Born-again Christian, Recovering Porn Addict

Hi Dave, I'm a recent convert to Christianity. Wouldn't say I became born-again recently as I was baptised as a child but slipped away from the faith in my teens. I'm also now abstinent until marriage and since becoming Christian I find myself very active in the church - more so than many life long Christians. I met a lovely girl in the church just over a year ago and am now planning to marry her next year. Things are really looking up for my life - even though the nofap side of things has not been overly successful so far. Never made it to 90 days. Anyway...in reply to your post... we all eventually seek God...but he finds us just at the moment we begin to look! God bless

 

Hey thanks! Yeh, I'll check it out. I also know of a few good sermons...the RC church is quite vocal om the subject of sex and the family. I'll look them out and put them in a post when I get a moment. Guys like Dr. Kreeft get pretty into the theology of this stuff.

Well actually...I'm not quite engaged! My girlfriend just left town to go back to university 130 miles away - so that kind of messed up my plans haha. But it will happen as soon as she comes back!

Keep up the good work!!!

 

Thanks for posting Dave. I'm new to this website and forum, but decided to do more than just meet with the weekly church men's group. I also started early, about 9 or ten years old when I discovered my Dad's playboys under the bed. I was clean for 3 months a few years ago, but relapsed after a lot of stress at home. It's been a week now, and trying to stay committed to total abstinence for the unforseeable future!
I became a Christian believer 16 years ago, when I was thirty years old, and there was no support for porn addiction in the church, and I went through terrible phases of guilt and shame, and doubted my salvation. Since then, I've discovered that most men, Christian and non-Christian struggle with this to some degree.
It's a strong drive, and we have to deal with it somehow. I've discovered that total abstinence is the only thing that works for me, and I'm married!
But I believe the energy we get from the sex drive can be harnessed for good. The apostle Paul is the perfect example of this. I encourage you as a young believer to stick with it, a lot of it is discipline, scripture memorization and meditating on righteous things, day and night. Do a lot of physical exercise, run, lift weights etc. as a substitute as well!
We need more "real men" in the Lord's army, Christian soldiers fighting the devil and his allies!!!

 

I know the feeling as all of my friends are married. I sometimes feel like I've got left behind. But still I say it's better to be single than to be in a miserable marriage.

I have respect for Andy Stanley, I thought it was pretty cool of him to appear on the Life After God podcast (not sure if I should admit to listen to that podcast here but I do). He seems to be a rational guy which I like to see.

 

Thank you all for what you just shared. I believe that transformation in this area takes time and effort, and it is not going to be easy, but it will be worth it. I used to struggle with addiction to pornography and masturbation when I was 21 years old, but thankfully I was able to beat by God's grace alone. Right now, I'm 29 years old, and I'm relapsing into that old habit, which is really disappointing, but I believe that this is not God's plan for me. I certainly don't want to stay in this stage for the rest of my life. I want to be in a relationship someday and get married, and I want to be clean before any of that can happen. Given that our world is so filled and bombards us with sexual images and suggestions, we as Christian need to be extra careful about what and whom we expose ourselves to. We can't continue to accept everything without measuring it against God's holy standards. If it doesn't measure up to His standards, then it's not good for us. I don't want to just do things that make me feel good for a short time but have long-term consequences. I want to be obedient to what God is saying and I want to change. This is definitely one of the biggest struggles that men have, but I believe it's beatable. I don't know to what degree women struggle with this (I am sure they struggle with it). I know that this is just a big struggle to overcome, but again with God's grace we can all do it. Please say a few prayers for me as well as I seek people in my life who will guide me to leave this addiction and follow God for the rest of my life. Thank you!