I need help in fighting
temptation, especially lust, How can I overcome lust ? For example, Lustful
thoughts, Lustful Shows, and Masturbation.
Well 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.