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[__ Prayer __] battle with pornography

4givn, allow me to firstly welcome you to ChristianForums.net; it's lovely that you have made the decision to join the family.
I cannot imagine the pressure you must feel however I do empathise - you have my prayer backing.
 
Welcome brother. I am in my first real battle with this ongoing war, on day 13 right now. 30 days is a great stretch. Dust yourself off and get back to work. :)

Glad to have you here on CF.net. PM me if you need help or anything. God bless you.
 
Brother, my beginnings with that filth began with live demos in my home and I have had nothing to do with that filth for over 25 years now and sill, the images from my first experiences pop into my head at the worst possible times.
This is a tool Satan will use against you until you pass over.
 
4givn said:
I had 30 good days, then fell again. Bummer. Prayer appreciated.
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As believers, we need to learn to count the cost of things.

Joh_14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

Eph_4:27 Neither give place to the devil.

God is always ready to help us get back on track and get things right. If some wonder why they continually go through issue after issue though, then things like this is why. Going 30 days is awesome, but at 30 days that's the point you listen to the devil again. Since the devil knows this, then nothing has to make him flee as we are promised. He waits out his 30 days, and BAM you obey him and give him the right to stop the things God would like to do for you.

Before we sin, we should count the cost and consider exactly who we are obeying and who we are giving a right to operate in our life. Is having a thief around that comes to Kill, steal and destroy worth that few moments of Porn (Whatever kind) and masturbating?

Is that few moments of porn really worth that cost? We must be willing to pay for the cost of the Porn, and it better be a good deal before we consider it again.

Buying one package of Porn at discount price can cost:

1) Feeling of guilt.
2) Feeling of being weak willed.
3) Removing our confidence in God, when we need to ask Him for something.
4) Inviting the thief in to stop blessings you never knew were going to come.
5) Putting the porn back in, making it harder the next time to just say no.
6) Giving place to the flesh, which makes it more easy for other things to come in and be accepted.

Even at the store, lots of us compare prices and try to get the best deals. We just don't grab stuff and throw it in the cart, but look over brands and prices and save money. Why go to all the trouble of weighing other things to save time and money, then blow it by inviting a thief into our life?

So, before we go looking at Porn again, we need to consider if the price paid, is worth what we are getting in return. We consider the cost in lots of things, why not consider what we get, and what it will cost with everything we do in life?
 
Thanks brothers, for your encouragement and prayer.

Another thing I need to do is overcome my addiction to caffeine. These two addictions seem to work together against me. Most people can handle caffeine OK, but I'm so addicted I can't even taper off. But with God's help I will try!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
 
4givn said:
In spite of a good sleep, a strong onslaught of temptation (because I'm the one who stirred it all up again, so no surprise).
Thanks be to God, good choice made. By God's grace, this will be a good day!
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4givn,
Good morning. I don't know how long you've been saved but clearly, there is one lesson you have not grasped and made your own, yet. That lesson is demonstrated over and over in principal in the scriptures but is clearly enumerated in 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Your escape is right there, at your finger tips, so as to speak, waiting for you to wrap your mind around it and escape. This, truly is an issue common to "man." This is, perhaps, the single, most, undisclosed subject among the men and the women in the Church but anytime two Christians, of like sex, get close to one another the subject will, eventually, surface.

As I mentioned, my exposure occurred, well, before my tenth birthday when my mother and birth father had split the sheets and my sister, 2 years younger than I heard our mom groan and we went to check. I'll just say neither her nor that man could have ever seen either one of us but we got an eyeful of pure porn.

That began my addiction and I made no effort to kill it until I was 44 years old. No, I nurtured it like a child, a secret child, of my very own. I had to, as a baby Christian, at 45, learn how to grasp this lesson and to run with it.

The first technique I learned to employ is to watch the in-built Graphic Display that resides on the underside of our eyelids. Now, does that not sound like a thing you would hear from a whiskey guzzling, pot smoking, pill popping, needle pushing Rock, Blues and Country Musician? It's there though and I have spoken with others that have confirmed that when their eyes are closed, and if they pay attention, there is a constantly active, changing Graphic Display just inside the eyelids.

