Silas
Beloved of All
I rejoice with you in the improvement you have seen. Every true step away from sexual sin is a work of grace, and the Lord Jesus deserves all the glory you give Him. The tears you have shed are not wasted; they are the cry of a heart that longs to be free, and God does not despise a broken spirit.
Yet as you sense, the battle is not over. Sin does not give up its hold easily, especially the kind that begins in the secret chambers of the heart. The Scriptures tell us that our own lust is what wages war within us. Pornography, flirting, and all such things are not merely outward behaviors; they are first conceived inwardly through the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. The world around us pours out an endless stream of images designed to inflame those desires, and once the mind has been fed on that poison, it can become like an addiction, gripping a person so tightly that he feels he cannot get free.
This is exactly the pattern Satan has used across history. Ancient peoples carved pornographic idols of Ashtoreth to arouse sexual passions, and what followed was promiscuity, degradation, and even the sacrifice of children to Molech. Our culture today is walking the same path, drowning in filth and calling it freedom. But it is not freedom at all; it is slavery, and its end is destruction.
The key for you now is not merely to desire lasting deliverance but to walk in the practical wisdom God gives. If you want your mind renewed, you must stop sowing seeds of corruption into it. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. That means guarding your eyes with ruthless determination. When the temptation rises, cut it off at the root. Turn away, cry out to Jesus in that instant, and fill your thoughts with His Word. You cannot expect a harvest of purity if you are still glancing at the very things that stir up the old nature.
Do not be discouraged that you still feel the pull. You are not alone in that struggle. Before Christ rescued us, we were all living in the lust of our flesh, doing whatever our fallen nature craved, by nature children of wrath. But God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. He has given us great and precious promises so that through them we may escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and become partakers of the divine nature. Lay hold of those promises. Ask Him not only to take away the sin but to give you a deep, abiding hatred for it, and a genuine love for righteousness. That is a prayer He delights to answer.
May the Lord continue His work in you. May He break every chain that still binds your mind. May He wash away the filth with the water of His Word and give you the wisdom to flee every snare. May He grant you such a vision of His beauty that the false pleasures of sin become bitter and empty. And may you grow up in Christ, strengthened day by day in His grace, until you stand before Him pure and blameless, with a heart fully set on Him alone. In Jesusā name, amen.
Yet as you sense, the battle is not over. Sin does not give up its hold easily, especially the kind that begins in the secret chambers of the heart. The Scriptures tell us that our own lust is what wages war within us. Pornography, flirting, and all such things are not merely outward behaviors; they are first conceived inwardly through the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. The world around us pours out an endless stream of images designed to inflame those desires, and once the mind has been fed on that poison, it can become like an addiction, gripping a person so tightly that he feels he cannot get free.
This is exactly the pattern Satan has used across history. Ancient peoples carved pornographic idols of Ashtoreth to arouse sexual passions, and what followed was promiscuity, degradation, and even the sacrifice of children to Molech. Our culture today is walking the same path, drowning in filth and calling it freedom. But it is not freedom at all; it is slavery, and its end is destruction.
The key for you now is not merely to desire lasting deliverance but to walk in the practical wisdom God gives. If you want your mind renewed, you must stop sowing seeds of corruption into it. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. That means guarding your eyes with ruthless determination. When the temptation rises, cut it off at the root. Turn away, cry out to Jesus in that instant, and fill your thoughts with His Word. You cannot expect a harvest of purity if you are still glancing at the very things that stir up the old nature.
Do not be discouraged that you still feel the pull. You are not alone in that struggle. Before Christ rescued us, we were all living in the lust of our flesh, doing whatever our fallen nature craved, by nature children of wrath. But God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. He has given us great and precious promises so that through them we may escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and become partakers of the divine nature. Lay hold of those promises. Ask Him not only to take away the sin but to give you a deep, abiding hatred for it, and a genuine love for righteousness. That is a prayer He delights to answer.
May the Lord continue His work in you. May He break every chain that still binds your mind. May He wash away the filth with the water of His Word and give you the wisdom to flee every snare. May He grant you such a vision of His beauty that the false pleasures of sin become bitter and empty. And may you grow up in Christ, strengthened day by day in His grace, until you stand before Him pure and blameless, with a heart fully set on Him alone. In Jesusā name, amen.
