¹⁸ Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. ¹⁹ Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Dear God, we tend to think that sexual immorality wasn’t a thing until the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Before then, everyone waited until marriage, was faithful in marriage, and never had wandering eyes or lustful problems. But I suppose there is a reason prostitution is called the world’s oldest profession. There is this weird thing about our sex drive that really does create both beauty in our lives and huge problems if we let it.

I have no frame of reference for what prostitution was like two thousand years ago. Five thousand years ago. I think of the story in Genesis when Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law (widow of his son), thinking she is a prostitute. He is okay to join himself with a prostitute, but when he finds out the daughter-in-law is pregnant he is ready to have her killed until he realizes she is the woman he slept with (Genesis 38:12-29). How did Paul feel about that story?

Father, there are all kinds of addictions that are an issue in our lives. Food is certainly an issue for me. I have an unhealthy relationship with it. Portion control. The types of food I eat. Whatever it might be, I have a terrible time controlling myself with it. But the struggle gives me sympathy for others. It gives me empathy as well. None of us are as strong as we think we are. I certainly am not. So help me today. Help me to be at peace in your presence. Help me to hear your still small voice and follow it. Help me to be pure of heart, mind, soul, and body. Help me to love richly. Help me to be the man you need me to be for my sake, the sake of my family, and for the sake of your kingdom in this world.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen