Why You Give in to Sexual Sin (John Piper)

As I reflect on this, John Piper is right. Long before NoFap was a thing, and long before I heard of Piper or people like MacArthur... basically when I was still a babe in Christ. I had no accountability partner. In fact, I was on my own as a new believer. And no other Christian talked to me about PMO.

So the fight was all on my own. And one way I overcame back then was the joy of the Lord. I didn’t understand it then, but now I do. Because no one came to me to hold me accountable. Nor did I ask anyone for it. No one told me to give up PMO. And I didn’t wait for anyone to call me out. I was proactive in my fight from day one as a Christian. I didn’t do it for health benefit. I did it because I didn’t want to offend God, and to draw closer to Him.

At the end of the day, it’s really worship and delighting in God. As a new believer, it was more about how do I know God more? How do I draw closer to Him? Yes, I was determined to fight MO, it was a struggled then, but at the same time, I was drawing closer to God through worship and fellowship with other believers. THEN mysteriously, God delivered me from MO, as my heart was filled with joy through worship and fellowship with others. Think of it as having a brand new computer to play with. The old one begins to lose its significant. Once you’re full of the Spirit, sexual sins doesn’t even enter the mind. This is how we know the Apostles/Disciples didn’t MO because they were full of the Spirit.

So yes, we should be determined to put off the old self, but at the same time, we must, as Paul says, PURSUE righteousness. Fleet youthful lust, but then also PURSUE all that is good and godly. It is not enough to fleet... it is also not enough to be determined to put the deed of the flesh to death.

We have to be filled with the Spirit, and this is not a one time event, but DAILY. If we don’t fill it with the Spirit, we will have no joy, and in a state of emptiness without the joy of God, we will seek to fill it with sexual sins. It is not good for a man or woman to be alone. And in the context of this discussion, it is not good to be empty. So fill it with God, through worship and fellowship with others, otherwise the flesh will want to fill it with sexual perversions.

Think of the stomach. Hunger makes us uncomfortable. I personally have a hard time going to bed on an empty stomach. We have a choice: Either eat healthy (fill the stomach with good) and stop the craving... OR fill it with junk that does not really satisfy and make us come back for more and in the end, ruin our health/body.