to make ourselves look good in front of others. It has the same root as forbidden sexual desires: pride. Not only can it lead to us justifying sexual indiscretions "on the sly" (i.e. I do so many good things at church that I deserve to "indulge" once in a while). It can also lead to God exposing us by allowing a skilled player/playeress to call our bluff, turn us out like a college freshman, and make us look stupid in front of our church community.
In other words, when we try to overcome our inner terrorist with those
activities, we are fighting a brain tumor with Excedrin. Sure, some of the
pain might go away, but we will still die! So here is the key to defeating your inner terrorist:
YOU HAVE TO ALLOW CHRIST TO KILL THEM BEFORE THEY KILL YOU!
At the end of the day, Christ is the only one who can defeat your inner terrorist. However, since He is a gentleman, He won't do it unless you let Him. So here is how you let Christ give your forbidden desires the death penalty:
1) Take responsibility for your sin and turn your entire life over to Christ as your personal savior.
2) Take responsibility for your sin and turn your entire life over to Christ as your personal savior.
3) If you are already saved, turn your sexuality completely over to Christ. Many Christians (King David being the greatest example), allow Jesus to be the Lord of every area of their life except for their sexuality. When they do this, they provide an "Achilles' Heel" for Satan, the world, their peers, or players/playeresses to shoot arrows at until one hits the mark and their Christian witness dies like the ancient Greek hero. If you give this area of your life over to Christ, He will shield you from these arrows so that you can serve Him effectively.
4) In case I wasn't clear the first two times, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SIN AND TURN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE OVER TO CHRIST AS YOUR PERSONAL SAVIOR!!!! Nothing else will work if you don't do this, and I mean NOTHING!
Matthew 19:26 "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (NIV)
