You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.
- Numbers 15:39
“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.
- Job 31:1
Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.
- Ezekiel 6:9
because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their parents’ idols.
- Ezekiel 20:24
all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.
- Nahum 3:4
“Eros ‘ceases to be a devil only when it ceases to be a god.”
- C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, Christianity and Culture
Conquering lust in one short post is not going to “conquer” it. Lust goes beyond sexual immorality.
From the Scriptures above we can “hunger” for many things of this world. Ezekiel comes close to what C.S. Lewis says here in an essay. We lust after earthly gods.
Identifying the root of the problem is only the first step in conquering something that can be a habit or a addiction. We need to refocus our eyes and our hearts. We need to look toward God.
We forget that part about repenting. We think that one little look will not hurt anyone. But it hurts us.
I heard a preacher once make the statement when he took a second look at a pretty lady that walked by. He was a married man and his excuse was, “Just because you are on a diet, it does not mean that you cannot look at the menu.”
It’s a cute joke, but it is a minefield of wrong thinking. A pretty woman is not part of the “menu.” The Scripture from Job above is that when we are married, we have made a covenant to not look at a young woman. Thus, looking at the “menu” is breaking that covenant. God does not like covenant breaking.
And people that do not understand math talk about turning 360 away from the sin. But turning 360 is simply spinning around and pointing our gaze right back at the sin. It should be turning a 180, but rather than quibble about math, I like what I heard many times on a Christian television channel. Repenting is turning away from the sin and back toward Jesus.
So, women are not part of the “menu”. Marriage is a covenant and looking at the “menu” is a breaking of that covenant. And the solution is to turn toward God.
We need to realize that lust is a sin. And it can lead to so many more sins. And God can give us the strength, if we truly want to have no other “gods” controlling our lives.
We could go on to lusts other than sexual, like chocolate… Wow! Do I have a problem with that one. But I hope you get the point.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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