Temptation Be Gone!

Every sane and healthy person is capable of giving up this or that temptation if they so desire. Some with particularly strong personalities succeed through mere will power. Others use the opportunity to draw closer to the Lord and with a lot of faith, along with truth, guidance, and encouragement, are successful in letting go of the pesky thing, and so ask the Lord for more light and knowledge and move on to the next shortcoming they are shown.

The best way to be rid of wayward desires is to truly love God more than the temptation and purposely give it up to Christ in a deeply selfless and spiritual way, repeatedly if need be. (After the initial change of heart, if it rears its ugly head again, it becomes easier each time to reject it.) If an individual or group, representing themselves as sane and healthy, is saying that they have tried but can’t give up a particular temptation, such as the popular vice of the day, same-sex attraction, it’s because they don’t really want to. They are in love with this weakness or temptation because they are getting something pleasurable out of it. (Sexual temptation is different than, say, alcohol, coffee, or cigarette addiction because, without any physical acting out, sexual lusts can produce highly arousing images and fantasies and corresponding physical chemical sensations. Indeed, sex addiction is commonly compared to drug addiction without the external substances!)

Incredibly, people who proclaim their out-of-bounds sexual lusts are being praised and held up as experts and examples to follow. They have fooled others into thinking they can’t overcome these lusts, when the truth is they don’t want to. (We wonder why they insist that God will someday take their temptations away, if, as they also seem to insist, the temptations alone are not bad.) They have fooled others into the false notion that wickedness can be happiness, joy, and fulfillment. As a result, they are being given a voice. Their books are published. They are asked to speak and be on panels. And yet they are not repentant. They have nothing good to offer. Celibate or not, they are pro-homosex. In fact, they use cunning subtleties to justify their pleasurable lusts and spread and encourage homosexuality.

The right thing to do is to refuse to give such people a platform. The kindest thing we can do for them is to publish and emphasize only the truth, that wayward sexual attractions can and should be overcome. The best thing we can do for them is testify continually that they need Christ as their Savior and can be forgiven and washed clean, just as everybody else can.