Lust

Before I get into this subject, there are a few things I want to point out:

1. Lust is not only a sexual sin. There are many different types of lust, but in this post I will be dealing with sexual lust.

2. Lust happens on both sides of the gender spectrum. It's not something that only guys or only girls do. However since I am a girl this post will be mainly directed towards the ladies.

Okay. So. I want to start by saying that I think ladies get overlooked a LOT when it comes to the subject of lust. I know that the temptations guys deal with are much stronger and harder to resist most of the time, but that doesn't make it a sin unavailable to women. I think Satan has used this to his advantage, deceiving millions of Christian woman into thinking lust is okay for them but not for men. 

Just look at the popularity of the book Fifty Shades of Grey and the movie Magic Mike, even among Christian women! It has been so overlooked; whereas if a stripper movie for men and highly distributed porn magazines became popular among the men of the church there would be an outrage. It would be dealt with. But no one has mentioned Fifty Shades of Grey or Magic Mike in any Christian circle I'm a part of. 

I think of Christian girls on Instagram posting on Mondays as a part of the "Man Crush Monday," where people post pictures of hot guys (more times than not with their shirts off) to lust after. Can you imagine if a Christian guy posted a picture of a shirtless girl on his Instagram? I would think it would be much more frowned upon.

My point is this: Lust among Christian women is a problem that hasn't been addressed nearly enough. Lust CAN happen in a woman's heart, and it IS a sin. 

Matthew 5:27-28 says, "You have heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." 

So in addition to what I just said, I want to point out something about this scripture. It does not say, "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already raped her in his heart." It uses the term adultery, which implies that there are two sides to this equation. In adultery there are two people involved, and both of them contribute to the sin. If either the man or the woman was involved involuntarily, it would be called rape, not adultery.

 So how can a woman contribute to lustful thoughts in a man's heart, or vise versa? Attitude and apparel. The way you act has an impact on the opposite sex. Acting coyly and flirty and sexually inviting is a pretty good guarantee of lustful thoughts. Also, dressing in a sexually appealing way draws attention to areas of your body that ignite sexual desire and lustful thoughts. 

So in conclusion, we as women need to be more aware of our ability and tendency to lust, and our ability to ignite lust in the hearts of others through the ways we dress and act.