October 10
“The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.” (Ecclesiastes 12:11)
We will finish up today with some additional suggested “sayings,” or “truisms,” blunt reminders of what really is going on and what really is at stake when we are tempted by immorality, lust, and pornography. The ultimate goal is to
- “Bodies and body parts smell bad and are colonized by microorganisms and pathogens. Disease abounds in immoral relationships.”
- “The pleasure doesn’t last very long. And it is often painful.”
- “Isn’t it amazing that we can be so intensely attracted one minute to that which turns into regret, disappointment, shame, and even despair the next?”
- “I become extremely vulnerable to all kinds of attacks when I sin in immoral ways.”
- “Imagine eating spoiled, rotten, stinking, molding, maggot infested food. Immorality of any kind is worse than that.”
- “Imagine the old style latrines, full of poop, urine and flies, with unbearable stench. Now imagine jumping into it and living in it. So is the person who subjects him or herself to immorality and pornography.”
- “God will become my enemy and fight against me. That which is most precious to me will be taken away.”
- “I choose fellowship over feelings, discovery over discouragement, excitement over enslavement, victory over vulnerability.”
- “I will buffet my body and make it my slave. I will not be disqualified.”
- “These illusions of excitement and fun are deceitful. They are not reality. Pain, suffering, discord, broken relationships, destruction, loss, loneliness, death, and eternal punishment, these are all the realities that come from these illusive lusts.”
- “Am I going to be part of the problem or part of the solution? I choose to be part of God’s solution!”
- “I will no longer grieve and quench my Best Friend, the only One who truly knows me intimately and loves me in spite of my unrighteous acts.”
You can come up with a similar list of statements, truism, and exhortations that help you see immoral sins as they really are and strengthen your heart to resist them. Create your list of thoughts and again, like we have been doing, put them in a table or some other format that you can print out and refer to regularly. Ultimately, we will be creating reminders and putting them in an easy reference form so we can keep remind ourselves over and over again of the perils of immoral behaviors.