THE BEST SPIRITUAL WAY TO FIGHT TEMPTATION

[Gordon 7]

I wrote a thread called how Jesus overcame temptation. But, within a few days, I was back to fighting temptation the way I like to fight it. I like to pray when I am tempted. Praying when you are tempted is a great idea. Keep doing that. But when you feel yourself starting to fall it might be a good idea to do exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted. Jesus fought temptation with the Word.

We struggle to quit because we either don't completely believe the Bible or because we don't know the Bible. Below are my top 40 list of Bible verses for quitting porn. I can guarantee you that I believe the Bible. So my problem is that I don't know these Bible verses the way I should.

Just look at the first verse. Darkness is code for no joy. A bit of short-term evil fun, but no joy. And when we don't truly repent, how great is the darkness. This verse pretty much says that lust and porn lead to depression. And if we keep bouncing back and forth between sin and Jesus we can still sometimes feel that darkness a week or two later.

We always talk about skills for quitting. Toughness is today's tip. Life beats us up again and we need to increase toughness to overcome P. Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust and help me to be tough."

I bring this up because we need to read the Bible, spend time in prayer and increase our skills and habits for quitting. But at the key moment of temptation, we fight back with the Bible exactly the way Jesus did. There is power in the Word. Print it out, try it, believe it.


TOP 40 VERSES FOR QUITTING

Matthew 6:22-23
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Romans 6:12 ESV
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

James 1:14-15
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Psalm 119:37
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Matthew 5:27-29
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Matthew 26:41 ESV
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Proverbs 6:25 ESV
Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

Matthew 5:8 ESV
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

John 10:10 ESV /
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Psalm 101:3 ESV
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

Romans 6:16 ESV
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Ephesians 5:5 ESV
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 John 2:16 ESV
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV /
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Philippians 4:8 ESV
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Colossians 3:1-10
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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

John 14:15 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

 

[Fappy]

We struggle to quit because we either don't completely believe the Bible or because we don't know the Bible.

if the ease of quitting porn depended on reading and understanding a book, read Your Brain on Porn.

 

[Gordon 7]

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

1. 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.

1. 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/

 

[Gordon 7]

A desire for normal pleasure leads to a focus on pleasure that is short term and one that controls and enslaves us. A desire for the Holy Spirit's self-control leads to a type of pleasure that is clean and long term.


We increase self-control by decreasing bad things and increasing good things. One example of that is to cut out a risky TV show and replace it with a cleaner show. Another idea is to set up an hour of a new way of thinking. One hour in the day where you have the most temptation. We plan a new way of life for that hour.


Our long-term goal is to never give tempting thoughts even a split second of time. But our short-term goal is to fight to make this happen for that hour. We praise God consistently in that hour. We plan what we will think about. We are a positive thinker no matter what. We focus on a quitting P Bible verse. We focus on pure thoughts in that hour.


Then lastly and most importantly, we increase self-control by thinking before we act. But... not thinking for 1 minute or even 1 hour. This means thinking for 10 hours. While you are thinking you should read every Bible verse on the top 60 list for quitting P twice. You read your top 5 reasons to quit twice. Self-control is taking time to read about 5 articles from Reboot before we decide to act.


You may have noticed... I am really not recommending that you do any thinking while you are thinking. So let's change it to: Self-control is fighting to get your mind straight before you act. Fighting for 10 hours to get your head right before you act. Self-control is reading before you act. Aggressively reading things that will encourage me to think long-term, to think the way Jesus would, and to think about feeding the right fire.


Self-control in not reactionary. We are taking our addiction to war. When we take our addiction to war... we can win. And when we make these actions habits, we will win.

 

[Gordon 7]

This is just my opinion, but I believe that God is very focused on prayers that are totally unselfish, that match up perfectly with the Bible.


Background: My wife makes about 15 pounds of candy and 15 pounds of cookies for the Christmas holidays. But I have only eaten 1 piece of candy so far. Why? It's healthier.


James 1:14-15
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.


My desire is to be healthy. That is now my overwhelming desire.


It is harder, but it is similar with lust. Try this test. Say 100 times today: “My # 1 desire is to be free today.” When you are doing this exercise you will be surprised at how determined to quit you will be if severe temptation starts when you hit the 73rd time of saying it. Just repeating our goal over and over again starts to change us.


Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make my desire freedom.” How many times should we pray that daily?


Pray, “Father, take away this sinful desire, and show me Your glory.” Read “The God Chasers.” Tommy Tenney fought to find the glory of God. And everyone can do the same exact thing.


Pray, “Father, “Help me to study Your Word when I am tempted.” It is a powerful thing to study Bible verses that pertain to your habit.


Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make my desire purity.”


Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make it my # 1 desire to do Your will.” This is from the Lord's prayer, “Not mine, but Your will be done.”


More tomorrow.

 

[Gordon 7]

If we dedicate time every day to prayer things start to change. How fast they change is up to us. Have we stopped doing the things that lead to triggers? Have we started doing other things to replace the vacuum created by stopping the habit.

Have we put on the full armor of God. The first piece in our armor is the belt of truth. When we are tempted we study the Bible. Satan then tells us how great it will be to _____. He is lying and is trying to destroy our year, month, week and relationship with Jesus Christ. The Bible is telling us the truth. The truth that leads to a great life, and that is what leads to victory.

