Fighting the Appetites pt. 2: Fighting Desire with Desire

So a few weeks back I posted a quote from Russell Moore which you can read here. In it, he focuses on how our struggles against our appetites come in the form of constantly resisting temptations; temptations that could last for days, years, or lifetimes. As I was running yesterday, I was thinking of the nature of courage. And I honestly think it takes more courage to constantly fight one's sinful desires, to daily live as a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom. 12:1) and "to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him" (Col. 1:10) than it does to jump in front of a bullet. Because, let's be honest; you receive praise and respect from your fellow man for sacrificing yourself for a cause or a fellow human. But you rarely receive praise for putting to death "what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). But if indeed, "On account of these the wrath of God is coming" (Col. 3:6), the daily, hourly courageous struggle against these sinful desires should be greatly praised.

But if our sins are first and foremost against God (see this recent blog post), then how do we put to death the sinful desires that come from our very own hearts (Matt. 15:18-19)? If we put them to death, but don't put anything in their place, we will surely fall back into them. In my devotional today, Kevin DeYoung, reflects on the Heidelberg Catechism section dealing with the Seventh Commandment. He offers 12 verses and reflections thereof as a source of strength and encouragement to those fighting lustful desires. This one I found particularly encouraging, no matter what sins you are fighting and/or conquering:

"Matthew 5:8: "Blesses are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This has been the most helpful verse for me in fighting lust and temptation to sexual immorality. We need to fight desire with desire. Satan tempts us by holding out something that will be pleasurable to us. We aren't tempted to gorge ourselves on liverwurst, because for most it doesn't hold out the promise of great pleasure. But sex does. Pornography does. A second look does. The Bible gives us many weapons to fight temptation. We need to fight the fleeting pleasure of sexual sin with the far greater, more abiding pleasure of knowing God. The fight for sexual purity is the fight of faith. It may sound like nothing but hard work and gritting your teeth, the very opposite of faith. But faith is at the heart of this struggle. Do we believe that a glimpse of God is better than a glimpse of skin? Do we believe that God's steadfast love is better than life (Ps. 63:3)? We'd probably sin less if we spent less time thinking about our sins, sexual or otherwise, and more time meditating on the love and holiness of God." -KDY, The Good News We Almost Forgot