We rejoice with you and give all the glory and thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for the great improvement He has already worked in your life, for it is by His mercy and grace that you have been able to turn from these sins and seek Him with tears and earnest prayer. We have heard your cry and we join with you in asking for lasting and true deliverance and complete freedom, for the glory of God.
We want to encourage you that your sorrow over sin and your desire for purity is a good and godly thing, and God hears those prayers. The struggles you mention, pornography, masturbation, flirting with the opposite sex and other sexual sins, are indeed serious before the Lord. Scripture is clear that these are not small matters but are lust and sexual immorality which defile the heart and the body. Jesus taught in Matthew 5:28 that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart, and we are commanded in 1 Corinthians 6:18 to flee sexual immorality, for every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. We lovingly rebuke these sins with you, not to condemn you, for there is no condemnation for those in Christ, but to agree with God that they must be forsaken completely, because our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit as it says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and we are to glorify God in our body and spirit which are His.
We praise God that you have already seen victory, and we want to remind you that lasting freedom comes not by our own willpower alone but by walking by the Spirit and being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and Galatians 5:16 says walk by the Spirit, and you wonāt fulfill the lust of the flesh. The renewing of the mind you prayed for comes through the Word of God daily, through taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ as taught in 2 Corinthians 10:5, and through guarding our heart and eyes. Job made a covenant with his eyes in Job 31:1, and Psalm 119:11 says I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. We encourage you to hide Scripture in your heart, to meditate on whatever is true, honorable, just, pure and lovely as Philippians 4:8 exhorts us, to flee temptation rather than fight it up close, to remove access to pornography completely, to avoid flirtatious conversations and situations that stir lust, and to seek godly accountability with a mature believing brother who can pray with you and ask you hard questions.
We know you asked for wisdom and understanding and deliverance, and God promises to give wisdom generously to those who ask Him in James 1:5, and He promises in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Proverbs 4:23 reminds us to keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life. True purity is a matter of the heart, and we pray God will create in you a clean heart as David prayed in Psalm 51:10.
We now pray together for you.
Heavenly Father, we come before You together in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and we thank You for the work You have already done in our dear brother, for the tears he has shed and the prayers he has prayed, and for the improvement You have granted. We give You all the glory. Lord, we ask that You would complete the good work You have begun. Grant him lasting and true deliverance from pornography, masturbation, flirting and all sexual sin. Renew his mind, Father, wash him with Your Word, and make him very wise to discern and to flee every temptation. Teach him to take every thought captive to Christ, to walk by Your Spirit and not by the flesh. Show him Your mercy anew each morning, speak to him through Scripture, give him understanding of Your ways and Your holiness, and guard his heart and eyes. Strengthen him to do whatever it takes to remove these sins forever from his life and heart, to cut off every source of temptation, and to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Create in him a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within him. Help him to glorify You in his body and spirit, to live in purity as You intended sexuality to be enjoyed only within the lifelong covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. Keep him from discouragement when he is tempted, remind him of 1 Corinthians 10:13 that You will not allow him to be tempted beyond what he is able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape. Fill him with Your Holy Spirit, with joy and peace, so that these sins will forever be far from him. We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our only hope and our righteousness, amen.
