Fighting for Purity
FIGHT for your purity! I know too many marriages and families that have been broken as a result of porn and infidelity. Men who never thought they would ever cheat on their wives ended up doing so because their porn addiction got deeper and deeper and the lust became too strong for them. And there has been a clear contrast of health between married couples who fought for their purity while dating and couples who were loose with their purity when they dated. Lust blinds people and makes them completely selfish, only wanting to satisfy themselves and unaware of how they’re hurting those who love them. Someone who fights for their purity is someone who will be a good lover for life.
If your purity is truly important to you, then you will fight for it. You’ll do what it takes for true change. So here are a few tips for the battle…
- Start by identifying when and how you’re usually tempted. For many it’s when they’re alone and when they’re feeling down or stressed. If having your laptop in your room at night when you sleep causes temptation, then leave the laptop at your office or in a friend or family member’s room at night. If it’s movies or certain people you hang out with that evoke lustful thoughts, then stop watching films and don’t hang out with those people. Don’t be lackadaisical about this. Fight!
- Share about your struggle with someone of the same gender who also wants or is already living in purity. This person needs to be a fighter, not someone that keeps compromising. Hold each other accountable. Two guys I know would call every morning to check in on each other and share a little from the Word. If they found themselves struggling at any time of the day or the night they would call each other. They went from struggling with porn to fully pure, no longer struggling with masturbation.
- MAKE WAR. Start with a 30 day or 60 day (or more) media fast. Media (internet, secular TV/movies, secular music) shoots out so much lustful material. Avoiding it, including Facebook, will calm the mind and break your habits of falling into lust. You’ll experience new strength. Fasting isn’t just a physical discipline, but a spiritual one too! Pray during the fast and you’ll experience newfound grace. By the time the fast ends, you’ll have new habits and new conviction. People who go on long extended diets tend to have more grace to keep their habits and keep healthy than people who do quick ridiculous diets. The longer you fight for something, the less you will compromise.
For me, I struggle with lust if I see a movie with a lot of sexual material in it. So a strong value for me is not watching R movies that have nudity or a lot of sex and even some PG-13 movies that have a lot of sexual material in them. www.kidsinmind.com is a helpful site. Any movie with a 5 or more rating for sex is a movie I almost always avoid. I love movies, but I’ve skipped a number of “classics” because my purity is too important to me.
I’ve copied below some more resources on purity. Please know that as you battle and make wise decisions, the battle does get easier. That’s why making war at the beginning is so important. It will give you the momentum to keep pure. James 4:7 – Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Some other posts on this subject…
Overcoming Lustful Dreams and Nightmares
Overcoming Addiction (a bit more comprehensive post of similar material to this one)
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing this.I too have a struggle with purity and I’m using your methods with the grace of God to overcome the spirit of lust.I pray for God’s guidance in separating myself from things and people leading me to sin.Thank you for your honesty!