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Discover the harmful effects of pornography and how it impacts intimacy, brain function, and sex. Learn how to find freedom from sexual immorality through sanctification and self-control. Explore the deeper needs behind lust and how to address them in healthy ways. Take your struggles to Jesus instead of wishing them away and embrace love as the antidote to shame.
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But God is against lust “God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.” 1 Thess. 4:3
Porn harms the vulnerable • Porn disrupts intimacy • Porn reshapes your brain • Porn destroys sex
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6
Abstain (v.3) Col. 3:5 - Put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Romans 13:14 Make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
As beings made in the image of God, we are meant to be in healthy relationships with God and other people. If those relational needs are not met by our family, friends, and God, then a relational counterfeit will step in and take its place. These counterfeits include: drugs, alcohol, sex, eating disorders, overworking, success, materialism and, of course, pornography. If we are raising a generation of people whose common denominator is really loneliness and relational disconnection, their relational hole must be filled with something and pornography is arguably the most powerful and accessible counterfeit.
Pornography says, “Give me all your shame, humiliation, and futility and I will give you a world where it all goes away.”
Some of the attraction for pornography is that it claims to meet our deeper needs for acceptance, while avoiding the potential of being hurt. Porn offers sex without risk and vulnerability. Porn puts the user in control, which is intensely alluring, especially when real-world relationships can be painful and unpredictable. Pornography offers a “surrogate experience” of care.
Sexual fantasies are messengers. You may not like the news they bring, but they will knock on the door of your life until you listen to what they need to tell you. . . . When we find ourselves depressed, angry, bored, or lonely, we will often seek out a particular type of pornography apropos to our situation. If we want to outgrow our need for pornography, we need to gain a sense of what it symbolizes for us.
The irony of sexual fantasy is that it will be the most honest portion of your life until you begin to address your past wounds and the madness of your present life.
C) Take your struggles to Jesus vs. wishing they would go away
One thing that always surprises me about God is that He asks questions to those in distress. To Adam, God asks, “Where are you?” To Cain, God asks, “Why are you so angry, and why has your face fallen?” To Hagar, the angel of the Lord inquires, “Where do you come from and where are you going?”
If sexual struggles are not grounds for judgment, they become the very geography where we come to know the kindness of God.
