August 27
Overcoming Immorality, Pornography, and Lust – Part XIX – Critical Transformations – Hating evil as God sees it (continued)
“Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things; from those who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; who delight in doing evil; Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways; to deliver you from the strange woman, from the adulteress who flatters with her words…and her tracks lead to the dead; None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.” (Proverbs 2:11-19)
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way, And the perverted mouth I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13)
I am struck by how poignant is the description of the perverse and immoral way described in Proverbs above! I believe these warnings are appropriate for any who would commit immorality and to a large extent to those who immerse themselves in pornography. They “delight in doing evil,” they “speak perverse things,” and they are ensnared mentally and spiritually by “the strange woman,” “the adulteress,” whose tracks “lead to the dead.” So are the ways of those who love immorality and pornography.
Yesterday we started the topic of the critical transformation we need to make of hating evil as God hates it. Here is an assignment related to developing a hatred for evil:
ASSIGNMENT: If you want to overcome immorality, you must develop a hatred of this evil. To see a transformation in you, one of love for immorality to hatred for these evil things, do the following:
(1) Pray urgently every day that God would transform your heart to hate all evil, especially immoral thoughts and behaviors. Ask Him to give you a hatred for this sin as He hates it, and a love of holiness and righteousness to replace it. (2) Diligently study the Word of God everyday. Dig in. Apply your mind to its truths. You cannot be casual about this, and you must be diligent. God’s word and His truth must displace and replace the evil thoughts and ideas. These sins are tenacious enough that very active and continual input of scripture is required to displace them, I believe. Just trying to stop immoral thoughts and behaviors is not enough; you have to replace them with Truth. (3) Cease all immoral inputs. Stop viewing immoral movies and pictures. Stop associating with immoral persons. Stop allowing any immoral thoughts or ideas into your mind. This three pronged strategy starves sin, displaces error with truth, and calls on the power of God to transform our hearts to hate sin and love purity of heart and mind. In addition, do anything else that the Holy Spirit indicates to you that you ought to be doing.
Tomorrow we will continue our review of critical transformations that we must make to overcome enslavement to immorality, pornography, and lust.