How to Use "The Lust Dare"
Day #28: Be Merry
“And bring the fatted calf here
and kill it, and let us eat and
be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
And they began to be merry.”
-Luke 15:23-24
4 weeks. It has been 4 weeks since you read
the first day of this challenge, and did the first dare. For the past 4 weeks,
i.e. a month, you have been actively battling lust and taking steps to set that
sin aside and to fight the incredibly difficult battle. You have learned how to
flee temptation, how to avoid temptation, how to replace fear with courage,
love, and a sound mind, and how to replace impure thoughts with many different
things.
This has been quite a journey, and I think
it is absolutely wonderful that you have taken these steps, and that you are on
this path with me. I have been there, I know how hard it is, and I still battle
the lust of the flesh every single day. It is a never-ending battle until the
day when we are given a complete new body and separated from sin and our sin
nature forever.
When I was a little girl, I sucked my thumb.
I never had a pacifier, as my sucking apparatus was already attached to my
body, and I always had it with me. But unlike many small children who are “weaned”
you might say off of sucking their thumb or a pacifier somewhere in their
second or third year of life, this did not happen with me. My little habit went
on a lot longer than that.
My parents tried everything. They tried
offering me a reward if I didn’t suck my thumb for a week. They stuck nasty
tasting stuff on my thumb(yes, I only liked my right thumb), but I would suck
it off, putting up with the taste for a minute so that I was able to suck my
thumb all night long. They would plead, punish, cajole, and complain. But there
really was nothing they could do. I was a very stubborn and persistent child.
And I was not going to stop sucking my thumb until I decided to.
Finally, a few months after my 8th
birthday, I thought “maybe I’m getting a little old for this thumb sucking
thing.” So I went to my parents, knowing that they had offered rewards in the
past, and asked if they would be willing to set up a reward system again for
not sucking my thumb. And so they did. As we never had ice cream in the house
when I was a kid, they said that for every week that I didn’t suck my thumb, I
would get an ice cream sandwich. And that on the 4th week,
essentially after a month, they would take me out to this place about 45
minutes away that had all of these amazing choices for ice cream sundaes.
Well, that all worked out just swell. Since
making that decision in February of 2003, I have never sucked my thumb
again(other then in jest). And I was able to go out for ice cream and all that,
and it is still one of my fondest memories.
So what is the point of my story? Well, it
is illustrating celebration. I had a bad habit for a very long time. In the
case of lust, it is more than a bad habit, it is a consuming sin. But I
purposefully went and celebrated after a period of time of being free from this
habit. And I would encourage you to do the same with your freedom from the
lusts of the flesh. Let this mark of your first month be something that you
remember by celebrating it.
Celebrate today, and thank God for the incredible
work that He has done and is doing I your life!
“Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing
aloud on their beds.”
-Psalm 149:5
Today’s Dare
Grab
a friend or your accountability partner today and find someway to celebrate.
Recognize in the midst of the battle the progress and the steps that you have
already made, and mark today forever in your memory as one of victory. Kill the
fatted calf, and be merry!
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