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Do Not Give In to Lusts
By Archdeacon Habib Guirgus
Resist your unorganized lusts, and do not follow your instinct, which seems to be attractive and good at first.
Control your
heart's desires, so you won't be fooled easily, and restlessness will not find
room inside you.
The fruits of resisting and offending lusts and desires are peace to the soul
and tranquility to the spirit.
Subject and discipline your desires, to subdue it to accept simple matters.
Teach it not to revolt and be angry against what does not seem fit, for our
lusts deceive us, our passions cause us to be restless, and our senses can
seduce us.
The worst punishment, man can receive, is that God leave him to his lusts and
deliver him to his-self! The Lord said; "But My people would not
heed my voice, and Israel would have none of me. So I gave them over to their
own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels" (Psalm 81:11, 12). And
the apostle Paul said; "And even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which
are not fitting" (Romans 1:28). So, if man is delivered to his-self, and
the grace of God departed from him, eventually he will fall into the hands of a
vicious enemy, which in turn will let him taste wrath and woe, for when the
grace of God departs the person, it is a terrible hell, which brings the worst
fear.
Beware, O beloved, that the divine care does not leave you, and do not calm
down until you walk in the path of grace.
Come close to Jesus' feet, and weep and sigh fervently, till He takes you unto
Him, and pulls you away from your desires and lusts, which can throw you into
Hades.
Those who follow their fleshly desires and lusts, are likened to the run-away
horse, which is out of control, thus taking them from corruption to another
worse than the first, till it put them into eternal punishment.
Do not obey, O beloved, your lusts, and do not allow your desires to control
you or push you around, otherwise the divine grace will despise you, and if
God's grace and His mercy left you, who do you have to run to or depend on?
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