Turn From Lust

This is day one of my compilation of quotes about turning from lust.

I always write about developing the habit of turning instantly from sin, and praying, “Father, help me to turn aggressively from sin because when we look even for a moment, we open Pandora's box. Once it is open we got full-time trouble.

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Jack Wellman said: "The first point I see in this is to submit to God because if someone’s not yet submitted to God, they really can’t resist the devil and he won’t flee."

We begin this process of "Resisting the devil” when we pray before and during temptation: "Father, help me to turn instantly from temptation." Then when satan temps you, just tell him no.
Second, we submit to God with full repentance and with a plan to do right. With these two tools, we can make him flee.
Third: Pray: “Father, guide my eyes.”

Fourth: Proverbs 6 says: "Do not desire her beauty in your heart, Nor let her capture you with her eyelids."
Pray: Father help me to not desire the beauty of a sinful woman.”

 

Fifth: Pray: “Father, help me to turn from sin, and give me the strength for new activities.” I love this 2-way prayer. God wants me to turn from sin and I want to increase in strength. The more I work on turning from sin, the more strength I will start to have.

Sixth: If I poll every person on this site who has learned the habit of turning from lust and who is free for 100 days and ask: Are you happier now? 99% would say yes. Memorize that fact. Believe them, believe God, and tell satan that you won't be fooled again.

Seven: Say no instantly when lust starts. Then decide if you need to go to the verses for quitting to overcome the temptation, or whether it is mild enough for you to fight it off with prayer.

Eight: When we study scripture we start to understand which desires we should fight often. When I watch TV I want to look at a beautiful woman. If I do that in excess I will come to a crossroads where it will “give birth to sin.” Instead, I can pray to run from sin several times when I turn on a new program. Instead, I can find other activities to do. Instead, I can remember that something always dies if I allow my current habits to lead me back to porn.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Flee means, “Don't do it, and run with all your might.” Flee means you are blocking the TV screen with one hand while you forward fast with the other. Flee means, you drop everything and run to scripture when tempting thoughts keep harassing you.

Nine: Yesterday I wrote about building a pyramid of great new activities which will greatly assist you. But, the challenge is remembering to do them. You can try sticky notes on your mirror, phone alarms, accountability partners, and notes on your desk, or calendar. You can develop codes so that the whole world does not know what is going on: While working I wrote TAFS a zillion times, which means – Turn aggressively from sin.

Ten: Consider praying: “Father, help me to turn aggressively from lust” as many times as it takes to keep stable.

11: Pray: “Father, help me to flee instantly from sin just like Joseph did.” You just can't pray that too much!

90% of our problems come from either – not enough passion for God's will, (David always had a huge passion), or from not running from sin like Joseph habitually did. Prayer increases our passion and Bible verses teach us to be ready to run like Joseph. When we add passion to a habit of running from lust, we might just change the world as Joseph did.

12: Turning instantly from looking at sinful things is a key to freedom. Turning instantly from thinking about anything that leads to addiction is vital. Turning instantly from negative emotions is a key to change.

13: 1 Peter 4 said, "I’ve been trying to practice custody of the eyes more and be more thoughtful about what I choose to look at and not to look at. My eyes are not my own, Christ has paid for them with His blood, so they are our eyes."

Pray: “Father, take away my spirit of lust and help me to turn from worthless things.”

Pray: “Father, help me to turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.” Turning our eyes preserves our lives.

Pray: “Father, help me to flee sexual immorality.” A great goal is to increase this skill daily.

Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make my desire freedom.”

Pray, “Father, “Help me to study Your Word when I am tempted.” It is a powerful thing to study Bible verses that pertain to your habit.

Pray, "Father, Please keep me from evil."

Pray, “Father, help me to always raise the standards in turning from lust.”

 

Mikey's wife was about to kill him because of his porn obsession. So he decided to learn the habit of turning from lust. He decided he would practice praying, “Father, help me to run from lust, and help me to love my wife,” every morning, noon, and night. He also determined to pray that prayer every time he felt a bad scene coming on his TV.

Second, Peter was in big trouble. His boss had just told him that if he was caught viewing porn at work one more time he would be fired. So he decided to learn the habit of turning from lust. He decided he would practice praying, “Father, help me to turn from lust,” every hour. He set up his phone for an hourly alarm. Then once he got home he also added the prayer, “Father, help me to turn from sin, and give me the strength for new activities.” He prayed both prayers every hour and he planned to be ready to dig into scripture if lust started to overwhelm him.

Third, Pastor Johnson was getting depressed. As a church leader, he was not supposed to be gawking at sin on his computer more often than he was spending time preparing sermons. So he decided to practice praying, “Father, take away this spirit of lust and help me to care about souls,” every time he was tempted with lust. He prayed that prayer 847 times over the next four days.


Notes: These are three examples of prayer plans which will have varying levels of effectiveness.

#1 Pastor Johnson has an intense plan which shows that he is mourning over his sin.

#2 Peter has a plan for prayer and a plan for scripture if overwhelmed.

Most importantly, every prayer, every time must be wholehearted, with a fervent desire to change.

Finally, the habit of turning from lust is a top 10 habit to help with quitting. Consider forming a great plan to make it work for you.

 

What do u look at that causes temptation to rise? Let's say u said your cellphone.

#1 Always pray before you click any search:

“Father, take away this spirit of lust. Help me to turn instantly from lust.”

#2 Strive to form the habit of turning instantly when you click on something that turns out to be tempting. If that happens, cover your screen with one hand and swipe or click away with the other.

Finally, consider praying the above prayer every hour, and say 5 times per day:

“I want to form the habit of turning from lust.”