Tempation vs. Lust

[Jabronie]

I’m not sure why, but I’ve really been having a lot more impure thoughts than normal lately. I try to push them out of my head, but sometimes I just can’t.

So my question is at what point does the temptation turn into a sin?

 

[otm]

Jabronie:

I’m not sure why, but I’ve really been having a lot more impure thoughts than normal lately. I try to push them out of my head, but sometimes I just can’t.

So my question is at what point does the temptation turn into a sin?

When you intentionally enjoy them.

 

[the-3rd-parent]

It is sin when you willfully do something. Temptation is a battle and when we’re faced with it we’re really looking for a way out. Sometimes we run away by surpression and other times we embrace it by giving into it.

The first thing I’d do is look at the material you are putting yourself in face with. How much of what you see is adding to the sexual images already in your head. Try avoid watching these things as sexual images often get imbeded into your mind.

The other thing is prayer. Pray continually for the virtue of chastity. Remember that we are lustful. Lust is the state in our heart and we increase that lust by acting mentally or outwardly lustful.

Get frequent reception of the sacraments, go to confession whenever you sin and don’t fall into the false humility of beating yourself up over sin. Be regretful, sorry, but don’t despair about your state. Being sorry doesn’t mean you have to be crying over it and belittling yourself over it. Just see this as where you are spiritually and see it as a slip.

Don’t try to pretend you love God perfectly right now but ask for Him to help you on the journey to love Him perfectly and show your desire to love Him perfectly by seeking his forgiveness ASAP.

 

[the-3rd-parent]

It is not when you intentionally enjoy them. It is when you intentionally entertain them for the sake of enjoying them. You do not have to try to deny to yourself that sexual feelings are pleasurable. Sexual feelings in themselves are not evil. It is rather that sexual development has been stifled and perverted by sin and its state we call lust. It is a vice, a condition of your heart. It is not sin in the sense that masterbation is a sin. It is rather the sinful disposition in your heart that would motivate masterbation.

 

[awalt]

So, sometimes a bad thought pops in my head - especially if I start thinking “Don’t think of anything bad” (why I sometimes think that I don’t know!), and my mind isn’t busy enough. The bad thought (almost any of the 7 sins) pops in, and I immediately flush it out.

Is that a sin? It sounds like know unless I dwell on it/enjoy it, consciously decide to keep thinking about it or developing the thought further?

 

[LynnieLew]

Jabronie:

I’m not sure why, but I’ve really been having a lot more impure thoughts than normal lately. I try to push them out of my head, but sometimes I just can’t.

So my question is at what point does the temptation turn into a sin?

It is interesting that you write this. I too have had strange thoughts lately, mostly in dreams. I can’t understand it as I find my husband to be the most attractive man in the world and I love him so much. And I don’t allow anything impure in my viewing or listening area.

When I wake up I try so hard to push the thoughts out of my mind but I still feel so yucky. It isn’t even that I sin in my dream but it is like I am being tempted to.

I just figure it is the devil trying to get at me since I am going through a spiritually dry period right now.

Just don’t dwell on your thoughts and pray, pray, pray.

 

[Fergal]

I heard it explained very easily.

The sin occurs when the picture becomes a movie!!

 

[tjmiller]

Wise Man say, “You cannot stop bird from landing on head, but you can stop it from builiding nest there!”

 

[Unfinished]

Its really sticky.

Sometimes they pop in my head when I am falling asleep. As soon as I realize it is there, shake myself awake and pray for it to go away.

But I see a “movie” for several minutes sometimes before I even realize. I didn’t ask for it there, I didn’t lay my head down thinking about it, that junk is just in my head (even though I seperated myself from it).

I think the sin comes in when it is in your head, you realize it, and then go “oh yeah, this is nice.”

That is willfully entertaining impure thoughts. If you had been impure in the past, that junk in there forever. It comes back to haunt you once in a while.

 

[BryPGuy89]

Jabronie:

I’m not sure why, but I’ve really been having a lot more impure thoughts than normal lately. I try to push them out of my head, but sometimes I just can’t.

So my question is at what point does the temptation turn into a sin?

The temptation becomes sin when you give in to the temptation. Whether it be picturing something in your head or acting on it you commit yourself to sin.

 

[Mike_Dye]

Jabronie:

I’m not sure why, but I’ve really been having a lot more impure thoughts than normal lately. I try to push them out of my head, but sometimes I just can’t.

So my question is at what point does the temptation turn into a sin?

The very fact that you try to push them out of your head shows that you do not invite evil thoughts…regardless, for a sin to be a sin I must commit it…or intend to.
Vast wealth may seem attractive. The only way I can see to obtain that wealth is to rob my friendly local bank. I think about it and think about it. Guess what…there is not a judge on earth that will ever send me to jail unless I actually rob the bank.