A Lesson about Lust Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: A Lesson about Lust------------------- Date: 6/25/2002 Keywords: "lust" "sex" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 1 John 2:16* For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world Questions 1. How do you define lust?   2. Is lust a problem for you?   3. What’s the difference, in your opinion, between "temptation" and "lust"?   Practical help It’s important to know where temptations come from. James 1:13-14 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." If you are struggling with pornography, you are struggling with lust. Know that lust does not come from God to trip you up. Today’s passage states that lust is "from the world". What does this mean? It means that lust comes through your senses as you walk through this world. You and I have a basic need to touch and be touched by others. This appetite for touch is good because it draws us to desire relationships with others. However this appetite can be twisted into a lust for the flesh when we crave it more than we care about loving God and loving others. You feel a need, but instead of going to God and moving to develop better relationships with others, you move into the Internet. You and I have been given the gift of sight and the capacity to appreciate beauty. God designed nature around you to awaken the sense of awe that will draw you to Him. But the lust of the eye sees things, not necessarily to appreciate them, but to own them. Lust of the eye is basically greed. We want things more than we care about God and people. Finally, the world can become a stage in which we are simply trying to impress others. If you look at your life and see that most of your actions are the result of trying to get people to respect you or like you, then you are not free to live the life God has called you to. You are entangled in a form of lust where you crave to boast about yourself. You are living in a phony world that revolves around you. The computer can feed this illusion because it seems that all you have to do to have what you want is to click a mouse. Unfortunately, even though there is the promise of fulfillment and happiness, this is not where you will ever find it. This desire you have to be significant can only be met in having an intimate relationship with the One who died for you, who lives today and is as close to you as you are to yourself right now. Talk to Him. To know more click here. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission." ---