{"id":17032,"date":"2021-05-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-monday-3rd-may-2021"},"modified":"2021-05-03T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T05:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-monday-3rd-may-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-monday-3rd-may-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion Monday 3rd May 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-daf52a4e-7fff-4e8a-b365-86e8786f1f69\">Monday 3rd May&nbsp; Dealing with Sexual Desire<\/span><\/strong> <\/div>\n<p><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Exodus 20: 17<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">You shall not covet your neighbour\u2019s house; you shall not covet your neighbour\u2019s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Sex. Sex. Sex. It\u2019s still a taboo in many situations, yet at the same time it\u2019s one of the most talked about subjects! Particularly amongst folk of my generation. In a world where women are sexualised on a regular basis, newspapers making millions from wardrobe malfunctions, short dresses, makeup-less celebrities, it\u2019s no wonder that sexual desire exists. From an earlier and earlier age too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">As I write this devotion, I\u2019ve just come across a new TV show called \u2018Teen First Dates\u2019. Which is the teenage version of the popular \u2018First Dates\u2019. You may well have your own opinion on \u2018First Dates\u2019 as a TV show. But the teen version appears to be an exact replica. Rather than, like most youth versions of TV shows, simplified and\/or adapted. A first date is a first date, yes, but implying that teenagers must be dating during those years is not helpful. Children and young people are being brought up in a more sexualised world, I include myself in this upbringing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">How should we deal with this? Talking about it goes a long way to dealing with it. Hiding the issue as if it doesn\u2019t exist will only exacerbate things. Perhaps if, from an earlier age, people were able to be open and honest, express their feelings? Then the feelings would not be locked up and turned into something worse, such as \u2018coveting a neighbour\u2019s wife\u2019, literally or figuratively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">We need to break down the barriers put up around these subjects. It would help us all personally. But it would also have a positive effect on our outward image too. The Church is not anti-sex, in fact, sex is regularly mentioned in the Bible!&nbsp; It\u2019s time to talk about it ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Lord,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">life gives us an abundance of feelings,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">positive, negative, and somewhere in between.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Help us not to keep them locked up,<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">but to talk, to each other, to you, and seek help where needed.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">We thrive from sharing our lives and our good news with others.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Loving God<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">You give us the ability to love one another.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Help us to continue to do this, just as You love us.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"docs-internal-guid-71f24870-7fff-b27c-7767-028c8c8db626\">Amen<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday 3rd May&nbsp; Dealing with Sexual Desire Exodus 20: 17 You shall not covet your neighbour\u2019s house; you shall not covet your neighbour\u2019s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. Reflection Sex. Sex. Sex. It\u2019s still a taboo in many situations, yet at the same &hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-monday-3rd-may-2021\/\" class=\"button more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;URC Daily Devotion Monday 3rd May 2021&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}