Growing Chastity and Uprooting Lust
Growing Chastity and Uprooting Lust. We are bombarded with lustful images daily. Billboards, commercials, song lyrics, and the like are often filled with impurity. It can be difficult to live lives of purity and chastity. Yet, it is that to which we are called. Why does God ask that of us? It’s because He is very invested in our freedom! He was from the beginning when He created us with free will, and even when man failed and turned away from Him, He sent Jesus to restore our freedom.
Sometimes, we can get the idea that lust is true freedom, but that is a lie. Lust is a counterfeit attempt at the connection that leads us to compulsive and even addictive behavior. Ted Bundy is a notorious serial killer who said that it was his early childhood exposure to pornography that led him into deeper and deeper bondage. Ultimately, the desire to possess and use another human being for his own gratification led him to kill many people.
Chastity is expressed differently according to our state in life. If we are married, it is being faithful to our spouse and sexuality, being oriented toward self-gift, and proper reception of the other’s gift of self. On the contrary, lust is about taking rather than giving or receiving. It is disordered and is about pleasure for the sake of pleasure.
How are we supposed to find the strength to live in such purity when we are surrounded by the sexually impure and when our culture is so accepting of lust as though it is normal or even good? It is too much for us to do on our own strength and gratefully, we don’t have to. Instead, when we turn the desire for intimacy and connection to the Lord and accept the infinite power of His love for us which is far more than we could hope for or imagine, we are filled to overflowing.
That might be difficult to believe if you have become immersed in impurity. Instead of hiding in shame, expose your need to the Lord, who already knows and loves you more than you can believe. Let Him know your need and use the occasions of temptations as reminders to you to ask for His help. He will hear your prayer.
May the Lord give you peace!
Margaret
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