Silas
Beloved of All
It is encouraging to hear how God has already brought real improvement in your struggle and right to give all glory and thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for that work. Your tears and prayers are not unseen. God hears the cry of a heart that wants to be clean and He is merciful to answer.
What you are describing has its root not only in outward habits but in the desires that war within us. Scripture says our conflicts come from lust warring in our members, from wanting and craving to satisfy ourselves. That is why lasting change must go deeper than behavior. It must reach the heart and mind where temptation begins.
The Bible speaks of all that is in the world as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and says these things are not from the Father but from the world, and the world is passing away with its lusts. The enemy works through those same three avenues. He did with Eve when she saw that the fruit was good for food and pleasing to the eye and desirable to make one wise, and he does so still. In our day the flood of images through screens and magazines and entertainment has opened wide the door to the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, and many have found that pornography takes hold like a drug. It inflames desire, it creates pressure toward further sexual sin, flirting and impurity outside of marriage, and it enslaves. Men and women who become entangled often feel bound by fetters they cannot break on their own, and fantasies fed in the mind then seek to become reality.
That is why Scripture warns not to lust after beauty in the heart, for a person is tempted when drawn away by his own lust and enticed, and lust when it is entertained conceives sin. If it is not cut off at the first thought, at that look or imagination, it leads further. Sexual intimacy is meant as an expression of love within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and outside of that it is an expression of lust, not love. To walk in purity is to guard the heart at that early point.
Prayer in this battle is not a way to get our own will done or to simply ease the consequences while still holding to the desire. The purpose of prayer is to bring our will into alignment with God's will, to ask Him to change us so we no longer want to consume things upon our own lust. God desires to renew your mind and make you wise, and that renewal comes as you are washed with His Word and as you choose to live now to fulfill the will of God rather than the lusts of men. The time past is sufficient for having lived according to those old desires in impurity and excess. Now He calls you to walk in holiness and purity even as Christ is pure.
So let us pray together that God will show you mercy and give you understanding and full deliverance. May He renew your mind daily, give you wisdom to recognize temptation early and turn away, help you to guard your eyes and your heart, to remove every source of stumbling, and to fill your thoughts with what is pure and true. May He strengthen you to walk in holiness, to find your satisfaction in Christ alone who alone saves, and to experience freedom that lasts and is true, for His glory.
Keep bringing your heart honestly before Him, stay in the Scriptures, and walk in open fellowship where you can be encouraged and accountable. God who has begun this good work is faithful to complete it as you continue to seek Him with your whole heart.
What you are describing has its root not only in outward habits but in the desires that war within us. Scripture says our conflicts come from lust warring in our members, from wanting and craving to satisfy ourselves. That is why lasting change must go deeper than behavior. It must reach the heart and mind where temptation begins.
The Bible speaks of all that is in the world as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and says these things are not from the Father but from the world, and the world is passing away with its lusts. The enemy works through those same three avenues. He did with Eve when she saw that the fruit was good for food and pleasing to the eye and desirable to make one wise, and he does so still. In our day the flood of images through screens and magazines and entertainment has opened wide the door to the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, and many have found that pornography takes hold like a drug. It inflames desire, it creates pressure toward further sexual sin, flirting and impurity outside of marriage, and it enslaves. Men and women who become entangled often feel bound by fetters they cannot break on their own, and fantasies fed in the mind then seek to become reality.
That is why Scripture warns not to lust after beauty in the heart, for a person is tempted when drawn away by his own lust and enticed, and lust when it is entertained conceives sin. If it is not cut off at the first thought, at that look or imagination, it leads further. Sexual intimacy is meant as an expression of love within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, and outside of that it is an expression of lust, not love. To walk in purity is to guard the heart at that early point.
Prayer in this battle is not a way to get our own will done or to simply ease the consequences while still holding to the desire. The purpose of prayer is to bring our will into alignment with God's will, to ask Him to change us so we no longer want to consume things upon our own lust. God desires to renew your mind and make you wise, and that renewal comes as you are washed with His Word and as you choose to live now to fulfill the will of God rather than the lusts of men. The time past is sufficient for having lived according to those old desires in impurity and excess. Now He calls you to walk in holiness and purity even as Christ is pure.
So let us pray together that God will show you mercy and give you understanding and full deliverance. May He renew your mind daily, give you wisdom to recognize temptation early and turn away, help you to guard your eyes and your heart, to remove every source of stumbling, and to fill your thoughts with what is pure and true. May He strengthen you to walk in holiness, to find your satisfaction in Christ alone who alone saves, and to experience freedom that lasts and is true, for His glory.
Keep bringing your heart honestly before Him, stay in the Scriptures, and walk in open fellowship where you can be encouraged and accountable. God who has begun this good work is faithful to complete it as you continue to seek Him with your whole heart.
