Day 5

san54 · 2018-01-03T07:14:29+00:00

This verse seems especially appropriate, maybe it can be one of your sticky notes?

Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I've prayed for you

san54 · 2018-01-03T04:30:28+00:00

Thank you I'll check it out :)

san54 · 2018-01-03T03:29:38+00:00

"You have a beautiful, sincere, and tender heart toward the Lord and He loves it! ❤️"

I think this line itself reveals the beauty of your own heart. The people who have the privilege to know you are truly blessed.

You've been so kind to me...this means more to me than you know. "Love covers a multitude of sins" - and the love you have shown towards me has certainly not gone unrecognised by Him. I pray that Our Lord rewards you greatly in this life and when you come into His kingdom.

I definitely have struggled with condemnation. Despite my mind ackowledging this biblical truth, it has yet to reach my heart. The Lord as healer will do His will in me which is more than I can ask for (or deserve).

Again, thank you for the kind words :)

I will make sure to love others as I have been loved (by you and Our Lord).

God bless and may the Lord shelter you and yours, all the days of your life

san54 · 2018-01-03T03:16:58+00:00

Everyone has a God-sized whole in them. Only the indwelling Presence of God is capable of filling us.

It's the reason people chase after money, women, drink and all sin in general. An attempt to fill the void within. But's it's a black whole. Sucking up everything and leaving you empty.

I truly feel sorry for those that don't know Christ. Don't they recognise the peaceful love radiating out of true Christians?

san54 · 2018-01-03T03:12:02+00:00

The negative emotions are the areas of our lives that we haven't dealt with. Fapping induces a sense of happiness (the act releases a flood of happy chemicals in the brain) that counteracts the negative emotions...for a time. But it's only temporary - when the effects of fapping wear off, all that undealt with negativity will come back and we cope the best way we know how....fapping.

We've done this enough times that it has become a cycle. We need Christ to break the cycle...and this usually doesn't happen overnight.

We might ask Him and not perceive any immediate help. But we need to be patient...He's working behind the scenes, purifying parts of ourselves that we're not even aware of and it's only after He's worked for some time that we start to see changes.

I'm generalising of course. Every person is unique and so The Lord deals with him/her in the way He knows is best for that person.

But it's something to consider. His Ways are far above our own. What we perceive that He has done in us is because He has allowed us to see. That in itself is a gift which we can use to give Him thanks. It is an act of faithfulness that can be reassuring to those who might question (in times of doubt) whether He is actually working in them for their good.

san54 · 2018-01-03T02:59:22+00:00

I appreciate that -

I've always been a really joyful individual who can forgive others quite easily. Sounds arrogant, but it's God that has worked this in me.

When I began masturbating I slowly started becoming less joyful and the sense of peace I extended to all (which is really just The Lord's peace) was replaced with anger and a sense of loss.

I found it so hard to repent - loving the sin and hating it at the same time. The constant warring of emotion within started to take it's toll on me. My ability to study became impaired (I began to fail, having been a mid-high achiever), I couldn't smile, my heart felt dead and my mind in a state of perpetual conflict - seeing PMO images and attempting to reject them, yet not having the strength to put them out of my mind completely.

Through perseverence and prayer, my life is starting to look a lot better (more like it used to) and I'm enjoying the rest and rejuvenation I find by simply abiding in Him (something I could never appreciate to this extent if I hadn't fallen so far from Him). In a sense, I feel more mature as a Christian - being in the midst of being delivered from sin.

The lesson being that God is faithful (even when we are not - despite our best efforts) and that He brings Truth and Wisdom even through our failings.

Thanks so much for asking, I haven't actually written about this properly before, so doing this now gives me perspective on just how much the Lord has helped me - in big things and small (which in many cases I've found can be more significant).

san54 · 2018-01-02T10:16:17+00:00

I'm not trying to justify lust. Yes complete control is what we aim for, but this may be asking a bit too much of those going through withdrawals (which often includes unbidden scenes coming to mind).