I learned to use or invoke, I know not which, this escape by training myself to see it. If you will rest your body, in a recliner or on the bed in a well lighted room, close your eyes, not to the point of straining, just closed, and then, intently look, with them closed, and you will see this display in dark, almost black, to vivid red, waiting there to take your mind into complete rest.

The second technique is used by myself when Satan's Evil Minion refuses to leave me alone, no matter how hard I try. With my eyes, still, closed I surrender and let God, the Father, wrap His arms around me and I begin to hum one of the Great Hymns. My first choice was and oft still is Amazing Grace. Silently I sing the words to myself and being a creative freak, when I DON'T the next line I sing lines such as "I love my LORD with a love that will never die.

When I begin praising God, I will fall asleep in His arms, just like a baby. Please, brother, try one or both of these and perhaps others can give you better advise than I have done here, we'll see.
 
th1b.taylor said:
4givn,


The second technique is used by myself when Satan's Evil Minion refuses to leave me alone, no matter how hard I try. With my eyes, still, closed I surrender and let God, the Father, wrap His arms around me and I begin to hum one of the Great Hymns. My first choice was and oft still is Amazing Grace. Silently I sing the words to myself and being a creative freak, when I DON'T the next line I sing lines such as "I love my LORD with a love that will never die.

When I begin praising God, I will fall asleep in His arms, just like a baby. Please, brother, try one or both of these and perhaps others can give you better advise than I have done here, we'll see.
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This is important. When "that feeling" comes over me, it's like I'm powerless. Of course, all that is Satan's lie.

Today (again) is Day 1. With help from Covenant Eyes, the gateway is now largely closed. It can never be perfectly closed, because there's always TV, plus things that get through filters, but much of its drawing power is disabled.

That alone will not be enough. For me especially, much more than the "normal" person, I need strong doses of the Word of God to reprogram my mind.
 
I installed the k9 web filter with strict settings, and spent a whole day pretty much tweaking the settings so that it doesn't block out harmless things that I browse. Just in case there's something I need to get past, like for example yesterday the filter was blocking imgur so I couldn't even hardly use Reddit, my buddy has a text doc with my random password. I have no idea what it is, I set it and forget it, and that way I'm not my own accountability. If I could be my own accountability I wouldn't have this problem! Today is day 15 for me. I don't even try to access anything filthy because I know I can't get around the web filter. My buddy works a lot, so even if I was in the moment and tried to lie to him about why I needed the password, it'd take awhile for him to get back to me. That gives me the opportunity to get my head right.

Something else I want to say. It isn't enough to simply abstain from sin. We need to build up our spirit man. Consider this: spending such a concentrated amount of time and what we DON'T WANT is still spending an awful lot of time thinking about ourselves, isn't it? We need to be praying, fasting, praising and engaging in the word. We won't make it otherwise. This is warfare, and the weapons of our warfare aren't carnal weapons. Let us lie down in bed at night with blood on our swords and praise on our lips!
 
Be ye not conformed unto the ways of this world, but be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Easier said than done. I think sexual sins are particularly difficult because sex is a big part of the human experience and a big part of a person's identity. For me, when I think about porn, I think...well, who am I looking at? I try to think of how I'm basically using these (probably miserable) porn people without any regard for who they really are. Basically, just like a meaningless hook up, its using people as a means to an end, not regarding them as a full human being, an end in and of themselves.

Porn has terrible ill effects on everybody involved, and increasingly society as a whole as the world gets porn-ified in how we view sex, relationships, and what's "hot" and what's not. If you read about porn stars, they have terrible lives, and a lot of them don't even end up with that much $$$. Its all about exploitation at every level, at every step in the process.

So...yeah...I don't know if that's the most Biblical answer, but that's how I've been able to reduce my porn intake.

I wish you well in your ongoing struggles.
 
