Just a Thought: LUST! I’m not a psychic, but I bet your first thought was "SEX." But, lust isn’t just about sex. To lust means to have an intense desire or need. Therefore one could lust after wealth, power and prestige, to name a few.

However, since you’re thinking of it in terms of sex, let’s talk honestly about that. I love sex! I should, God created and designed it (He created male and female Gen.1 &2) and planned for it to be practiced and enjoyed inside the boundaries of marriage (It was God who brought the man and woman together with that very instruction (Gen.1:28).The whole counsel of God’s Word supports the idea; sex is good, clean, wholesome, enjoyable and satisfying, inside of marriage. But, sex is also like a fire. I love a fire on a cold night, in my fireplace. I love the atmosphere and warmth of the fire. A fire in my fireplace on a cold night is enjoyable, satisfying, warming. Now, if sparks were to fly and my house were catch fire and burn to the ground, destroying everything I own, that would be a fire "out of control."

What’s the point? The devil (while he can’t "make" us do anything, loves to tempt us to take what God has made good and take just outside the boundaries, so that which is meant to be good becomes very bad and destructive. Sex outside of God’s ordained boundaries is like a fire out of the fireplace; it can cost you everything in the wake of its destructive path.

Here are three steps to help you extinguish the fire of lust in your heart:

1. Consider the cost: the loss of your home, family, friends, trust, career, health etc. What is done in secret will eventually come out, and when it does, it will move like a consuming fire through all you hold dear.

2. Bad habits are hard to break, not impossible. Identify them, and replace them with healthy ones.

3. Realize every time you say yes to lust, it is harder to say no the next time (don’t allow for a next time).

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Heb. 13:4,5)

Dr. William Burnham is pastor of Point of Grace Church in Covington. He can be reached at burnhamw@charter.net.