by Trisha Bleau Smith
Do you struggle with looking at pornography? Do you want to stop looking at impure things and return your focus back to God?
Sadly, there are many in our world who have fallen into the trap that worldly smut can enslave us in. It used to be that only those who’s family or friends had magazines or videos would fall into this sin, but now with the increasing ease of the Internet pornography has become so much more available to all ages. Youth, some as young as 12 or 13 have found ways to browse through inappropriate sites, indulging their senses and stimulating their eros.
If you find you have fallen into this and want to end the cycle you can do so now. Here are a few suggestions to help you overcome.
Accountability. Find someone in your community that you trust and that won’t judge you. It could be someone from church, from school, your family, from work. Anyone that you can trust talking to about this. Ask them to meet with you IN PERSON a few times a week to pray with you and ask you how you are doing. You may also want to set up something online, perhaps in our accountability program, where you can talk to someone else a few times a week and have them pray for you.
Prayer. This is the first and foremost important part of it all. Pray when you wake up that your mind would be kept pure and focused on Christ. Pray before you sit down at a computer that you would be able to overcome and only look at good things. Pray throughout the day that you would overcome this sin and struggle. Pray for God to guide you to what HE wants you to see. Pray about everything. Pray as much as possible. Ask others to be praying for you as well.
Scripture. Get your Bible out or borrow a Bible from a friend, from your parents, from your church, check one out at the library. Look in the concordance. Look up purity and anything you can think of relating to it. Write down the Scriptures, including the actual verses. Memorize these. Look up verses on having the Mind of Christ. On Grieving the Spirit. On taking thoughts captive. Etc. Write down anything and everything you can find to help you focus on Him and not submitting to temptation.
Notes to self. Post your Scriptures on your monitor. Paste notes on the walls. Remind yourself constantly that you are a child of God and not to look at smut. Keep these notes everywhere, whether they are just scripture, or notes you have written to yourself, or poems of inspiration, prayers from others. Anything to remind you not to look.
Filters. Set up a filter on your computer. There are settings within windows that you can use. Or you can purchase things to help you out. Here is a HUGE list of places to find sources for setting this up on your computer.
Set limits. Why are you on the computer? How much time will you spend? Most people fall into temptation when they get bored or finish up what they are doing. Is that what is happening in your case? Set the limits for yourself – I am ONLY going to get my homework done. I am ONLY going to check my email. Etc. This will eliminate a lot of that time you spend randomly looking online. And if you DO want to randomly search make sure you limit what you are surfing for. ONLY allow yourself to go to Christian sites. Or something safe.
Surround yourself with Christian influence. Make sure you are not hanging out with people who are also into pornography or impure things. You need Jesus to be your focus in life, in thought, and in action. If you do have friends who talk of impure things try to change the subject and go back to pure things. Tell them that you would be more comfortable talking of more pure topics because you are struggling in that area. Or just tell them you don’t care to discuss the subject period. You can share what you want with them, but make sure you keep your life, talk, thoughts, focus, etc. on Christ.
Try those out and see if that helps you in overcoming. Let us know what we can do to help you overcome. It all begins in your mind though. You need to make the decision to bring about change in your life. You have to WANT to change. You have to be the one to force your mind onto pure thoughts and to abstain from impure temptations.
There are always more things you can do. Be creative. Get involved in online ministry perhaps so that you can keep God the focus. Join a Bible study list and ask questions. Get answers to various things. Check out the message boards on Teens4Jesus and see what is going on there. Answering other people’s questions drives you deep into your Bible and asking your own questions and checking back for answers not only teaches you and keeps you focused on God, but also helps you build friendships with Christians.
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