MY 10 TIPS FOR QUITTING

These are my top 10 tips. I hope they are helpful.

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   10. Fight the frustration that others cause. We can argue with others for hours or for seconds. We can be upset with others for hours or for seconds. We can pray consistently that God will help us decrease in anger, help us to stop arguing, and help us to focus on other things instead of being upset with others.
   
   Fight frustrations that we cause ourselves. Some of us choose to live our life in a way that causes us pain. Then when the pain blasts us, we fall. The key is to realize that we must stop making choices that cause us intense pain. Because otherwise, it is hard to quit.
   
   Key point: We are at our greatest temptation point when our frustration makes us feel like we are justified to fall. But these points are the crossroads to where we can find joy, power, and freedom when we pass the test.
   
   9. We need to be able to survive a bad day. No matter how hard we try to live right, bad days will happen. It is wise to pray to be tough, fight through it, and believe that tomorrow will be better. When bad days happen get into your activities list and get active. It really helps.
   
   8. Plan and prepare for war. Have a journal and fill it with tips and articles about how to quit. Every day, add a bit more. Every day, study the key tips for you. Every day, do what you need to do to renew your mind and habits.
   

7. Increase your faith. Read the Case for Christ (Strobel). This book gives a mountain of evidence that Christianity is real. Read the Bible (faith cometh by hearing the Word of God). Believe every verse in the Bible as written.

6. Triggers: Have a concrete plan for every trigger you have. It is vital to be instant and aggressive in turning. It is vital to develop habits of being totally prepared for the things that trigger you. Renew your effort every day.

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   5. Have a long-term focus. Addictions fun/thrill is short-term and it leads to depression. Be determined to have a great life, a great year, and a great month. Michael Jordan got championships because his only focus was on championships. Think about a great year, then a great month, then a great week. Pray about it 5 times every day.
   
   I am long-term focused in everything except... I need to stop being stupid.
   
   4. Prayer: This is a complicated one because prayer does work when we start trying to fight to obey the Bible. Spending time in prayer is huge. Fighting temptation with prayer is huge. Probably it should be higher on the list. You can read the article “praying with power” for more info on this. https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/pray-with-power.320467/
   
   3. Activities: We are told repeatedly to have a list of activities to try. Try things, stick with them for a few days. Keep trying new things. At some point, you will like some of these activities.
   
   2. Positive addictions: A positive addiction is an activity that you now love, do often, and are excited about. You try jogging, piano, guitar, writing, chess, prayer, and now love it so much that you do it for hours. It has changed from being a distraction idea into something you crave.
   
   I have become obsessed with sports. This was by design. Now I watch a lot less risky TV.
   
   1. Fight temptation with the top Bible verses for quitting. Whip out that list of verses and go over them, repeat, repeat, repeat. It is impossible to say these verses too often. It is hard for satan to continue to tempt you for long when you quote them (but he will try again). When he tries again whip out your verses again. He really does not like that game at all.
   
   He only beat Adam and Eve because they did not use this technique. Jesus used this technique and satan did not beat Him.
   
   Write your own top 10 skills. Then be obsessed with them and live them. You can do it.
   
   Thanks to STA. Most of this info is from them. Their link is https://stoptheaddictions.com/home-page/sex-porn-freedom/sex-porn-freedom-in-30-days-day-9/
   

 

We fight addiction better when we get healthy. Start by drinking enough water. Then, get enough sleep and rest (honor the Sabbath). Eat less sugar and eat some real food like broccoli and skinless chicken. My wife has a bunch of recipes for canned shredded chicken.
Importantly, exercise. It is a stress buster and a great alternate activity for addiction.
Secondly, the Bible says, "Resist the devil. This is just as important as my #1 tip. Pray before and during temptation: "Father, help me to turn instantly from temptation." Then when satan temps you, just tell him no.

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Jack Wellman said: "The first point I see in this is to submit to God because if someone’s not yet submitted to God, they really can’t resist the devil and he won’t flee."
We submit to God with full repentance and with a plan to do right. With these two tools, we can make him flee.


Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/7-good-bible-verses-about-turning-from-sin/#ixzz7MxnVyyEy

 

Ten months ago I started this thread. Today I still think that the # 1 tip is to follow Jesus example by fighting temptation with Bible verses. But I have changed my opinion about what the 2nd most important skill is. Today, I say that the # 2 is developing the habit of turning from lust. I started to realize a few months ago that in the past satan would tempt me, and I would stare just enough to ensure that I would fall sooner or later.

I still work at instantly turning, constantly.

Second, I am keeping positive addictions and alternate activities high on the list, but I will add that making some of them into Christian activities adds power to them.

Third, I will move prayer to #3 on the list because it is the key to preparing for temptation. But when temptation overwhelms us it is wise to go to tip #1.

Fourth, I now think tip #8 should be 2 or 3 higher in importance. #8 says to fill up a journal with key tips. I need to know my weaknesses, know what sinks me, and know what I should spend time on each day.

Fifth, I will add working incessantly to find your purpose, because that was a huge key to my quitting for good.

