Over a year ago, I was saved and God set me free from porn. It was as if it never existed, the chains in my brain where gone. But as I started to seek him less, replacing him with games and such, the chains came back and I fell. Now I am in a similar situation, where I have received help from God to abstain from porn. But I feel like the chains are coming back. My mind tries to tell me to PMO. So my question to you is: Firstly, can you relate to this? Have you noticed things you do, or not do, that turn away the helping hand of God? Any tips on how to get out of this? For if this continues, I think I will not be able to resist, based on experience. I think I have some ideas of what is causing this, but I would like your viewpoints.
We can all relate to this. Of course! If we don't stay vitally connected to Christ each day, we quickly fall. How do you connect with him in each and every day in ways that do not simply become empty rituals for you? Apart from him we can do nothing.
I have the habit of reading the bible everyday. I am however worse at praying. Prayer happens occasionally but often daily. I feel like my problem is wasting time on the internet too much. Looking for something I need to know, and then getting stuck. My struggle is to consistently seek him with my whole heart everyday, some days I think I seek him with half a heart. These weak days put me in the danger zone and I can't continue like this. I've been tempted all day, but praying and thinking of scripture has helped. So I struggle with being connected to him 24/7. One day where I sleep in, and skip morning prayer can have disastrous consequences. I need to fear him more, love him more, so that I will seek him, but I don't know how to do it consistently. You who have long streaks, how do you seek him every day? do you have days of weakness? what has allowed you to go so long? And how do you maintain the thirst for God?
Discover how to connect with God via your own unique sacred pathway. https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/2988a589/files/uploaded/sacred-pathways.pdf https://groupleaders.org/spiritual-pathways-assessment As for the answers to your other questions, it's all in my journal. Start with the posts linked in my signature and go from there. Happy to discuss with you further once you've perused the resources already available.
The test you linked resulted in me being the intellectual type, which makes sense. This is kind of what has formed my time with God, consisting mostly of reading scripture and making observations. However, those observations tell me to live a certain way. In particular, I need to stop wasting time on the Internet and pray more. Even though we all worship God a bit differently, we all should pray and practice the bible. I looked into your journal, and my takeaways are: -Don't trust yourself, rather trust Christ -Have mental practices based on scripture to control your thoughts (I like this freedom process, will internalize it more) -Whatever you need to give up to pursue God, give it up. (saw you gave up a job, and mindless internet surfing) -No toleration for sexual thoughts -Have APs Honestly, I struggle with all of these takeaways to some degree, the first one is clear as day though. One problem is that I have no APs, I have told no-one about this addiction, although, my brother has probably figured it out. I tend to think that if I can get a long enough streak maybe I'll have enough courage to open up. I do however find this forum helpful. Having a day counter helps with accountability, since you can see when I relapse. I, like you did, need to give up mindless internet surfing, if I can't control that, how can I expect to control PMO?
Sounds like you have some clear next steps to take. I am praying for you and cheering you on as you do so. Keep checking in. If I can serve you as an AP, it would be a privilege. Just let me know.
Sounds like you know the answer to your questions and I must agree with you. It is only by God's inspirational grace that one can be free of this addiction. Our willpower alone, will simply not endure. After hundreds of failed attempts to break free, I analyzed the common factors that led me to falter. In every case, bar none, I became complacent about my commitment to daily, heartfelt, fervent prayer. This led me to relax my determination not to allow my eyes to linger over tempting images or persons at which point I was nearly helpless. Now, it absolutely frightens me if and when I realize I am becoming complacent about prayer. Indeed, I crave it, my heart needs it like a thirsty man needs water. There are times when my heart feels dry, I am weary and less open to pray. In those instances, I begin with the Our Father and a Hail Mary. I then move on to compose a prayer from my heart using the A.C.T.S method - Adoration/Contrition/Thanks/Supplication. I find that if I go immediately to supplication, I don't feel as strong a connection to the Lord, so the order is important. Sometimes we do have to jump start our prayers in a way that feels forced but it is my experience that this feeling quickly fades and God's love comes to my hardened heart. I am praying for you, please pray for me.
