LUST.

"Lust comes from a deep lack of satisfaction with life. When we’re not at peace, when we aren’t content, when we aren’t in a good place…our radar gets turned on. We’re looking. Searching. And we’re sensory beings, so it won’t be long before something, or somebody, catches our attention. We’re addictive creatures. We try things, we experiment, we explore, and certain things hook us. They wrap their tentacles around us, and we can’t get away from them. What started out as freedom can quickly become slavery. Often freedom is seen as the ability to do whatever you want. But freedom isn’t being able to have whatever we crave. Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it. But when lust has us in its grip, one of the first things to suffer is our appreciation for whatever it is we’re fixated on. And we lose all sensitivity.

Lust is slavery. If we want something to the point that we can’t conceive of being content without it, then it owns us. When our lusts get the best of us, they trap us. Whether it’s food, sex, shopping, whatever…what was supposed to fill the hole within us didn’t. It betrayed us. It owns us. It always leaves us wanting more. And we’re emptier, lonelier, hungrier, and more depressed…and then we’re right back where we started. We’re momentarily satisfied, and then we experience letdown because it didn’t deliver what it promised. Food or clothes or position or approval or power or sex—it grabbed us and said, “You are missing out until you have me.” And it was a lie. It promised us something.

It claimed to be the answer. But it wasn’t.

If God is waiting to help us defeat these lusts and temptations, why don’t we turn to Him more often? Honestly, sometimes we don’t WANT to be helped! We WANT to give in even though we know it’s wrong. At that moment, we think we know what’s best for us. But we don’t. Ask God to keep you from paying attention to what is worthless and refocus your attention on something else.

Just as the roots grow resilient as wind blows against a tree,

so every time you stand up to temptation you become stronger. "

Thank you,

- Rob Bell.