Day #4: Heed the Location.
“For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid
those who are tempted.” –Hebrews 2:18
In my battle against the flesh, there were and are not only
certain times of the day that are really tempting, but there are also certain
locations. Locations where my surroundings just make it all the more difficult
to take every thought captive and have my mind on things above instead of
engaging in some form of mental lust.
That book shop I spoke of earlier was a prime example of
that. Every time that I went to work it was an incredibly intense battle merely
to keep myself from pulling the wrong kind of book off the shelf and rifling
through it. I literally would go into the back of the store and sit on my hands
for a couple minutes sometimes just to get the temptation to relax a little.
And I didn’t always succeed on leaving the books on the shelves. After talking
to my parents, it still took me a couple months to completely stop from
grabbing a book now and then.
Another really difficult place for me was my brothers’
basketball games. As I grew up homeschooled, it was not every day that I was
around a whole bunch of kind, good looking guys. But that is what I ran into at
the basketball games. And most of the guys on my brothers’ team and even on the
teams that they played against were either homeschooled or from a Christian
school. So these guys were all pretty nice, and moral, and all of those other
things that I found attractive as well. With so many attractive guys around, I
found it really hard not to start imagining in too much detail a future with a
guy like one of them.
These places were real temptations to me. And in them I
often did not succeed in my new resolve. We all have these places. For some it
may be the swimming pool where those around us are scantily dressed. For some
it might be a bookstore where you are tempted to walk into the wrong aisle. For
others it could be a mall or a movie theater. But we all have these locations,
and we need to do what we can to escape these scenarios and flee temptation.
In my case, I was a great asset at the book shop, and the
owner didn’t really have anyone else who could do what I did, so I decided I
needed to stay on there. But my parents and other accountability partners were
very aware that it was my battle field each week, and they would pray for me
while I was there and ask me about it as soon as I got back. As for the other
location, I went to very few of my brothers’ games that year.
Both of those locations have become easier for me over time,
and are not such a temptation now. But that was only after I was much farther
removed from them and was able to look back and see how ugly the sin of lust
was when I was in those places.
“God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you
are able, but with the temptation, will also make the way of escape.” -1
Corinthians 10:13
Today’s Dare
Take some time to
think through which locations or scenarios make it really hard for you to keep
from temptation. Then take actions to do your best to stay away from those
scenarios and do something else instead. If you struggle in a mall, choose to
shop consignment instead. If you have a hard time at a book store, choose to
frequent only Christian stores until such day when you may be more practiced at
fleeing temptation. And make sure that if for some reason you do have to enter
one of those areas that causes intense battle, that you have an accountability
partner praying for you and checking up on you afterwards.
The Lust Dare: Day #6
The Lust Dare: Day #7
The Lust Dare: Day #8
The Lust Dare: Day #9
The Lust Dare: Day #10
The Lust Dare: Day #11
The Lust Dare: Day #12
The Lust Dare: Day #13
The Lust Dare: Day #14
The Lust Dare: Day #15
The Lust Dare: Day #16
The Lust Dare: Day #17
The Lust Dare: Day #18
The Lust Dare: Day #19
The Lust Dare: Day #20
The Lust Dare: Day #21
The Lust Dare: Day #22
The Lust Dare: Day #23
The Lust Dare: Day #24
The Lust Dare: Day #25
The Lust Dare: Day #26
The Lust Dare: Day #27
The Lust Dare: Day #28
The Lust Dare: Day #29
The Lust Dare: Day #30
Comments
Post a Comment