A Man's Greatest Battle

A man's greatest battle takes place not in a foreign land or in the workforce attempting to "get ahead"; it doesn't even take place in the dating arena or in marriages. It takes place in ourselves, it is the hopes and desires that we have in our hearts that fail to appear. The battle is between ourselves and the lust that fills a man's heart.

When you hear the word lust you may think of the verse out of the book of Matthew which states, But I tell you that anyone who looks at a women lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Now don't get me wrong, this is a very important part of lust; however, there is more to lust that affects our lives as men. Remember in Spider-Man 3 with Spider-Man is battling with his "darker" self? When Spider-Man is faced with this more darker, selfish version of himself he tends to look at situations in a mindset of what he is going to get out of them. Situations that he would typically be in to just save people he would look to those situations for glorification of himself. He also wanted more material possessions and power. He started to put his heart into power and possessions and it was creating a internal battle in Spider-Man. I am not some comic book junkie; however, I like to watch movies and this one really symbolizes that battle that we as men have throughout our lives.

The internal battle that is going on with Spider-Man has actually been experienced by all man in some form or fashion. I know that the battle is still going on for me at times; however, there was a day and time that it consumed me and I didn't even realize it was consuming me. Lust is something that we feel not only toward women but also toward people who have what we want; such as jobs or luxury cars. "To continue to desire... would have been allowing the feeling to result in inappropriate action." (The Power of a Loving Man, Jernigan, Jeff)

These feelings of wanting "things" comes from us feeling inadequate in the world in which we live. This feeling of being inadequate or powerless tends to lead to things that give us some sort of false assurance with our masculinity. For me, it was lust of women in the form of pornography. Sadly when I was 12 yrs old it was not hard to find with the type of friends that I had. For me pornography was something that I went to as my safe haven, it was something that wouldn't remind me of everything that I wasn't, it wouldn't judge me and it certainly didn't make me feel like less of a man. What it did though was feed a selfish desire that would later feed other selfish desires in my life.

I call this blog "A Man's Greatest Battle" because the lust of a man's heart is the greatest battle. It is a battle that most men are losing and they don't even realize it; it is a battle that is tearing marriages apart, breaking relationships, preventing happiness and most of all is preventing a relationship with God. A relationship that He is wanting you to experience. In this blog I will discuss A Man's Greatest Battle through the eyes of a man who has been fighting it ever since February of 2005 when I accepted Jesus' call on my life.