Christ_empowered said:
Be ye not conformed unto the ways of this world, but be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Easier said than done. I think sexual sins are particularly difficult because sex is a big part of the human experience and a big part of a person's identity. For me, when I think about porn, I think...well, who am I looking at? I try to think of how I'm basically using these (probably miserable) porn people without any regard for who they really are. Basically, just like a meaningless hook up, its using people as a means to an end, not regarding them as a full human being, an end in and of themselves.

Porn has terrible ill effects on everybody involved, and increasingly society as a whole as the world gets porn-ified in how we view sex, relationships, and what's "hot" and what's not. If you read about porn stars, they have terrible lives, and a lot of them don't even end up with that much $$$. Its all about exploitation at every level, at every step in the process.

So...yeah...I don't know if that's the most Biblical answer, but that's how I've been able to reduce my porn intake.

I wish you well in your ongoing struggles.
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Yes I agree, people tend to disregard that they are humans.
 
Blake said:
Something else I want to say. It isn't enough to simply abstain from sin. We need to build up our spirit man. Consider this: spending such a concentrated amount of time and what we DON'T WANT is still spending an awful lot of time thinking about ourselves, isn't it? We need to be praying, fasting, praising and engaging in the word. We won't make it otherwise. This is warfare, and the weapons of our warfare aren't carnal weapons. Let us lie down in bed at night with blood on our swords and praise on our lips!
Click to expand...

It seems that the movie WAR ROOM is surprising a lot of people in its popularity. I hope we can see it soon, but I do know this, as Blake says above, "This is warfare...." I must learn to do battle on my knees, both for myself, my family, and others.

"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV)
 
4givn said:
It seems that the movie WAR ROOM is surprising a lot of people in its popularity. I hope we can see it soon, but I do know this, as Blake says above, "This is warfare...." I must learn to do battle on my knees, both for myself, my family, and others.

"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV)
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I have a friend who was addicted to porno, and he is 1,174 days free. I asked him what has gotten him through. He said, after I started truly getting sick of my sin, every time a temptation would come, he wouldn't argue with it in his mind... he would immediately hit his knees on the floor and pray to God until the temptation was gone. He knows something about warfare!
 
Blake said:
I have a friend who was addicted to porno, and he is 1,174 days free. I asked him what has gotten him through. He said, after I started truly getting sick of my sin, every time a temptation would come, he wouldn't argue with it in his mind... he would immediately hit his knees on the floor and pray to God until the temptation was gone. He knows something about warfare!
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Your friend has the right mindset and the rewards are beginning to show.
1, 174 days pornography free! This is something to thank God for; its clear that prayer is working (a firm lesson for those who disregard the power of prayer).
Blake, please give your friend my best - I will pray for continued success. :pray
 
4givn said:
It seems that the movie WAR ROOM is surprising a lot of people in its popularity. I hope we can see it soon, but I do know this, as Blake says above, "This is warfare...." I must learn to do battle on my knees, both for myself, my family, and others.

"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV)
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If you can own that scripture you can be made victorious... by Jesus.
 
Blake said:
I have a friend who was addicted to porno, and he is 1,174 days free. I asked him what has gotten him through. He said, after I started truly getting sick of my sin, every time a temptation would come, he wouldn't argue with it in his mind... he would immediately hit his knees on the floor and pray to God until the temptation was gone. He knows something about warfare!
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AMEN!!!
 
HI, I know this is an old post, but I am struggling with the same issue. Ever since the internet became widespread I have been addicted to online pornography. Sadly since becoming a christian 15 years ago- I still have the problem. Although now it is a true struggle rather than something I accept as normal.

I battle constantly with the problem- I normally get tempted in my dreams, which makes me think of looking at pornographic pictures- if that day i finally give in to temptation, the session may only last 15 minutes or an hour (it used to last many hours) until I force myself to stop. However, once done, I will suffer from sickening guilt, shame and chronic insomnia for the next few days/weeks. So it is really ruining my life. I only need to briefly look at porn and it messes up my life. I've prayed for deliverance but as of yet, i dont see much breakthrough. The trouble is too I'm in a foreign country and I dont have a church with a support group and am not close enough to anyone to confide in.

I'd really appreciate some support from this forum and any pointers on how I may really finally break these chains

Blesssings
Lazza
 
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