I just got off the phone with my sponsee and we talked about some of the red-flags I felt as I read his work. I don’t want it to be personal, but I have to call it how I see it.
I hope we can continue to work together and that he understands where I’m coming from.
With our conversation in mind, I want to answer the question more about what lust is.
I think the world’s perspective on lust is either non-existent or really watered down. Lust, for an addict, is one of the key ingredients that leads to acting out sexually with oneself or with others, even a spouse can be a target of lustful actions and thoughts.
There are a few sources I want to reference in this study:
- The LDS Manual
- Sitting in a Rowboat Throwing Marbles at a Battleship
- The White Book
- The Big Book
- What Can I Do About Me
- Love You, Hate the Porn
- LDS.org
I may not use them all in that order, but those are the ones that come to mind.
Lust is defined as “very strong sexual desire; uncontrolled or illicit sexual desire or appetite; lecherousness; a passionate or overmastering desire or craving.”
In the Bible, lust is described as “sinful longing; the inward sin which leads to the falling away from God (Rom. 1:24-25). “Lust, the origin of sin, has its place in the heart, not ofnecessity, but because it is the centre of all moral forces and impulses andof spiritual activity.” In Mark 4:19 “lusts” are objects of desire.”
Romans 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,awickedness, covetousness, bmaliciousness; full of envy, murder, cdebate, ddeceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 aBackbiters, haters of God, bdespiteful, cproud,dboasters, inventors of evil things, edisobedient to parents,
31 Without aunderstanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of adeath, not only do the same, but bhave cpleasure in them that do them.
In the White Book, it talks about lust from the start:
1. We admitted that we were powerless over lust-that our lives had become unmanageable.
When we came to SA, we found that in spite of our differences, we shared a common problem-the obsession of lust…
Lust has become an addiction.
[We] can no longer tolerate lust but cannot stop.
…lust is the driving force behind our sexual acting out, and true sobriety includes progressive victory over lust.
This rings true as well:
Like alcoholics, we can be “dry” without being sober in a deeper sense.
I’m out of time right now but want to continue this study and exploration – to define clearly what lust is and what the opposite of lust is.
I’m grateful to be living in recovery today and for the talk I had with my sponsee.
Here’s to a day of recovery and healing.
Hasta luego!
Nate
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