Article January 1, 1999 Issue

I didn't want to hurt us

Mark unger

While traveling, I asked a girl I'd known for a very short time to come over to the apartment where I was staying. I was planning on spending a nice evening talking with her and getting to know her better. But what happened that night shook me to the core.

Shortly before she was to arrive, I felt this overwhelming sense of lust. All I wanted to do was go to bed with her. This was very disturbing to me. I didn't want to have premarital sex because I knew from experience it would be harmful to both of us.

With this battle raging in my mind, I turned wholeheartily to God in prayer — even though part of me was saying, “No! Don't pray!” I felt like the man in the Bible who says, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19).

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