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How Can I Overcome Lust? PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, April 21 2009
I need help in fighting temptation, especially lust, How can I overcome lust ? For example, Lustful thoughts, Lustful Shows, and Masturbation.

  pure.jpgWell you just made the first step in fighting the temptation of lust…you recognize you have a problem.  That is the biggest hill, and you just got to the top of it.  Now the next hill you need to climb, “Changing your HABITS”.  It shows in your question that you have some habits that are in need of changing…..“Lustful shows”  - that is one of the problem areas.  We are what we see. What goes into your senses comes out in your thoughts , and turns into behavior.    So start with removing some of the sources of the lustful thoughts. 

 

Purity doesn’t start with just removing the behavior – it starts with replacing the bad stuff with good stuff.  Someone once told me a very nice analogy of what purity is.  They said to think of a picture of the Last Supper.  That is a symbol of purity. Why, because all of the disciples are huddled around Christ. That is purity.  Being Christ centered.  If your life is Christ centered, then your struggle will not seem so difficult after a while.  The Apostles huddled around Christ – when Christ is in the center of your life then all of our struggles will seem so much easier, because He gives us strength and our focus is on holy things. 

 

Now this is a process, it will take some time – it won’t happen overnight. If you are young then you have hormones working against you.  But that doesn’t mean it is impossible, it just means that you need to struggle harder until it becomes your new habit.   God gave you those hormones to motivate you to marry and reproduce, but we need to curb those feelings and rein them in for the right time and right person.  It is important to have physical AND emotional purity.  So you need to work on the inside out.

 

I recommend that you take this opportunity during Lent to be motivated to change some of your habits now.  This is why the Church has this period of Lent, to change your life to be closer to Christ.  Sit with your father of confession and tell him your struggle and together make a plan of action.  But go prepared with a list of things that you are ready to change.  Your father of confession will follow up with you to keep up with your progress.  

 

There is a recommended book on Christville.net  on purity : Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life under Christ’s Control by Elisabeth Elliot. But you are lucky you live in a time when the resources are so out there for anyone who wants to surround themselves with holiness.  The technology that brings the bad is actually useful to bring the good.  Instead of using the internet for bad sites, start searching the good sites.  You have www.orthodoxsermon.org  and a long list of Orthodox Christian websites.  I am sure you can find Christville.net a rich resource to begin with and our Church website just a start. 

 
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