Pixabay
Pornography is an ever growing threat to families and individuals today, destroying relationships and the lives of people as we know it. But as big as a threat as pornography has become, there is still hope for freedom from it.
According to Covenant Eyes, 56 per cent of divorce cases involved one spouse struggling with an obsessive interest in pornographic websites. Sociologist Jill Manning once said, “Research reveals many systemic effects of Internet pornography that are undermining an already vulnerable culture of marriage and family. Even more disturbing is the fact that the first Internet generations have not reached full maturity, so the upper limits of this impact have yet to be realised.”
Maybe you know someone who has struggled with porn for quite a while now or maybe you struggle with it yourself. Know that God has not left you alone to battle your addiction. The first step is accepting God’s moral standard for sexual purity and acknowledging to God that you have broken that standard. Ephesians 5:3 tells us, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.”
Your addiction to porn may feel like it’s above you and maybe it is, but it is never above the power of Christ. When we trust in our own strength and self-discipline to say no to sexual immorality, chances are that we will fail terribly. But Titus 2:11-12 tells us, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
It is and has always been the grace of God through Christ that we are trained and enabled to say no to sin. When we abide in the vine that is Christ, He gives us the strength and self-control to say no to our urges. God has not left us to deal with our struggles alone, but He walks with us and gives us grace if only we put our faith and trust in Him and continue to believe that there is freedom in Jesus Christ.
But that doesn’t mean that we’ll all change overnight. The enemy wants to drive you to guilt and shame so as to keep you stuck in that rut, but be assured that because of the finished work on the cross, you are now justified of all sin and can now walk ever increasingly into God’s will for you which is purity and holiness.
We can trust in the power of the Holy Spirit by constantly allowing ourselves to be filled with God’s presence. James 4:8 tells us, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” You don’t have to depend on your own strength because Jesus will be your strength.
