Our feelings and desires can be controlled by many things. Usually they are touched by circumstances, things that happen to us; things that we see and attract us, and are either good or bad to the way we believe. We experience many things that make us happy, sad, excited or calm, things that irritate us or that do not bother us at all. Anything is possible and it’s not bad to feel a certain way; sometimes we cannot help the way we feel about things due to bad or good experiences but the problem is how we go about it. For instance, if we look at a food that looks delicious, and we taste it, and it’s great, but it gives us a stomach ache, fever, and makes us really sick every time we have it, we’re allergic to it, and stop eating it. We might enjoy eating it, but the results are not good and we take it out of our menu. We end up disliking it or seeing it as an “enemy” of our system. We can, of course, enjoy eating them so much that we could care less how bad we feel afterwards and simply take medicine to lessen the bad feelings, but at the end is disastrous. We might die if we do not take care of what we suffer. Some people might say: Whoever enjoys the suffering, will die happy. It could be, but that’s unhealthy, so in that case our feelings are controlled by our passions . . . but our passions can betray us; that’s the closest feeling to what the Bible calls LUST.
Is there anything stronger than that feeling? Yes, there is. Can we control it? Yes, we can. But we have to be disciplined and work hardly on it. I don’t say it because I went to school and got a doctor’s degree on it. I say it because I have suffered it but God gave me the power to control it, like He does to anybody who asks Him. Our human system was perfectly created, not by chance, or by an explosion, like some may think. It was created by an intelligence that made us smart and gave us the means to keep away from anything that can hurt us, eternally. He created us to His likeness, and we can do it, like the apostle Paul said: I can do ALL things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4.13) because He gifted us with something called “conscience” that is fed with the wisdom that comes with the knowledge of the word of God; the great divine teachings, and the good advice of the people who respect us.
I remember when I was driven to “madness” when I lost my life as I knew it (my great job, my health, my husband) due to an accident, and I wanted to die or disappear because I felt unable to go on “alone,” how my family and friends helped me with prayers and good advice which made me hold on to the hope in Christ and I //begged Him to help. I had to be there for my children who are good adults now and are living today with the same fluctuations as everyone else, but with the good protection of God’s Grace for we know: God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8.28) And I am still praying for them and their children. If I had let Lust control my feelings, my family would have fallen. And I pray that my grand children teach their kids the same way.
Real LOVE (like God’s) is stronger than Lust, because not everyone is capable of giving his life for the good of others like Jesus did for us, sinners.(John 3.16-17) He became 100% human and I know it was hard, so, that he sweated blood when His time was near. That is why we should be grateful and behave accordingly to His love and grace because it is not the “bravest” the one who gives in to lust than the one who can defeat it through sacrifice. And when we say lust, we think on all the feelings or urges that we might have which is why He had ordered the first man and woman not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, so they wouldn’t have to deal with it, but they did, anyway, in our “free will,” yet He gave us the way out so we could control them.
I read these verses in the second letter of Peter which perhaps give us some idea on what to do. Of course this advice was for the ones who know the truth, but everyone is welcome to have it:
To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and Peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. (2nd Peter 1.2-11)
