Sometimes flight is the best fight

Excerpt from : Desiring God - Sometimes flight is the best fight

Don’t try to reason with your sin-infected appetites. An aroused appetite is almost always unreasonable. When a desire is awakened in you to indulge in some sin, your best defense is often escape.

Who Rules the Kingdom of the Heart?

We might like to think that reason rules the human heart, but it doesn’t. Delight rules. 

In the kingdom of the heart, the commanding hierarchy is this: King Delight rules and he tells General Desire what to want. General Desire then issues commands to Lieutenant Will to act on the want. No one does anything by “sheer will-power.” The will is not an independent agent. It is a soldier under authority that receives and obeys commands. The will might be strong or it might be weak and, like a soldier, it can be trained. But the will does what desire commands. And desire commands whatever delight believes will bring it the most pleasure or the least pain. 

Know When to Run 

Reason is necessary in the battle against sinful desires. But typically not when a sinful appetite’s craving is upon us, especially if the source of gratification is close at hand. What we need to do at this point is run! 

The apostle Paul understood this. That is why he wrote, “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Sin-distorted sexual desire is a very powerful, persuasive appetite. Paul’s recommendation — no, his command — in the face of this appetite was to flee. Paul was very aware of this appetite’s ability to overpower our reason. So he told us to employ this intelligent, righteous alternative strategy: Hightail it out of there. 

Joseph in Genesis 39:11–13 is a great example of this. When Potiphar’s wife cornered him and tried to seduce him, Joseph wasted no time reasoning with her, which he knew from experience was a waste of time. He “fled out of the house.” 

Proximity and Visibility: Plan Your Escape 

You know yourself. What are the patterns of temptation? When are the times that you are more vulnerable? When does the seductive voice speak sweet insanities to you in such a way that you want to linger and look and listen? 

Sometimes flight is the best way to fight sin.