STAYING SEXUALLY PURE

LifeWay Daily Devotional
Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Staying Sexually Pure

Selections from Genesis 39
Joseph was well-built and handsome. After some time his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, "Sleep with me." But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, my master ... has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?" Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants was there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, "Sleep with me!" But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. (HCSB)

His master's wife wasn't just casually flirting with Joseph. She was coming on to him big-time, flaunting the kind of half-dressed half-truths that any man with half a hormone would have a tough time resisting. But the way he played it was a pure stroke of integrity.

The world's pleasures are nothing but slick advertising. Underneath the smile and the swimsuit is - not joy and fulfillment - but pain, loneliness, heartbreak, emptiness, and the sickening, sour taste of detesting ourselves later on. That's a strange way to define pleasure, but it's the best the world's pleasures have to offer. Your temptation to want them is really a hunger for the beauty of holiness. Living for Christ doesn't mean turning our backs on pleasure. It means discovering "eter-nal pleasures" from the hand of God (Psalm 16:11).

Look At It This Way
It's hard to miss God's concern for purity. He demanded the use of pure gold in the construction of the tabernacle; he prescribed pure incense for use in worship; he required pure animals for sacrifice; he commanded pure hearts, pure religion, and pure relationships. In other words, the model Father communicates - in contrast to modern culture, peer pres-sure, and media messages - that purity is good. The model Father commands purity because purity is something he values. And purity is something he values because he himself is pure. That's the kind of father I want to be. I want my kids to know that purity is good. I want my children to understand that purity is not something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. I want them to reject the fascination with immorality and deviancy that their culture, peers, and the media so often display. I want them to know that I value purity, like the Father I serve and seek to emulate. I want them to see the benefits of purity. And I want them to see a godly standard of sexual purity in me. - Josh McDowell

A Final Thought
Usually, the knowledge that someone else is present and may see you is enought to quash the lies of sexual temptation. Make it your daily, ongoing habit to "Keep the Lord in mind always" (Psalm 16:8).

This devotional is courtesy of the One Minute Bible for Men of Character