When Wrong Thoughts Come

Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.
–Psalm 119:11

The most important step in conquering the mountain of lust is to replace lustful thoughts with God’s thoughts. Martin Luther wrote about a young man who asked a hermit for advice about dealing with lustful thoughts. The hermit said, “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but only let them fly. Don’t let them nest in your hair.”

You can’t always control the thoughts that come into your mind, but you can control what you do with those thoughts. The only way to dispel wrong thoughts is to confront them with the truth of God’s Word. That’s why the psalmist wrote, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (119:9–11).

When wrong thoughts come, you don’t have time to search through the Bible for a verse; you need God’s Word in your mind right then to replace Satan’s thoughts with God’s thoughts, just as Jesus did when He was tempted in the wilderness. That’s why it’s so important to memorize Scripture. In college, I memorized chapters and entire books of the New Testament. Even now, decades later, those passages still come back to my mind when I’m in challenging situations.

If you struggle with lust–or any ungodly desires–I encourage you to memorize these two verses:

• “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
• “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Lust says there is something outside of God’s will that can satisfy us. Do not be deceived–realize that lust is insatiable and destructive, remember that no one is immune to the destructive power of lust, and replace lustful thoughts with God’s thoughts.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Moving from Lust to Purity,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2021.

Martin Luther, Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional, ed. James C. Galvin (Zondervan, 2005), March 8.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.