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Key Bible Verse: If you try to keep your life for yourself you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life (Matthew 16:25). Bonus Reading:Colossians 3:1-5

Once, with my marriage dissolving, I started lying awake at night thinking about a certain client. We'd started out discussing writing projects in her office. But soon we were conversing about her childhood, her frustrations with a dead church, her hopes. And I was slipping, because she appeared the most beautiful, spiritual, fascinating creature on earth—the one individual who could truly fulfill me. We'd done nothing outwardly inappropriate, but to me, an affair began to seem the most natural thing in the world.

So lying alone, searching for a way to stop my emotions, I began reading the words of Jesus. [Today's Key Bible Verse] hit me between the eyes. It also brought to mind, from James: "Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above."

If I grabbed outside of His will for my last hope for intimacy, it would surely slip through my fingers. But if I refused to follow my fantasies, and gave it up for Christ, then I'd find what I was looking for. So I chose to clearly say good-bye to my client. A surge of love, confidence, and peace swept through me. I've never felt closer to Christ.

—Steven Mosley in Secret of the Mustard Seed

My Response: Am I committed to obeying God, even when my emotions point elsewhere?

Thought to Apply: A safe male takes responsibility for his own sexual response.

—Stan Thornburg

Adapted from Secret of the Mustard Seed (NavPress, 2002) by permission.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, show me what changes I need to make to become a male safe for all females created in Your image.

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