Lust is exciting. If you’re at all tuned in to popular movies, television commercials and the conversations of your co-workers in the lunch room, it sure sounds like it’s the main highway to happiness.
Remember the last time you heard a guy talk about the “hottie” they met last weekend, or the racy video they ran into online? It’s likely you could feel an almost palpable excitement begin to fill the room.
Sex seems to be THE thing that makes the world go round these days and lust is the handy little vehicle that gets us there.
It’s a Scam!
In spite of the messages that constantly pummel us, lust isn’t the real deal. It’s a counterfeit that will never fully satisfy us.
The intensity, excitement and passion are gone in a blink, leaving us a residual emptiness that can only be quieted by the next video, the next fantasy, or the next encounter. And so it goes . . .excitement, emptiness, searching . . .excitement,emptiness, searching. It’s a hamster wheel that nets us nothing but more emptiness, consequences and frustration.
Lust demands that we keep coming back for more. Our frantic search is never over. In fact, this is the main reason that so many seem to be unable to escape “being THAT man,” even when their brain says “enough.”
They just don’t now how to escape the, often lifelong, pattern of seeking, desiring and self-pleasure.
Love is the Ticket
Real love is what is needed to conquer lust. It’s easy to confuse lust with love because of its intensity, but their essence couldn’t be more different:
Lust is a feeling. It’s nothing more than an intense desire for gratification.
LOVE is a decision that is made by both the head and heart together.
Lust is driven and impatient. It wants what it wants and it wants it now!
LOVE is allowed, with patience, to grow slowly.
Lust lasts only long enough to fulfill the current desires.
LOVE takes time to build a friendship that can be sustained.
Lust is selfish and greedy. It uses and manipulates others to get its perceived needs met.
LOVE is giving. It focuses on meeting the needs of others even if it requires self-sacrifice.
Lust is about today—THIS minute.
LOVE is about building a future together.
As we grow in our ability to love rightly with honest communication, generosity and respect, our fascination with lustful pursuits will begin to diminish.
Unexpected Blessings
God is calling us to something far better than the constant searching for something to fill our emptiness. He knows that, as we learn to risk loving with a servant’s heart, we will increasingly realize that as we give, we ultimately receive far more valuable blessings than we ever did when we were so focused on satiating our momentary desires.
We’ll finally find the satisfaction, security and contentment that has eluded us. The counterfeit can’t hold a candle to the real thing, once we realize how much we have been missing.
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