Desire. . .does your desire match God’s desire for you? The more your desire aligns with God’s, the happier your life. Especially when you deal with an evil like pornography. This article by Heart2Heart Counselor Karen Gaul appeared first here on her website and is used with permission. 

Years ago I hated olives. I didn’t like anything about them, and one day my cousin told me that if I ate seven in a row that I would not only acquire a taste for them but would actually like them. So I rose to the challenge. He was so right! I shoved seven into my mouth (not all at once) with great difficulty and a few weeks later I wanted an olive, and the rest is history.

Unfortunately I don’t have to do something seven times before it becomes something that I really like. I wish it were so because we would be spared much trouble.

I was in a workshop with a well-known Christian artist, and he shared that while he was leading a men’s Bible study group in his church he came to learn that several of the men struggled with internet porn. Wanting to understand them better he decided to check out a website.

He did that once and he forever has wished he had not done so. It left a picture in his head. Pictures are indeed worth a thousand words. Vivid pictures leave a mark on your brain. What we put into our minds we do have to deal with.

What the Bible Says About Desire

“In the last days people will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). I think we are living in those days. Pleasure ads are all around us. We are encouraged to find it and hold on to it. We are told it is our right to feel good. We don’t need to work at desiring it.

Is it wrong to desire pleasure? Absolutely not. God delighted in His Creation, God delights in His Son.  John Piper wrote a book called The Pleasures of God. He writes that God finds pleasure in all He does.

Is it wrong to want pain and suffering gone? Again absolutely not! When Jesus was in the Garden He asked for His “cup” to be removed. Paul asked threee times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. The Psalmist frequently asked for his trouble to be gone.

Where Desire Goes Awry

In the garden Adam and Eve desired God, they were intimate with Him, vulnerable with each other. It was a time of perfect and pure pleasure and then the snake subtly brought a new thought. They could find pleasure elsewhere, so Eve looked at the apple and it looked amazing, so she took it and ate of it. She was enticed to find her fulfillment (he
r pleasure) in something other than God.

God longs for us to find our absolute pleasure in Him Click & Tweet! . Here we get to taste that in part, one day we will have pleasures forever more and they will be fully met when we see Him face to face.

When then does desire for pleasure go awry? It goes awry when we want the fullness of pleasure now!

• It goes awry when desire gives birth to a need and the need gives birth to a right or demand. James 1 says the temptation when conceived gives birth to sin.
• It goes awry when we don’t know how to handle and deal with our trouble or pain or past.
• It goes awry when we buy into the lie that pornography will satisfy.
• It goes awry when we see it as a normal part of our existence rather than self-seeking.
• It goes awry when what I want is more important than what God wants.

It may have started innocently enough You may have looked twice at a pop up on the computer, you may have accidentally connected with someone on Facebook, maybe you took too long a gaze at a magazine counter, maybe as a child someone shared something with you that you were too young to see, maybe you had an abusive experience when you were young and although you hated the abuse your body betrayed you by responding to the touch, maybe you were just curious. This list is endless as to how you were enticed.

Again we are creatures who were made to find pleasure, but. . .

we are so easily satisfied with the apple and miss out on the greater pleasures of God who created the apple. Click & Tweet!

Desire and Pornography

Pornography promises release from pain, release from tension, a different focus, pleasure because it always will lead to masturbation. I wish I could say this was a male problem, but more and more it is also a temptation for women. I wish I could say it would satisfy but it won’t. It will leave you filled with shame and guilt and worse.

It will rule you. It is a horrid and heavy chain. It is done in secret, it brings with it lies, it leaves a path of broken homes and relationships.

One glance and Eve was done. It’s not like you have to look seven times as in eating olives, but the end result is the same you will want more.

The bite had Adam and Eve. . .

• thrown out of paradise, out of Eden,
• out of the place where pleasure with God was a daily experience,
• out of openness with each other.

Instead they ran for fig leaves. Hiding began. Brokenness was born. The apple didn’t deliver what the snake had promised. Click & Tweet!

Hope for You

Friend, pornography will not deliver either. If you are already involved in pornography you already know this. Find help. Make the call. Your relationships will be blessed if you do, your walk with God will be restored if you do, and you will open yourself up to experience the pleasures of God if you do.

Jesus came to set the captive free so if you are thinking “I am too stuck, I have tried it all, I have been involved for too long” hear this…Jesus came to give release to the captive, to give freedom from bondage, to give joy and fulfillment, to heal and restore relationships.

He is able! His love and grace and restoring ability is ALWAYS greater than our sin. 

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Romans 5:20

Sharing Hope with Your Heart,