When we break free from bondage to sexual sin we experience many positive effects in our souls. We experience a renewed closeness to God, a clear conscience, and a revitalization of life. All of a sudden we have freedom, energy, and time that was previously devoted to pursuing lust. The problem becomes what do we do now?
Ideally we would all pour ourselves into serving the Lord and our families. Unfortunately that isn't always the case, and a very real danger exists when we try to fill the hole left by sexual idolatry with yet another idol.
For example, the tendency may be to not totally kill the flesh but to shift the focus of the lust onto our spouse. "I'm not longer looking at porn (pride), so my wife should be satisfying my sexual desires." As a result we start to pressure her and make her the object of our lust. This is extremely dangerous because we are taking the dehumanizing and destructive effects of pornography and applying them to our wives! Don't be shocked when this plan doesn't work out the way you hope.
Shifting the lust can also manifest in other ways - we may throw ourselves into other idolatrous pursuits such as making money, obsessively exercising, anything that will take up a lot of time and temporarily satiate the monster in our hearts.
Shifting the lust is a clear sign that there is still a heart problem that needs to be taken care of. Remember that ceasing from acting out a particular sin is only half the issue, don't let the monster reinvent itself and thrive in another area of your life.
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