Love vs Lust – Day 24 of the Love Dare

Love vs Lust – Day 24 of the Love Dare.  Identify and let go of any object of lust in your life and focus on thanking God for what he has provided you.

Day 24 – Love vs Lust

The world is passing away, and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God loves
forever ~ 1 John 2:17

THE DARE – End it now. Identify any obsession or object of lust in your life and let it go. Expose any lie you’ve swallowed in pursuing forbidden pleasure and rejected it. Lust cannot be allowed to live in the back closet. It must be killed and destroyed today. Focus on thanking God that He and what He provides can satisfy you and meet all your needs.

We set our eyes and hearts on seeking worldly pleasure. We try to meet legitimate needs in illegitimate ways. For many it’s seeking sexual fulfillment in another person or in pornographic images designed to feel like a real person. We can also lust after money, possessions, power, or prideful ambitions.

WHAT IS LUST

Lust is in opposition to love. Instead of being grateful for what God has given us, we set our hearts on something outside the boundaries of His provisions. Lust makes good things that we don’t own into the objects of our future happiness instead of God. Every potential target of lust – whether it’s a coworker, the film actress, half a million dollar house, a sports car – can become an obsession, an idol in your heart.

Lust always restlessly wants more. Regardless of how amazingly appealing your spouse is, lust will make you dissatisfied with them. Lust fuels anger, numbs hearts, and destroys marriages. Rather than fullness, it leads to emptiness.

Lust is a misguided thirst for satisfaction – that only God can fill. He isn’t asking you to give up your lusts for nothing, leaving you with no comfort or adventure to take their place. He wants you to discover that nothing truly satisfies like Jesus.

• What has been enticing and luring your eyes and hearts away?
• What things in this world are you longing for as your next source of fulfillment?
• Can you admit you don’t need them?
• Are you tired of being lied to by lust?
• Are you fed up with believing that forbidden pleasures are able to keep you happy and content, when you know they can’t?

HOW TO REMOVE THE LUST IN YOUR LIFE

Begin with setting your heart back on God. Let His promises of peace and freedom work their way into your heart. Confess any lust in your heart as sin, and allow the guilt and shame that weighs on you to be replaced by the joy of His forgiveness. Focus on being grateful for everything God has already given you rather than choosing discontentment.

Set your eyes and heart on your spouse again. Rejoice in the wife of your youth, be exhilarated always with her love.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Lust is the best this world has to offer, but love offers you the best life in the world.

Did you like Love vs Lust – Day 24 Of The Love Dare 40 Day Challenge?  Let me know what you think.  And if you missed any of the other days, check out the The Love Dare series here, where I’m going through the 40 days myself.  Much love 🙂