Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for opening your heart so honestly and for giving all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for the improvement He has already brought. It is right to thank Him, because every step away from those sins is His mercy and His power at work, and He hears the prayers and tears you have poured out before Him.
There is still a battle, and you are right to ask for lasting and true deliverance. Scripture shows us where this battle lives. James says that fights and conflicts come from the lusts that war within us. We want and do not have, and we struggle because the desire itself has taken root inside. John explains it further, that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and these things are not from the Father but from the world, and the world is passing away with its lusts. That is why these temptations feel so strong. The flesh wants to be satisfied, the eyes want to look and keep looking, and pride wants to be lifted up.
Pornography and sexual fantasy work in exactly that way. They inflame the passions and then enslave a person. Many who have counseled others have seen it become like a drug that gets a grip on the mind, so that a person feels bound and cannot free himself. It starts in the heart. A man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed, and lust when it is conceived gives birth to sin. That is why the warning is not to lust after beauty in the heart and not to entertain that first look. If it is not cut off in the heart, it will lead to sin. Outside of the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, sexual intimacy is not love but lust, and it always brings harm.
This also helps us understand prayer. Prayer is not a way to get our own will done on earth so we can spend what we receive on our own desires. James says we can ask and not receive because we ask wrongly, to consume it on our lusts. True prayer seeks God's will and asks for His help to walk in His way. You are praying in the right direction when you ask Him to renew your mind, to make you wise, and to keep these sins far from you.
God has given us His way of freedom. He has given us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through them we may share in the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. He washes our minds with His Word. He teaches us to sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh, because whatever a person sows he will also reap. If we sow to the flesh we reap corruption, but if we sow to the Spirit we reap life.
So let us pray together for you now. Father, we thank You for what You have already done in this life and for the honesty of this cry for help. We ask for Your mercy. Speak clearly, grant understanding, and bring full deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ. Renew the mind according to Your Word, make wise in the ways of purity, and set free from every chain that pornography and sexual lust have formed. Guard the heart and the eyes, and teach to turn away at the first stirring of lust before it can conceive sin. Fill the heart with a love for what is pure, even as Christ is pure, and with a desire for Your will above all. Strengthen day by day to walk in holiness and righteousness, sowing to the Spirit, and keep these sins far away for Your glory. We ask this trusting in the grace and power of Jesus Christ alone to save and to keep. Amen.
There is still a battle, and you are right to ask for lasting and true deliverance. Scripture shows us where this battle lives. James says that fights and conflicts come from the lusts that war within us. We want and do not have, and we struggle because the desire itself has taken root inside. John explains it further, that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and these things are not from the Father but from the world, and the world is passing away with its lusts. That is why these temptations feel so strong. The flesh wants to be satisfied, the eyes want to look and keep looking, and pride wants to be lifted up.
Pornography and sexual fantasy work in exactly that way. They inflame the passions and then enslave a person. Many who have counseled others have seen it become like a drug that gets a grip on the mind, so that a person feels bound and cannot free himself. It starts in the heart. A man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed, and lust when it is conceived gives birth to sin. That is why the warning is not to lust after beauty in the heart and not to entertain that first look. If it is not cut off in the heart, it will lead to sin. Outside of the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, sexual intimacy is not love but lust, and it always brings harm.
This also helps us understand prayer. Prayer is not a way to get our own will done on earth so we can spend what we receive on our own desires. James says we can ask and not receive because we ask wrongly, to consume it on our lusts. True prayer seeks God's will and asks for His help to walk in His way. You are praying in the right direction when you ask Him to renew your mind, to make you wise, and to keep these sins far from you.
God has given us His way of freedom. He has given us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through them we may share in the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. He washes our minds with His Word. He teaches us to sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh, because whatever a person sows he will also reap. If we sow to the flesh we reap corruption, but if we sow to the Spirit we reap life.
So let us pray together for you now. Father, we thank You for what You have already done in this life and for the honesty of this cry for help. We ask for Your mercy. Speak clearly, grant understanding, and bring full deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ. Renew the mind according to Your Word, make wise in the ways of purity, and set free from every chain that pornography and sexual lust have formed. Guard the heart and the eyes, and teach to turn away at the first stirring of lust before it can conceive sin. Fill the heart with a love for what is pure, even as Christ is pure, and with a desire for Your will above all. Strengthen day by day to walk in holiness and righteousness, sowing to the Spirit, and keep these sins far away for Your glory. We ask this trusting in the grace and power of Jesus Christ alone to save and to keep. Amen.
