Overcoming Lust Through Faith: Pursuing a Pure Heart With God’s Help
- meetgodattheedgeof
- Jan 23
- 2 min read
2 Timothy 2:22
Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
Pure hearts.
It’s our desire to live a righteous life—but for almost every man I’ve met, lust feels unbeatable. Its ugliness shows up at the worst times and nearly takes over. Our thoughts and attention become consumed by whatever stirred it up in the first place.
I desire to be lust-free, but honestly, I don’t even know if that’s possible.
I want to be a good example of a godly man to my son.I want to show my daughter what level of respect she should expect from men.I want to show my wife that she is the only one for me.
As men, our base instincts have been contaminated by what we’ve seen and by what the world says is acceptable. Anything goes sexually. For many, it’s transactional. Somewhere along the line, the sacredness of God’s gifts was lost. Marriage, sex, and love seem to have little meaning in today’s culture.
But as followers of the Lord, our separation from those ideas must be greater.
When it comes to overcoming lust through faith, we have to admit something uncomfortable: we don’t have control at all. For the longest time, I lied to myself and said I could quit or control it anytime I wanted. That lie kept me trapped.
We have to be honest with ourselves and with the Lord and say, “I can’t win this battle without You.”
And even then—we will slip up.
But with commitment and reliance on our Heavenly Father, He gives us exactly the right amount of grace when we come to Him. We can be better. Lay it all at His feet—the lust, the shame, the anger, the frustration, the damage to self-esteem. All of it.
He understands.
We are not expected to be perfect.We are expected to try.
And our trying will only ever be successful with our Father’s help.
He knows how frustrating it is to be clean for a while and then fall again. Yet His grace is still sufficient. His mercy still washes over us when we repent and commit—again—to pursuing purity.
Admit that you cannot control it. Without Him, we are doomed to repeat the cycle. But praise God, there is a better way—paid for by His love for you.
Thank You, Father, for another day. Amen.
1 Thessalonians 4:3–5
God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.
