The Seven Deadly Sins – Lust

Our culture sells us lies,
in the form of many pleasures.
Do what feels good to you,
consensual the only measure.
Shallow, fleeting, depraved thrills,
that leave our souls more empty.
Deceived into thinking,
sex will deliver joy in plenty.
Walking towards the door to lust,
Satan tempts and he allures.
But when we’ve walked back through,
he heaps massive guilt we can be sure.
Dangling the bait, hiding slyly the hook,
he has us hurt ourselves and others.
Mental turmoil, depression, shame,
under the guilt we feel so smothered.
God is very pro sex,
we have to stop being prude.
An entire book in Scripture,
speaks of sex in wonderful tunes.
Beautiful, erotic love,
God long ago invented sex in his mind.
He created it, he loves it,
between a husband and wife you’ll find.
More than just a physical act,
sex is a one flesh union.
Our out of control culture,
has created so much confusion.
Connection, emotion, trust,
all meant to go together.
When we take the sex and leave the rest,
we settle for a hollow lesser.
It’s not the fault of their tight pants,
no one chooses to make you sin.
For out of our heart come lustful thoughts,
every lustful imagining starts within.
You want someone else’s spouse,
you lust after what you should avoid.
Pornography, promiscuity, adultery,
never filling your heart’s empty void.
It may not be your fault,
that you’ve been wounded and rejected.
Feeling tired, hurt, and lonely,
isolated and introspective.
Lust usually means you are hurting,
you have an ache, a yearning to be loved.
And the solution is not just to stop,
but to seek the answer above.
God is not holding out on you,
every corner of your life he knows.
His love fully present in darkness,
his grace never fatiguing wherever you go.
To the very end of your life,
even the very depths of your temptation.
Instead of taking matters in your hands,
surrender your hands unto his salvation.
Jesus loved you into betrayal,
into the reality of hell itself.
His pierced hands held your lust,
your lust was nailed to Christ himself.
The perfectly pure God-man, beaten,
though he never lusted in any which way.
He loved you to the very end,
love strong enough even today.
By his power and his grace,
you can see people as people in purity.
Not merely as objects but friends,
companions on the road to be free.
Don’t avoid the opposite sex,
appropriate affection, laugh, cry, enter in.
Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers,
not as temptations but as your kin.
Start this when your children are young,
be friends, be pure, interact.
Men need women, women need men,
not everything need be on a sexual track.
One help is running to creational joys,
filling your mind with what is good and true.
Moving outside your own little world,
thinking of others, and work you can do.
When we focus on the beautiful,
worthy of praise, lovely, and pure.
Make friends with the opposite sex,
and Jesus’ help we seek to implore.
We reveal lust for the sham it is,
weak, pathetic, a lesser pleasure.
When we walk with God and his ways
we gain now and later deeper treasure.
Turn my eyes from looking at the worthless,
and give me life in your ways.
Lord Jesus give us pure hearts and minds,
so from the vice of lust we may be saved.