Falling Before a Fall

Yesterday I attended my daughter's high school volleyball tournament. At this event maybe half of the men there certainly were staring incessantly at certain high school females. Some of those men were just consistently looking, not straying into full sinful thoughts. So the question is, why do they keep falling later?

Second, we are watching TV and some female is wearing shorts. Some men's eyes stray about 99 times to those legs while attempting to watch the show. I could write about this same exact behavior at the beach and at 100 different places.

I will list four reasons why staring is a problem. #1 it is the opposite of praying without ceasing. #2 it is the exact opposite of worshipping God. #3 it is the exact opposite of praising God. BJU noted: “We are commanded to praise the Lord thirteen times in these six verses. Praising God is not an option; it is an obligation. It is both our delight and our duty. The greatest truth about God is that He is worthy of our praise, and the deepest truth about ourselves is that we have been created to praise Him.” Praising the Lord is a great tool to use for fighting lustful thoughts. #4 If one keeps staring at a female's body parts they will flunk the upcoming test.

The upcoming test is... that female you see that may cause you to fall into lust. Or, that star on TV that is about to show way too much. If you kept staring all week at just about everything... how in the world do you think you can now turn it off or fast forward? In that case, one has already fallen before they fell.

Instead of staring incessantly, we can choose to be working on increasing how much we pray without ceasing, praising, and worshiping. Before you are in your next tempting session, prepare. Take one of these three things, do a Google search, and make a printout of what you are going to do instead of staring.

For example: Increasing in love is a great Christian thing to do. To prepare to break the habit of staring one might print out:

1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV Let all that you do be done in love.

1 John 4:8 ESV Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Peter 4:8 ESV Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Now, when you find yourself tempted to stare yet again, read a verse. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Next, consider doing a Google search and making printouts of the traits from paragraph three. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Job 31:1 ESV “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?”

Job never says “gaze with lust” he just says he made a covenant not to stare. If we make a “Covenant with our eyes,” and keep it, we will rarely “Fall before we fall.”

 

Yesterday I gave 6 ideas (with 3 verses on love) of things to do instead of staring. Why? Because I need to improve as a Christian so that I can help others. I need to be more filled with Jesus' love. Today I am thinking more about working on improving in love than I am obsessed with lust. That's good.

What we are starting to do is just as important as the things we need to stop doing. Plus it is easier to stop the bad things when we are busy doing good things.

Second, what is the result of men staring incessantly at women? Are they increasing their pleasure? They got to stare, I didn't. They had pleasure from staring, I didn't.

But we have to finish the math problem. Falling (brought on by incessant staring) will bring them destruction. They got to experience destruction, I didn't.

When I was at the volleyball tournament I was determined to stay on the straight and narrow. Determined to keep my purpose, and praise and worship God as best as I could. I was 100% content at the event and I have been content with life all week. I had joy at the tournament (even though my team went 2 wins vs 7 losses) and my joy has been with me all week.

Last, when we work on spiritual things to help us stop bad habits we start to experience a bit of an increase in joy. Quite frankly, many people need to find that bit of joy today so that they can experience an increase in God's light in their lives. Once you start to experience that, you can then focus on increasing that light just as much as you focus on stopping.

What starts you down that slippery path? Take yesterday's 6 ideas and choose some to take to war with that trigger. That is a good way to get in full fight mode before that trigger overwhelms you.

 

Joyce Meyer wrote: “In Luke 4 when Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He answered every trial with the Word of God. He repeatedly said, "It is written," and quoted Scriptures that met the lies and deceptions of the devil head-on. We have a tendency to "try" this for a while, and then when we do not see quick results we stop speaking the Word to our problems and begin once again speaking our feelings, which is probably what got us into trouble, to begin with.”

Do you know exactly which scriptures you will quote when temptation starts to overwhelm you?

Today, consider printing out or writing out your top 4 or 5 verses about lust that you will quote to satan to shut him up.

Do you know how powerful satan is? Try to fight back without scripture, and you will be reminded again for the millionth time.

Second, print out 5 prayers to use often to prepare for temptation. A person who is determined to always fight with prayer is a person who will someday always be prepared.

Third, recently Tao Jones quoted “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For people at NoFap I would add, Be ye not readers of the threads only, but consider printing out key ideas and studying them until you wear the paper out, or until you start doing them.

Finally, Joyce finished with the following: “A stonecutter may strike a rock ninety-nine times with a hammer, and there may be no evidence at all that the rock is cracking. Then on the one-hundredth time, it may split in half. Each blow was weakening the stone even though there were no signs to indicate it. Persistence is a vital link to victory. We must know what we believe and be determined to stick with it until we see results.”

 

Yesterday satan fooled me again. He knows that I plan to never cross the line by looking at things that will cause a fall. So instead he gets me to make a bigger line. To turn the line into a giant thick rope. Still haven't crossed the line yet.
If Jesus were watching me watch that I would have been beet red. But I still haven't... wait - was He watching?
Satan just got Eve to slide her standards a bit to the left (in her mind). He will try the same stunt with every one of us.
Second, I worked endlessly to form the habit of turning from lust. But when you find yourself turning from lust every single minute... you may have the wrong show on.
Third, go to war against the habit of searching for the wrong things on YouTube or at a million other places. Consider praying about specific things you have searched for or clicked on:
"Father, show me how to break this habit of _______."

Jesus said to repent. Today I am repenting. I am raising my standards.

Yesterday I thought I was doing what I needed to do to further find my purpose. I prayed and prayed about purpose and then shut God right out when I put on YouTube.

Today I watched YouTube with an awareness of Who was also watching.

Yesterday's sloppy standards kept me from making progress on finding purpose. Today, I am determined to get the sin out and make some progress.

 

Someone noted envy as causing them to fall.

James 3:16 ESV
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice."
It almost says it leads back to P. Consider praying:
"Father, help me to believe that You will supply all my needs. Help me to care about others more than myself."
"Father, help me to remember that jealousy and selfish ambition lead to vile things and P.

Proverbs 14:30 ESV
A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot."
Pray to be content so that your bones stay healthy.

James 3:14-15 ESV
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic."
Demonic, wow... gotta shut these things out. Consider memorizing these verses plus a few others if envy or selfish ambition plagues you. Pound that darkness out.

 

The Bible says to pray without ceasing. Today, consider whether that is something you would like to start doing. The first benefit of this is you begin to focus your mind on something good. Which starts to keep one from constant bad thoughts. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to turn from lust and teach me how to help others.”

Today I realized that my lack of prayer was leading to negative thinking and critical thinking. That was my signal to pray: “Father, help me to care about people's souls,” a lot more. That then led me to pray: “Father, fill me with Your strength,” because today is very busy... how can I find the strength to help the last few groups that I write for when I have time? That then led to my reading my printout of verses about strength.

When you try to pray without ceasing, you are not trying to find sophisticated words that can be written down for eternity. Instead, you are stating your availability to walk and talk with God like Adam and Eve did in the garden. Obviously, it is unlikely to be a running verbal conversation. Instead, as I restate my interest in being available to do His will, He may start to give me some direction.

Here are ideas for praying without ceasing:

Constantly praising God

Praying often to be filled with love.

Praying to get the lust and sin out.

Praying that the Lord will send out workers for the harvest.

Praying to be filled with joy.

Praying for wisdom.

Praying for humility

Praying for peace.

Praying for longsuffering, and toughness.

Praying for Gentleness.

Praying for Goodness.

Praying for meekness.

Finally, simply ask God to teach you how to pray. Then keep trying to pray.

It is hard to "Fall before a fall" when we pray without ceasing. The more we think about and do other things, the less time we have available for lust.

 

Yesterday I decided to take a break from my fav TV show. It is an old show and it is usually pretty clean (no nudity) but, lately they have been showing too much (For someone with my background). A month ago I would have hit the forward fast on their sort of risky scenes, but right not I am working way more than normal. When I am tired, temptation increases.

Satan wants me to believe that I have to watch certain shows, or have to look at certain high-risk things. But, he is lying. I want to keep my joy. Last night I watched the whole football game. I wanted to watch something better, but I decided to try to stick it out because temptations are up. So I praised the Lord and watched football. I kept my joy, and now I have a better plan on how to handle today. Funny thing, I really enjoyed the game.

Second, consider starting to make it a habit to take the temperature on how close you are to falling before a fall. Example: A 16 year old boy says, “I looked and was tempted severely, but I fought it off.” What he means is... They started showing something wrong on TV, he stared at it for 5 seconds, then repented and shut it off.”

He is falling (fast) before a fall. He is proud he shook it off (and he should be), but his staring is going to buy him an avalanche of temptation. With that level of temptation, he needs to make drastic changes for a day or two, or it will likely end poorly.

Make it a habit to realize how much heat is on you. If it is high, panic, repent, and study extra on how to change.