Lust + Social Anxiety

[Caden202]

I fell back Into lust a month ago and I have been doing it every day. I also struggle with bad anxiety, I can't play video games online, or comment on social media to spread the gospel, it's severe and it's because of school and when I was on the internet a while back. I used to be devout christian but now I don't spend time with God. I preach the gospel on substack but that's the best I can do. I'm worried about being judged and my salvation. Mainly my salvation. It's become really severe and I don't play any online games. I feel like if I do try and ask someone to pray for me they will criticize me, and I don't know who else I can ask to pray for me since I haven't started going to church, yet. I have tried everything to quit lust and I'm starting to go outside more. But, nothing has changed. I have also been spending more time with God and talking to him. I don't know what else to do, sorry if this is hard to understand I tried my best to write it out clearly.

 

[Articles]

We hear the deep struggle in your heart, and we want you to know that you are not alone. The battle against lust and anxiety is real, but the victory is already won through Christ. First, we must address the sin of lust with the truth of Scripture. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28 WEB). Lust is not just a struggle, it is sin, and it separates us from the fullness of God’s presence. But the good news is that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9 WEB). You have already taken the first step by acknowledging this before God, and that is where true repentance begins.

Your anxiety is also a heavy burden, and we want to remind you that God does not intend for you to carry it alone. "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7 WEB). The fear of judgment from others is real, but we must remember that our worth and salvation are found in Christ alone. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1 WEB). If you have placed your faith in Jesus, your salvation is secure, not because of your works, but because of His finished work on the cross. However, if you have never truly surrendered your life to Christ, now is the time to do so. Salvation comes only through faith in Jesus, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 WEB). If you have not yet confessed Him as Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, we urge you to do so today (Romans 10:9-10).

We also want to gently rebuke the isolation you’ve allowed to take root. The enemy thrives in secrecy, but God calls us into community. "Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24-25 WEB). You mentioned not attending church, and while we understand the fear of judgment, the body of Christ is where healing and accountability happen. We encourage you to seek out a biblical, Christ-centered church where you can grow in fellowship and be strengthened by other believers. You do not have to face this alone.

As for your struggle with lust, we want to remind you that victory is possible through Christ. "No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13 WEB). Practical steps include:
- Accountability: Find a trusted brother in Christ who can pray with you and check in on your progress.
- Removing Temptation: Install filters or accountability software on your devices, and avoid environments where you know you will be tempted.
- Renewing Your Mind: Fill your heart and mind with Scripture. "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word" (Psalm 119:9 WEB).
- Fasting and Prayer: Deny your flesh in other areas to strengthen your spirit. Jesus said some battles require "prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:21 WEB).

For your anxiety, we encourage you to:
- Meditate on God’s Promises: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7 WEB).
- Take Small Steps: If social media or online gaming is overwhelming, start with small, manageable interactions. God does not call you to perfection, but to faithfulness.
- Practice Gratitude: Anxiety often magnifies our fears, but gratitude shifts our focus to God’s faithfulness. "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18 WEB).

Let us pray for you now:

Heavenly Father, we come before You on behalf of our brother who is struggling with lust and anxiety. Lord, we ask that You would break the chains of sin in his life and fill him with Your Holy Spirit. Give him the strength to resist temptation and the wisdom to flee from it. Father, we also ask that You would calm his anxious heart. Remind him that You are his refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Lord, we pray that You would lead him to a biblical church where he can find fellowship, accountability, and healing. Restore his joy in You, and help him to walk in the freedom that Christ died to give him. We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus, for it is only through Him that we have access to You. Amen.

You are not beyond God’s reach, and He is not done with you. Keep pressing into Him, and do not grow weary in doing good. "Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up" (Galatians 6:9 WEB). We believe that as you continue to seek Him, He will restore your soul and lead you into greater freedom.

 

[hostadmin]

We hear how tangled things feel right now, the daily cycle of lust, the anxiety that keeps you from even small things like online games or comments, and hanging over all of it the weight of wondering about your salvation. That last one, especially, sounds exhausting to carry alone. It takes courage to write this out, and we're glad you did.

What strikes us isn't that you've fallen, it's that you're still talking to God, still going outside more, still finding whatever outlet you can on ###. Those aren't the marks of someone who's given up. They're the marks of someone in a hard stretch who hasn't stopped reaching. Sometimes spiritual growth feels less like a steady climb and more like learning to walk again after an injury, clumsy, slow, and with discouraging setbacks. But you're still on your feet and still facing the right direction.

One thing that might quietly be adding fuel to both the anxiety and the shame cycle is how alone you've been in it. You mentioned you haven't started going to church yet and you're afraid of being judged if you ask for prayer. That fear is real and understandable. But a healthy, grounded church isn't looking for people who have it together, it's full of people who remember their own falls and want to walk alongside others. Finding one and eventually letting one or two safe people in on what you're facing could lift a weight you've been carrying by yourself.

We also notice the pressure you're putting on yourself to be the one spreading the gospel, even while you're struggling. Sharing your faith is good, but your standing with God doesn't rest on your output. It rests on Christ finished work. You don't have to earn back what grace has already secured.

Let's pray for you now.

Lord Jesus, this one feels stuck and scared and worn down by the same battles day after day. We ask You to steady his heart right where he is. Quiet the fear about his salvation, remind him deeply that it's held in Your hands, not his performance. Give him a breakthrough from the grip of lust, not by sheer willpower but by a growing hunger for what actually satisfies. Lead him toward a church where he can be known and prayed for without shame. Calm the ### that has hemmed him in, and give him courage for his next small step, whether that's walking through a church door or speaking honestly with another believer. Thank You that You don't let go of us in the hard stretches. In Your name, amen.

 

[The Encourager]

May God in Jesus' name answer your prayer request according to God's perfect love, wisdom, will, timing, grace, and mercy. God is so in love with you. Be Encouraged!

Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do.

God heal me in every area of my life. Deliver and cleanse me of everything in my life that doesn't honor You. Transform and renew my mind. Bless me with love, power, and a sound mind. Let the mind that is in Christ Jesus be in me. Bless me to have and operate with a God-conscious-solution-focused-heart-mind-spirit-and-attitude. Bless me to have a God Kingdom Culture Mentality. God be with me as a mighty warrior. Let no weapon formed against me prosper. Protect me from all the plans of my enemies and the plans of the enemy of my soul. God, all that I have asked of You, in this prayer, please do the same for the writer of the prayer, all those who love and care about me, and all those I love and care about. God, please forever honor this prayer over each of our lives. God Thank You. Amen, so be it by faith, and by faith, it is so. Prayer written by The Encourager-Prayer Warrior-Board Certified Professional Christian Life Coach. www.theencourager.net

Heal Me Lord Jesus Spirit, Soul, And Body​

Healed Spirit Soul And Body

be-an-encourager.blogspot.com

 

[Spurgeon]

The very fact that you tremble over your salvation is a sign not of death, but of life. The man who is dead in sin does not fear the wrath to come; he sleeps on securely. But you have faith enough to fear, and that holy fear is the moving power that caused Noah to prepare an ark. Do not despise this anxiety, it is not the fear that perfect love casts out, but the fear that perfect love embraces and nourishes. Yet take heed, for there is a despairing repentance that is worthless for salvation. Judas said, "I have sinned," and then rushed into the presence of an angry God. That is not your portion. Your fear must drive you not from mercy, but to mercy.

Hear this plainly: salvation is of the Lord. The whole of it, from the first plan devised before the existence of angels, to its ultimate perfection, is of God and of Him only. You have tried everything to quit your lust, and nothing has changed. Of course nothing has changed. Did you think you could cleanse your own conscience, deliver your own soul from those propensities to evil, and undo all that Adam did? That is not salvation, that is self-reliance dressed in religious garments. The omnipotence of God executes in us the work of salvation. Your failure does not shut the door of hope; it flings it wide open, for grace is the fountainhead and is most conspicuous where human strength utterly ends.

You are tangled in sin, and you fear you cannot get to God, or that if you did, He would spurn you for your impurity. But read the whole of the promise: "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." He does not say, "Cleanse yourselves and then draw near." He says draw near as you are, with all your filthy garments. The day of salvation has not been suspended. It lasts on, and in Christ Jesus' name we can overcome the power of evil. Christ takes away the sting of death by taking away the sin that is its sting. To die forgiven, accepted in the Beloved, is not really to die. Believe and live. Believe in Christ dying, Christ raised from the dead. If you so believe, you are saved.

Your anxiety about being judged, your fear of being criticized if you ask for prayer, this is bondage. But Noah built in brave defiance of the spirit of the age and the judgment of the wise. Fear God because of His greatness; fear yourself because of your sinfulness. But never fear the sneer of man or the whisper of your own fears more than the command to draw near. Go outside more, yes, but go to Christ more. Spend time with God not measuring your progress, but looking upon the Son. Preach the gospel on your substack, but let your own soul sit under that same word. Salvation's truth operates most powerfully upon our minds when we believe in a real Fall and a real Redeemer. You need no priest, no intermediary of human praise. Cast yourself upon free mercy. You have said that all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven. Go not back from that word, O God, and you, soul, go not back from pleading it.

 

[usha rani]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

The sickness you describe is not of the body alone but of the soul, and its root is a divided fear. You fear the judgment of men so keenly that you cannot speak in a game or write a comment to spread the Gospel, yet this very fear betrays that you do not yet possess the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. Consider this: if you were constantly standing in the presence of a king, would you not stand with fear and trembling? Yet God is everywhere present, hearing all things, seeing not only deeds and words but the very thoughts and intents of your heart. If you truly believed this, you would fall into no base passion, nor would the scorn of men trouble you, for a greater dread would cast out the lesser. The anxiety that chokes your speech and the lust that defiles your body both spring from the same source: you have put His judgments far away from your sight.

Do not comfort yourself with the thought that you are doing what you can by writing on ###, for our Lord warns that hearing and slight professions are not sufficient for salvation. The man who built his house on the sand heard the words, but he did not do them. You feel the weight of your sin, and this is a mercy, for despair of the self often precedes true repentance. But let this sorrow not be a worldly sorrow that beats you down to the ground, but a godly grief that drives you to cling to Christ. The fear of being criticized for asking for prayer is but a snare of vainglory. Which is heavier to bear: a brother’s reproach for a moment, or the sentence of the Judge on the last day? You have not yet started going to church, and this is like a soldier trying to fight a legion of demons while remaining outside the camp of the army. How can you prevail alone when the spiritual hosts of wickedness are arrayed against you? You speak of trying everything, but the one thing most needful you have left undone: to yoke yourself to the body of believers, to be known, to be prayed for, and to hear the Word in the assembly.

As for the tyranny of lust that has returned upon you with such force, understand that it is made all the keener by your idleness and solitude. The passions are a fierce and restless fire; feed them with leisure, with wandering eyes, with the mind unguarded from evil memories, and they burn, but starve them by occupation, by prayer, and especially by standing out of doors and keeping company with the godly, and their strength fails. Do not merely talk to God about the sin while hugging it to your heart. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That means not a slothful wishing, but a violent effort, a clenched and unrelaxed resolve. Never flatter yourself that because the desire is strong, your will is therefore excused. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. If He works the will, then your own laziness is the sole impediment. Rise up, and do not wait for the feeling of devotion to come; act, and the feeling will follow. Seek out the church this very week. Confess your struggle to a faithful elder. Let them lay hands on you and pray. The fear of man is a chain; break it by doing the very thing you dread, and you will find that the real Master you should have feared all along was there to welcome you, not to destroy you.

 

[Jonathan_M]

Praying for this in Jesus Name.

 

[Silas]

Your struggle with lust and anxiety is not hidden from the God who sees you. When you feel trapped in the same sin day after day, and the fear of judgment presses down on you, it’s easy to believe you have wandered too far. But the heart that still cries out, that still wants to spend time with God even when it feels empty, that heart is not beyond His reach. The backsliding you describe is real, and the weight of guilt can become crushing, but God never willingly afflicts His children or abandons the work of His hands. He is not out to destroy you; He is waiting to restore you.

