September 15th
Lost In Passion
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful...Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:12,18
Watch out, you might get burned!
Your passions are a fire, and if that fire burns in the wrong place at the wrong time, it can destroy both you and all others who get near it.
Paul knew how important it is for us to exercise our passions in the right way and time, so he warns us against sexual immorality. And let me define that quickly-sexual immorality is any sexual interaction that goes on outside of a marriage, even between a man and a woman.
We need to understand-both for ourselves and to communicate to our children-that loose living, sleeping around, sexual immorality has a painful consequence. When we fail to establish guardrails on our lives and wander around like an animal in heat, just trying to find someone to sleep with, or when we allow ourselves to be seduced by someone's external beauty (including images on a computer screen), it will eventually destroy us.
The pain will rise up inside our soul as we give ourselves away again and again and again, only to have those relationships broken and our heart broken along with them. I'll tell you something-our hearts can only be broken so many times before walls go up and we don't let people in anymore.
Do you know what happens then? We can't find intimacy anymore. We become bitter shells of a person looking for love, longing for the fulfillment of a truly loving relationship, but we can't. And why can't we? Because we're hiding in an internal bomb shelter, trying to stay safe from the pain of another broken relationship. We become relationship junkies, going from one to another to another, trying to fill the ever-increasing void, but none of them work.
None of them work because only one will work-a relationship with Jesus and a life lived within the guardrails He gives us. When we love Jesus, experience His love for us, and live faithfully with one spouse just as Jesus demonstrates in His faithfulness to us, then we will find everything our hearts are longing for.
And in that place, only in that place, we find freedom for our passions that will be blessed by God.
Prayer Father God,
Thank You for Your good gift of sex. I confess that I need help putting right guardrails on my life to avoid the pain of broken relationships. Please help me to break free from the draw of this culture and live within Your plan!
Amen