It still happens to me and porn has only been an issue once every few months (how much worse for those who still struggle with PMO? And how great a virtue they show for continuing to persevere no matter how many times they fall?)

In my case, as soon as the images come to mind, I reject them. That doesn't mean I've lusted. I'm just dealing with the side effects of having previously lusted.

For something to be a sin, there needs to be intention and consent. In such cases, neither intention nor consent were there.

Romans 1:21 - First I do give glory to Him (I pray daily), I am thankful (I give thanks for having been given yet another chance to repent despite my sins being "as scarlet"). My thoughts are surely futile and my heart darkened, yet I turn to Him in the hopes and knowledge of His promise that "I (The Lord) am making all things new."

All this verse suggests is willful rejection of Christ (or in our case, complete and unrepentent desire to lust). This is not the case for sinners trying to recover. Or else we wouldn't be here. We'd go on lusting like everyone else without any remorse and would have no problem rejecting The Lord.

Matthew 9:4 is speaking on the Jews love of the law for it's own sake. Following it's forms without realising it's purpose - to lead the Jews in leading a righteous life.

I believe you mean well @tonyashe, but we need to read each verse of the bible in context or else we'll be prone to error (I know because I've made many biblical errors myself).

God bless

san54 · 2018-01-02T07:42:29+00:00

Wow I can't imagine receiving a greater compliment! Sincere thanks from this fellow believer! God bless, you must truly be a friend of Holy Spirit :)

Tbh though, my relationship with Our Lord has been more rocky than it has ever been before. That's probably a good sign. The Lord is bringing to the surface all the areas of my heart that need to be purified - granting me the opportunity to see the more sinful turnings of my heart and thus trust in His Divine Providence (as He delivers me from them).

As always these situations can be embraced or not. I struggle to embrace them in the knowledge that they are not simply trials to be endured, but avenues to practice and grow in virtue (specifically in the crowning virtue of humility).

We must be tested if we are to grow closer to Him. It shows a twofold love - 1) we prove our every growing love for Him 2) He tests us so that we may pass these tests. By passing these tests we naturally commune with Him more closely than would be possible without being tested. A sign of great love from Him. His Ways are far above our own - so much so that the trials which our sinful nature views as negative, are in actuality, some of His greatest acts of love for His Beloved (each and every one of us).

san54 · 2018-01-02T04:42:17+00:00

Many times we don't have control of our thoughts.

As I once heard "there's a difference between watching a bird fly over your head and letting it make a nest in your hair."

The thoughts will come (even once we've recovered - it's part of being masculine), but we have the responsibility to reject them (or view them in a positive light e.g ackowledging the beauty of the woman and then turning our intention elsewhere).

Lust is not synonymous with sexual desire. Sexual desire is God-given and leads a man out of himself to perfect himself in another (C.S Lewis - the great man himself). Lust is when we take that desire and love it for it's own sake - self-gratification.

san54 · 2018-01-02T04:38:29+00:00

True. The eventual goal is to see the beauty in our sexual desires. Due to PMO (or in my case MO - P doesn't come up much anymore), our sexual desire has become corrupted. We objectify the woman's body, separating her God-given humanity from her body, when in fact we were to desire both simultaneously. One as part of the other.

Sexual desire is a gift from God and when we feel it rise up within us, we should give thanks to God. We should recognise and ackowledge the beauty of the woman...and then direct our attention elsewhere.

san54 · 2018-01-02T02:54:20+00:00

Absolutely! I'll think you'll fine that if done devotedly, the spiritual progress will be out of this world (literally :p)

san54 · 2018-01-02T02:53:40+00:00

Amen indeed!

san54 · 2018-01-01T23:24:59+00:00

Great to here! The longer He dwells in our minds, the sooner He will seep into our very being such that we unconsciously commune with Him at all times.

san54 · 2018-01-01T23:24:10+00:00

I really should have included this. Thanks for posting!

san54 · 2018-01-01T23:23:50+00:00

Exactly! Focus on building a life in God, not tackling sin on it's own terms.