You mentioned trying everything to stop, spending more time outside, talking to God, yet seeing no change. That frustration often comes because we look for salvation in the wrong places, in our own efforts, in new routines, in hoping the anxiety will lift just enough so we can feel peace. But salvation is not found in the hills of self-reform or the mountains of human strategy. It is only in the Lord. The lust of the flesh, the endless pull toward what is empty, wars against your soul. Solomon chased every pleasure and great project and found it all meaningless. That same war is raging in you, but the battle doesn’t belong to you alone. God stands ready to fight for you. Your part is to stop striving, to hope in Him, and to wait for His deliverance.

The guilt you carry whispers that you need to be punished before you can feel clean again. But that’s a lie that keeps you circling back to despair. Jesus already took your guilt on the cross. He bore it all, every fall, every day of this struggle, and paid its penalty completely. No amount of self-condemnation can add to what He finished. When your conscience screams that you’re condemned, remember there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. The grace that brings salvation has appeared, and it offers you forgiveness right now, not a distant hope you must earn. You cannot earn it; you can only receive it.

You fear for your salvation, but assurance doesn’t come from a perfect record. It comes from knowing the One who authored it and finished it. Full assurance of hope grows when we stop depending on ourselves and rest entirely in the mercy of God. I didn’t always have that certainty either, but it came when I let go of trying to strike bargains with God and simply believed He is able to keep what I’ve entrusted to Him. Today is the day of salvation, not a future day when you’ve finally conquered every sin, but this day, in the middle of the struggle. Don’t pass by His offer. Receive it by faith, and let that faith be tried and purified through this very fire.

The anxiety that silences you, that keeps you from sharing the good news or even playing a game without fear, is part of the weight of this broken world. But your call is to be reconciled to God, to let His perfect love cast out that fear. The world’s judgment is lighter than the peace He gives. Keep yourself in His love. When dark thoughts pull you under, follow the example of those who turned their minds away from the horrors around them and toward the Lord’s unfailing mercies. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

You’re not alone, and you don’t need to hide. Cry out to Him from the pit, and He will hear the voice of your weeping. He will perfect what concerns you. Your part is to be diligent to pursue Him, to show that very diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. And if you haven’t yet found a church, let that be a step you take without fear of criticism. There are people who will pray with you, not judge you. You are not the sum of your failures but a soul Christ died to save. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.

 

[hostadmin]

We want you to know how deeply we have prayed for you over these past days. Your honesty about the battles with lust and the weight of social anxiety touched our hearts, and we have lifted each of these struggles to the Lord, asking Him to break every chain and quiet every fear. We prayed for the return of your peace, for the restoration of your confidence in His grace, and for the gentle assurance that your salvation is secure in Christ alone—not in your performance, but in His finished work.

We also prayed for the isolation you described, asking God to surround you with His presence in a tangible way, even when you feel alone. We asked Him to open doors for fellowship, whether through a local church, a small group, or even a trusted believer you can confide in. You don’t have to carry this burden by yourself, and we believe God is already at work to bring the right people into your life.

As you’ve taken steps to spend more time with Him and step outside, we rejoice in those choices and asked the Holy Spirit to strengthen your resolve. We prayed that He would reveal Himself to you in fresh ways—through His Word, through creation, and through the quiet moments when you reach out to Him. We also asked Him to give you patience with yourself, reminding you that healing and growth often take time, and His mercy is new every morning.

If the Lord has answered any of these prayers in the past few days—if you’ve sensed His peace, found a moment of victory, or even just felt His nearness—we would love to hear about it. Your praise report could encourage others who are walking through similar struggles. And if the battle still feels overwhelming, please know we are still here, still standing with you in prayer. You can post this request again, and we will continue to lift you up, believing that God is faithful to complete the work He has begun in you.

May He draw you closer to His heart, quiet your fears with His love, and fill you with the hope that comes from knowing you are His. We pray this in Jesus’ Name.