Anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:28

DEREK WAS SURFING TV channels when he saw her. Looking sweet in a bedroom scene, the actress was too sexy for words. Derek didn’t have to watch long before he had mentally put himself in that love scene and in bed with her.

Cassie devoured the same paragraph in the novel over and over again. It de­scribed the handsome hero and his love for the heroine. Cassie could almost feel the hero’s strong arms around her. She imagined what he would say, what he would do, and how much she would like it.

The Bible calls what Derek and Cassie are feeling lust, and Jesus didn’t take it lightly. He said lust is adultery of the heart. The word he uses in the Greek is epithumia. Epi means “over” and thumos means “passion.” So lust means passion that has gone over the top or out of bounds. Lust is a burning desire for the opposite sex beyond the boundaries God set for sexual relationships.

God has blessed you with your sexual desires. He has special plans for you to put them to good use within marriage. So when you look at a person and say, “Now there’s a good-looking person,” that’s okay. But sexual desires that come from lust are not healthy. When you start to wonder what he or she looks like undressed, you’re headed toward lust. From there your thoughts can run out of control-until you’re imagining everything from sex-play fantasies to having sexual intercourse.

Proverbs 6:25-29 compares lust to fire. Imagine your eyeballs lit on fire, then the fire torching your mind, then incinerating your body. Fire begins with your eyes, which are constantly bombarded with lust-producing materials online, on TV, on CD covers, and in movies, magazines, advertisements, books, etc. Suggestive poses and attractive bodies are just a glance away.

If lust catches fire in your eyes, it can spread to your mind-and your mind is the most important sex organ in your body. If lust smolders there, it’s only a matter of time until your body blazes. It’s not because of what you have done but because of what has entered your mind through your eyes-and how you then thought about it.

You can stop the fire from ever catching hold in your mind by protecting your eyes. Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust upon a young woman” (Job 31:1). Do you need to make a similar covenant-a serious promise­ with your eyes? What will you look at? And what will you turn away from?

REFLECT: In what ways is lust going on in your life?

PRAY: Talk to God about it now.