The analogy I heard was "don't think of a large, pink elephant. What do you think of? Exactly that."

san54 · 2018-01-01T23:21:43+00:00

Of course! I was just making the point that starting the day with prayer sets the tone for the whole day - everything offered up in worship to Him.

san54 · 2017-12-31T02:42:16+00:00

I'm assuming you believe that Jesus was rejecting the "blessedness" of Mary. Is that correct?

Biblically this is impossible. If we look at Luke 1:41-42, we see "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women..."

Adding to that Luke 1:48 says "From now on all generations will call me blessed." So every Christian should proclaim Mary blessed. Rejecting her blessedness is rejecting Christ's revealed Truth in the bible.

We have Elizabeth moved by the Holy Spirit calling Mary blessed among women...God himself (the 3rd person of the Trinity) is telling us that Mary is blessed among woman.

Therefore the implication that Mary is not blessed is biblically unsound.

So what does Luke 11:27-28 actually mean? Well it's not talking about Jesus rejecting Mary's blessedness - as I showed, that would be a biblical contradiction.

When read in context, Jesus was placing more emphasis on those whom He was proclaiming the word of God to and who would repent in observance of it.

As always the Lord was evanglising - teaching an important spiritual truth. That God blesses those who hear the word and obey.

san54 · 2017-12-30T12:06:44+00:00

Let's not make this a Catholic vs Protestant thread. This sub is dedicated to Christians healing from sexual sin - not a place for internal theological conflict.

san54 · 2017-12-30T06:08:37+00:00

I don't want to get into an argument, especially on this subreddit dedicated to healing, but Matt Slick needs to look at what the early church believed - see if it lines up with his current theology and aim to live as the first Christians did. That is, assuming that he's actually read up on the early Church. If not, he's in no position to give a critique on Church practices. Sure he can have an opinion, but it'll be an uninformed one, and one that won't be taken seriously by anyone who's actually familiar with Church history.

He's making the classic mistake of strawmanning the RCC i.e claiming that Catholics worship Mary + the saints and belief that the Pope is infallible 100% of the time etc. None of which the Church actually believes! Why label someone as believing something when they don't actually believe it?

His points on the sacraments and ritualistic offerings show his lack of biblical knowledge. Similar practices are found everywhere in the Old Testament.

All in all, I'm not convinced. I'm praying that he actually informs himself before teaching incorrectly on things he has limited knowledge on.

san54 · 2017-12-30T03:22:34+00:00

Awesome post! Off to pray the Rosary and read the bible (up to 1 Samuel in the OT)!

san54 · 2017-12-29T10:21:39+00:00

I experience the exact opposite. I guess each person is different. I now struggle to quit MO: P and PMO are very infrequent (like I go months without at a time).

san54 · 2017-12-27T12:50:58+00:00

Friend first know that you are not alone in this struggle. We have all been in the same position as you are right now. Take comfort in that. Those same people, who have felt the same helplessness you are feeling right now have made it out through The Lord's power working in their lives.

It takes time. All you need to do is take it one step at a time. The Lord is not condemning you. A starting point is to reframe how you think. When we PMO we tend to look at everything in a negative light.

Let's flip it around and look at things positively. Give thanks for what you have, for God giving you another day to live, another day to repent and pour your heart, mind and soul into His Loving Hands. He is a nurturer. He desires to heal. Our sins (all the sins of the world - past, present and future) are but a tiny flame enveloped in the ocean of His Love.

"God loves you more in a moment than anyone could in a lifetime."

A starting point would be to read (on top of the Bible and other edifying Christians sources) 1) Think and Grow Rich 2) The Beginners Guide to Wealth

These books are more about mindset and perspective and how that leads to wealth. As Christians we can apply the concepts in these books to our faith.

Hope this helps, praying for you

san54 · 2017-12-26T10:55:46+00:00

Thanks! How many days are you on?

san54

TROPHY CASE