August 18
“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry, for it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come.” (Colossians 3:5-6)
Immoral Sins of the Mind: decisions to view pornography, choices to expose one’s mind to evil thoughts and images, being proud and thinking one can expose oneself to immorality in media or even in the flesh and remain unaffected by it, and similar sins of the mind are the areas we will spend the most time on, because in my opinion, this is where the battle is won or lost. The body and the heart I believe will follow what our minds decide and what our minds fixate on. Controlling our minds and wills are the keys to victory over pornography and immoral fantasies.
Getting a grip on our minds and winning the battle that is raging for our minds is absolutely critical. We will discuss key transformations of the mind that every Christian struggling with pornography must make. We will briefly review how some of life’s minefields such as loneliness, failure, grief, discouragement, and depression and how to buttress ourselves so we are not caught off guard by temptations of immorality when we enter those valleys. We will look at Bible verses that are very helpful to remember and memorize along with other truths that can make the difference between success and failure. And we will examine strategies that we can employ that will help us continually win the battle for the mind.
Immoral Sins of the Heart: We will conclude with some suggestions on what to do to facilitate the transformation of our hearts. As I indicated earlier, our hearts long and yearn for things, even immoral things if that is what they have been exposed to, and can generate at times very strong thoughts, desires, and lusts for immoral relationships. Those who have struggled with these kinds of things may think that they will never be able to be free from these types of thoughts, as it seems like they sometimes come out of nowhere and can be overwhelming at times. We will discuss this and suggest some proven ways we can experience a transformation of the heart and see these lusts greatly diminish.
I have the view that our hearts respond to and reflect back the input they are exposed to most often. Although our sin nature will never be fully eradicated or transformed, I do believe it is possible, as we diligently nurture our hearts with pure food, with scripture and truth, and keep away from it immoral and impure images and ideas, the desires of our hearts will become more and more toward God and holiness and less and less toward evil. It is possible, in Christ, to go from being people who crave evil and immoral things to people who crave for God’s holiness and righteousness. It is possible, but it will be a lot of work and will take diligence over a long period of time.
Some of you are really struggling in these areas. Some of you have become enslaved to evil, immoral lusts, and you are not sure if you will ever be free from them. Be encouraged. It is possible to see a change of heart from one of lust into one of love. It is possible to experience a change of mind from a disobedient, sin-choosing mind to a mind that follows and obeys the Spirit’s voice. No matter how much you have tried and failed to overcome these sins, don’t be discouraged, and don’t quit. The only way you can guarantee to never overcome these sins is to quit trying. And for the Christian, that is not an option. Are you ready to take this journey with me? May the Lord bless and guide us as we seek to experience His freedom from immorality in our bodies, minds, and hearts!