Last, I will add one more tip into the top ten. We get dejected or despondent and use the “life is too hard,” excuse to fall. If you want your future to be the same as your past, use that excuse. If you want a great life say, “I will not allow self-pity to lead me down the road to destruction again.” Then get busy working on finding a great life.

Finally, this is not a perfect list. Pray and think often about what should be on your top ten list. When you quit for good... you will then know that you have a top 10 list that worked for you.

 

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

Do I love watching a beautiful female on TV? Is watching them loving the world? At what point is it for sure “Loving the world?” At the point of lust, it is 100% loving the world.

How do we fight loving the world? Always work on the habit of running from lust when you enter situations of any risk at all. But most importantly, dedicate a block of prayer to praying about lust every day. One could easily pray for 20 minutes per day:

“Father, show me which verse to use to fight my next temptation.”

Will God answer your prayer? Maybe. What? I could never be a TV preacher… no one would donate. Will God answer your prayer if you are studying verses on lust so that you are ready to go to war with lust? Quite likely.

Some people think God gets mad at us when we sin. But I have never had a verbal conversation with God so I won’t comment on that. But for fun let’s assume that we get in a real rut and God seems very far away. We pray and He seems even farther away.

This never happens when we study Bible topics in areas that we need to change. God is the Word. He is speaking to you when you read the Bible. He is leading you very directly when you study specific topics regularly with a complete dedication to change.

The Solution

The first few times you dedicate 20 minutes to praying about quitting, pray directly over the verses about lust. Read a verse and pray about it for a minute. Read another, pray, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Does God bless us when we do this? 100% yes! Psalm One says that we are blessed when we meditate on God’s Word.

We look at how Jesus fought temptation and think… I am not Jesus, it’s not going to work so smoothly for me. You are right. He is perfect, we are not perfect. But if you keep doing it daily something great happens. He starts filling you up. You decrease, He increases. You get out of the way, and He starts showing you how to overcome.

When we establish great new habits our prayer time changes. He seems very close. We feel a special love in our lives. We want to try to do something to help others. A light begins to burn brighter and brighter. Joy starts to flow a bit. We begin to see the Answer because the Answer is now filling up our lives.

 

Become obsessed with figuring out how to take an article and then make it into a habit. I printed out the last article I wrote even though I wrote it. I printed it out because I want to make sure that I form a habit of going to war every day with the two things with lust that I struggle the most with. Now it's with my lists of verses for meditation that I look at virtually every day. Now I will be reminded every day this year to start my fight earlier each day in these two areas.

Second, how can you make it a habit to avoid temptation? It can be done if you have a great goal. My goal is to increase even more in joy. If you have that goal you could be inspired to set an hourly alarm to work on something important. Avoiding temptation is one of the keys to long-term joy.

Third, whenever you read an article that suggests a habit you don't have, write it down in a notebook. It is vital to be consistently reminded about the habits you want to acquire. Then prioritize them. Push the most important habits the hardest until they start to really become habits. Then gradually work on other things.

 

Tip 9 is surviving a bad day. If you are aggressively fighting the habit you may have noticed that “bad days” cause a ton of falls. #1 Biblical Paul would fight to overcome hard times without falling virtually all the time. The first reason he could do that was because he had learned to be content. Consider praying:

“Father, take away this lust and help me to be content.”

Today analyze how high up your list “bad days” is. If it is at the top of your temptation to fall list, consider setting an hourly alarm and praying this prayer until it is a lifelong habit. If it is on your top ten list consider praying it hourly until you start remembering to pray it more often.

#2 Increase contentment by giving thanks for the good things you have.

#3 Don't say “Live stinks,” instead say, “It's okay.” Say this will pass, I will get through this, if I pray, God will be with me and help me through this. Be positive.

#4 Pray about and practice being content with your relationships. Pray about increasing in love, and putting them first.

#5 Pray about and practice being content with your lack of relationships. A single lonely person has every opportunity to have a totally on-fire relationship with Jesus. Pray often about being content, and make sure that totally on-fire relationship happens.

Finally, if you are obsessed with 3 things, life will start to get good. #1 Be obsessed with finding your purpose. #2 Be obsessed with going to war against sin. #3 Be obsessed with praying about contentment until you learn to have contentment.

Today, consider setting your goal of how often you will pray to be content. It will help.

 

Yesterday, after praying, “Father, expand my borders, and bless me indeed,” I had a plan for an article on pain. But life got really frustrating, so after I finished my normal columns, I quit for the day. The Bible says: “James 4:17 ESV So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

This verse partly explains why quitting is 51% of what you do and 49% of what you stop doing. Stopping doing something that gives you pleasure is hard. Praying a prayer like the one above is easier. Then when God gives you something to do, you are accelerating the quitting process by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you.

Second, if you pray constantly about what God wants you “To do,” then you start to think constantly about what God might want you to do.

Third, I failed to do the right thing yesterday, but I did not even consider going back to porn. I was very busy, so despite my sin of omission, I did not consider lust for pleasure. This shows that quitting is 51% of what I do, and 49% of what I stop doing.

Fourth, James says that “Faith without works is dead.” Is it possible that being a Christian might be 51% of what we do and 49% of what we stop doing?

Finally, pray always:

“Father, what do You want me to do?”

Why? Because you are very unlikely to quit if your faith is dead.