My Dear Friend,

There are many different kinds of blindness: total blindness, color blindness, snow blindness, flash blindness, legal blindness (very diminished vision).

All these visual impairments are troublesome and potentially dangerous. But there's another we need to consider: lust blindness.

Lust is a powerful, impatient desire for something that demands instant gratification without regard for Christ's will or human consequences. When yielded to, it always produces harm or loss - and regret!

Lust blindness occurs when we allow the power of any lust to blind us to its consequences. We fixate on our desire so strongly and constantly that when God's Spirit faithfully warns us of the trouble it will cause or people it will hurt, we brush His warnings aside and rush headlong into folly. Soon we forget He warned us. What's happened?

We are suffering lust blindness. We are blind to our better judgment. Ultimately, as we look back upon the fool's path we forged, we see what we refused to see earlier - and weep and gnash our teeth. Lust blindness has caused lust grief. And it's too late.

Can God redeem? Of course, praise His mercies! But needless loss, hurt, and damage have nevertheless been done by our lust blindness and some will not be repaired. So why go there? We need to discern lust blindness before, not after, we sow the seeds of grief. For that, let's examine examples of lust blindness to better understand it.

We want a spouse. So, allured by a pretty face and shapely body - or a handsome face and strong physique - we lust to have what we see. Though we recognize the person before us has no interest in Christ, we proceed anyway, break Christ's moral teaching, Paul's marital warnings, and the hearts of friends and family.

Or we want more money. So, we decide to get it any way we can, legally or not. We misreport our taxes, cheat business partners, lie about sales, tamper with pricing, anything to pocket another dirty dollar. We gradually stop caring for anything or anyone else, and leave a trail of wounded friends and acquaintances in our wake.

We long for professional success. So we start doing and saying anything to increase our public profile. We slander competitors, boast shamelessly about our abilities, misrepresent our achievements, all to rise higher and faster. But somewhere along the line we lose our moral compass: our compass! Then we lose our way.

Someone deeply wrongs us. Ignoring New Testament instruction, we first fail to forgive them and soon refuse to do so as our unforgiveness morphs into a burning lust for revenge. As this lust for payback grows, our spiritual life goes. Soon our whole world is reduced to one foolish, petty lust: to use every weapon available - gossip, slander, false accusation - to wound the one who wounded us. Then, one day, we wake up to realize our bitterness has hurt many we loved and killed our fellowship with Jesus!

There are many potential objects of lust blindness: food, possessions, awards, achievements, degrees, offices, titles, jobs, children, ministries, specific people's approval, success as this world sees it, and so forth. Any of these, if sought first without regard to God's will or human consequences, may blind us.

Some of the physical blindness described above is unavoidable. But lust blindness is fully in our control. We can avoid it. How?

When any new desire rises in your heart, examine it. Do you want it more than you want to know and please Jesus? If so, quickly control it, before it controls you. Listen to the Holy Spirit. When He speaks directly, or through an elder or friend, to warn you about a certain path or person or passion, respond. When He shows you pursuing your desire will hurt family, friends, and fellow Christians, and abort your spiritual destiny, obey.

Let Christ content you by seeking Him more: "Be content with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Be content for the present with what He has already given you in the area of your desire. Isn't it enough? And hasn't He given you many other blessings besides?

Then be patient about the blessing you seek. Never let it mean more than your Blesser! Rather, let Him increase you in His way, in His wisdom, on His timetable. He will release your answers when you are ready for them. He will give you your heart's desires (Psalm 37:4) when they are no longer your lusts' desires. And they will bring only joy, not grief, to you and others.

A lust-free life is a clear-seeing life and one God can use to deliver others from lust blindness. Be just such a life!

Waiting contentedly, seeing clearly,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries