I was recently invited on Facebook to download a new track from a ‘Christian Rapper’ who in the past I enjoyed and still play sometimes.
I was grateful to be among the invitees to sample the artist’s new release, but when I saw the tracks title I remembered why I listen less frequently to music like this these days.
‘Temptation’ I haven’t heard Steven the Levite’s latest album at the time of writing so I might be greatly mistaken in assuming that his latest offering falls within the category of which I’m about to speak, his previous material overall certainly didn’t.
But I’ve found that Christian Rappers in fact preachers and as a result Christians talk far too much about ‘temptation’ and ‘sin’ than is healthy.
What do I mean? We’ll the whole thing got me thinking and I felt perhaps now was the time to ‘wear my heart on my sleeve’ and talk about something that I don’t often ‘attack from the jugular’ in my writing.
As Christian men, it’s not uncommon at some point to wrestle once or twice with a lustful thought.
We’re saved and changed, perhaps experienced a degree of freedom, but statistically, it’s certainly not unheard of, for believing men to find Jesus teaching in Matthew 5:28NLT, (“… anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”) a standard to which from time to time we ashamedly fall perilously short.
Oh, the guilt, the anxiety, the frustration experienced by such individuals at these disorienting times, if our lust has progressed to any of the anesthetising aids the world has concocted to gratify the itch; the experience is not unlike that of an addict seeking to free themselves from one form of narcotic or another.
One thing is for certain as sincere believers who desire passionately to please God; I think T.D. Jakes describes our state best when he says; “Unlike pigs in mud enjoying every moment of the experience, were more like sheep in mud longing desperately to get out of it.”
let me therefore share insights God has brought to my life during my most intense struggles when I earnestly sought His face. My prayer is that these antidotes will save you years of frustration and bring the restoration you long for.
Stop talking about it?