LUST

I have loved going to 12 step meetings each week.  I love and appreciate each step that is reviewed weekly.  I have great relationships with those who are in the groups with me.  I love that they are also fighting for their freedom from addictions.  The shares and the spirit that is in each meeting is very spiritual and very powerful.  I have needed to go to these and other meetings weekly in order to get out of the trench that this addiction set me it.  With the help of ARP and LifeStar I have been able to find the root of the addiction.  Lust.  There are countless scriptures that refer to lust and why we should avoid lusting.  I am a really slow learner and did not understand the magnitude of lust and how it can destroy a soul.  Lust sets the hook deeper and deeper.  If you are not sure what lust is then do some research on it.  I recommend the scriptures to understand what it is and why this must be avoided.  Lust vs. Love: temporary pleasure compared to lasting happiness.  As humans we want, this could be a new dirt bike or a new car, we also have carnal desires.  Taming the desires is what the Lord wants us to do.  Letting our thoughts run wild and eventually acting on those is exactly what the Adversary wants us to do.  Spending time with Maurice has really helped me understand the power of the adversary.  He has been here for thousands of years training to destroy those who allow him to get his "toe in the door" of their soul.  Don't think that he has not mastered the skill of getting into our thoughts.  He has.  The thoughts that come into our minds that are not of God, well they only come from Satan.  Sometimes we do not control the thoughts that come into our minds.  However, we can do something about the thoughts as they come in.  Our brains can only have one thought at a time, so like a swinging door we need to let the bad thought leave and replace it with a positive thought and not let the bad thought back in.  This takes time and training.  At first for me it seemed impossible and hearing people say sing a hymn had no power over the thoughts.  Now, I have several go to hymns that I sing in my mind if a thought comes in.  Distracting the thought quickly helps it stay out.  Focussing on the words of the hymn now do the trick for me.  "I Need Thee Every Hour" is my favorite because it reminds me that I do need the grace from God each hour.  

Every addiction is like a tree.  There hundreds of branches and each branch is a way of acting out or it could be a behavior associated with the addiction.  To kill the tree we can try and try and try to chop of the branches only to watch them grow back slowly or we can open the earth, get into the root system and destroy the tree with some root killer.  Point being, lust is really the root of my addiction and many others who are recovering from an addiction to pornography.

I recently saw a movie with my wife where the character relived each day until his mission was complete.  This movie reminded me of recovery from an addiction to lust.  Each day he would get a little further and find out a little more information then he would die and start over.  It took him a long time to get all the information so that he could finally destroy the enemy.  He worked hard and had to turn over every stone so that he had all the information and tools needed.  Recovery takes time, behaviors that have been in motion are now being reversed, tools are being discovered, thought processes are changed, and the light of Christ is entering as this continues.  All of this continues until the perfect day.

Don't dwell on thoughts, they will eventually catch up and destroy you.  I know this due to my first hand experience.  I also know that thoughts can be controlled and lust can be overcome.  I never thought it possible but with Christ, all things are possible.

Brandon