“Can God Take Away Sinful Sexual Desires?”
Yes, He certainly can!
Most of us have heard a story or two of someone being instantly freed from an addiction the moment that they became a Christian or rededicated their lives to the Lord. However, for most of us there is an intense battle. I don’t know why, but let me share my perspective.
Think of it this way. God has clearly chosen to give us the right to choose, hasn’t He? It is very important to Him. Look at the Garden of Eden. If He had wanted to keep us safe he could have blocked the serpent from entering the garden. He could have even avoided making the ‘don’t eat from this tree’ rule. But God didn’t!
He wanted us to learn to trust Him and obey Him while having the option of doing other things that apparently seem legitimate so that trust in God and obedience to Him would truly be voluntary! If we could see past all of our enemy’s lies; if we could see the horrible consequences that come with following his cues, nobody would obey him, right?
Another good gift that God gave us is that our choices have consequences.
How sad it would be if anything we did wouldn’t change anything. I think one of the most precious gifts that God gives us is that we have the opportunity to make a difference in the world around us. When I am on my deathbed I want to be able to look back and know that I am leaving the world a better place because of the life that I lived and the people that I influenced.
If we have made sinful choices; if we chose to give in to sinful sexual behaviors for a year or two — or a decade or two, there are consequences for those choices aren't there? Of course. These consequences are internal and external.
The internal consequences is that these thought and choices become automatic over time — so automatic we don’t even think about what we are doing until after it is all over. And they do serve a ‘sick’ purpose of avoiding painful thoughts and feelings — just like the man who finds comfort in drinking.
It takes time to slow down those automatic choices, understand why we made those choices in the first place, and ask God to show us His Truth that can genuinely free us from the power and control of the lie that empowers our enemy’s temptations.
The external consequences of our unwanted sexual behavior can be serious.
Our marriage, our family, our job — all these and more can be affected. But the good news is that God shows us the way forward and we can come clean from the past. We can have a different and better legacy!
Second Peter 1:3 and 4a says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises…” This powerful truth should comfort us wherever we find ourselves! God’s divine power has given us (present tense) everything that I need to live a life of of godliness! I will never sink so low, I will never be so messed up, I will never be beyond hope of God’s redemption! I can always latch onto the promise that “God has given me everything that I need to live a godly life”!
The holy desperation that we feel, the sense of complete dependence on God, the knowing that we can’t change by ourselves — these are all gifts from God! We will understand grace and our need for His grace in a new and better way… We will be able to extend that to others.
The day will come when we can openly tell our story. We will be able to give others hope — a real hope, not the ‘pray this prayer and everything will be different immediately’ fantasy.