You have power over sexual lust. You are not addicted to pornography. Or sexual immorality. You can defeat them. But you must understand how sexual lust operates in order to conquer it.
The Apostle Peter gives you the formula in his first letter. He writes:
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
1 Peter 1:14 NIV
These evil desires are the evil lusts, evil urges, and evil, passionate longings that you faced before you were saved and that you still face after you are saved. The only difference is in what you do with these evil desires now. As you can see from this text, evil desires want you to conform to them. Evil lusts want you to mold your life around them. That’s why Peter commands you to not conform your life to your evil desires.
Victory in the Christian life comes not from having no evil desires, but from not conforming to them. On your journey to moral purity, in your battle to conquer pornography and sexual immorality, expect to be tempted by lust. Don’t be surprised when you have a lewd urge. But when you are tempted sexually, act immediately to not conform your thinking to that evil desire.
If you want to know how to do this, just remember how you used to think when you were lost, when you didn’t know any better, “when you lived in ignorance,” as Peter puts it. In those days, when an evil desire entered your mind, you welcomed it. You entertained it. You ran with it. You conformed to it. But now that you are redeemed and have a new nature, you are not to act as though you are still ignorant. You control your mind. You are the boss of your evil desires. When they come, don’t conform to them. Let them be like the old boot that is now six sizes too small for your foot. You have grown. Evil desires don’t fit you anymore.
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