Next, we put on the breastplate of righteousness. Watch some Youtube video's on how to be righteous. Pray, “Father, take away this spirit of lust and show me how righteous living will help me.”

Next, we put on the gospel of peace. When we are frustrated and restless we tend to fall. When we fight to maintain peace in our minds, we can go to war and win. Pray: “Father, Take away my frustrations and give me Your Spirit of peace.”

Next, we hold up the shield of faith. I believe that the Bible way is always best. I believe that prayer starts to change us. I believe that God has a vital interest in my life and in your life.

Romans 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

We fight the evil one by faith. We fight against his temptation by studying the 60 Bible verses for quitting. Pray, “Father, take away my love of pleasure and increase my faith.” Pray over any of the verses that are important to you.

We put on the helmet of salvation. If you have never accepted Jesus you can do that today. Simply say, “Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Show me Your love and I will do Your will.”

If you are struggling remember. God wants people who believe, who have faith, who will fight forever to break free. No matter what, keep working and keep praying.

 

[Gordon 7]

My dad was always happy. He prayed, studied the Bible, and worked hard to obey every commandment. He trusted the Lord for his finances. He always tried to love others and he always praised the Lord and gave thanks for all things. He had created his own garden of Eden.

And everyone can do what he did and at least improve their life.

The # 1 thing keeping us from paradise is we don't believe. Dad believed the Bible. Every word. He thought following it would make his life great.

I thought I was smarter than my dad. I chased money, success and pleasure. Then this year on my 10,000th day of frustration, I tried it his way. He was right.

Pray: Father, take away my love of pleasure and help me to know Your Word” (the Bible).

Secondly he obeyed the Bible. Today is new years eve. Will we start the year sober like my dad or will we choose a long night of partying.

Have a drink or 2 if that's your style. Then decide if you want to see if you can be happy like my dad. If you want to be like him, be the life of the party. But do it in moderation. Obedience is hard. But it leads to a great life.

My daughter and I went to a wedding reception. People were getting drunk and having a great time. We were not getting drunk and we acted 90% as crazy as they did, and we had a great time.

Don't buy into satan's lies that sin will make you happy. His solution is short term and is filled with trouble.

But the point of this has nothing to do with drinking. The point is we need to start living right in order to live right. We have a good excuse to sin today, it's new years eve. Then a good reason for some other sin tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. But we can have a great reward if we start living right today.

Lastly, I realize that this article is just a pipe dream if your life is horrible right now. But still... your life will improve if you live like my dad.

Tomorrow I will write about how we can keep others from ruining our lives, and other things that my dad did to give himself a bit of paradise.

 

[Gordon 7]

THIS POST CONTAINS STRONG CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

Galatians 5:24
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we have made a final decision to be filled with the Holy Spirit we have already crucified the flesh. We have made a permanent decision to allow the Holy Spirit to rule. A permanent decision to stop sinning. A permanent decision to do Jesus will.

Yesterday I did something that I thought was borderline but I thought it was not really sin. Then the Holy Spirit made it clear to me that He has a huge problem with it. So, I will not do that activity anymore.

I am able to do this because my # 1 desire is to do Jesus will. We can start to crucify sinful passions and desires. And we can crucify them for good once we have made a final decision to stop them.

But the Holy Spirit wants complete dedication.

Pray: “Father, show me if there is something that you want me to give up.”

I throw a lot of prayers at you. But I don't think everyone realizes that I pray some of them thousands of times. And each time I pray them, it is with full sincerity and a desire to change.


BELIEF

Find a person that you think is really filled with the Spirit. Watch them, talk to them, think about how they live. See how they have peace and joy flowing from them. Learn about how you can have a great life. It is vital to have complete belief in your new great life because it is hard to crucify sinful passions and desires if you don't believe that your new life with Christ will be better.

Every time I say, “We can have fullness of joy if we fully live Jesus way,” at least one person thinks, “No we can't.” But I have never had anyone say, “I did exactly what the Bible says to do for the last two weeks, and it sucked.”


HONESTY

If we crucify 80% of our sinful flesh, life will improve. But it is impossible to understand why Jesus wants us to crucify 100% of sinful passions and desires until we do it. The point is, I promise great things to you. And it is real. But... Jesus insists that we are hot or cold. No lukewarm Christians are desired in Revelation 3.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

So if you are like I was when I was younger, it is a battle. But the rewards are fantastic.

 

[Gordon 7]

ACTIVITY LEVELS, THE SABBATH, AND QUITTING

Everyone with a severe habit is either not active enough or is too active.

When we are in the not active enough category we might want to spend the Sabbath going to church, reading the Bible, praying and then trying to push ourselves to try a hobby or two to try to fight addiction.

Pray: “Father, take away this spirit of lust and help me to be more active.”

When we are in the too active category we might want to spend the Sabbath going to church, reading the Bible, praying and then resting.

Pray: “Father, take away this spirit of lust and help me to be content.”

Things that we do in excess lead to trouble. In excess, things like gambling, drinking, gaming, searching the internet, working too much, or you fill in the blank ______, often lead back to addiction. Things in excess should be absolutely banned on the Lord's day. And we should be fully aware that things in excess on any day lead to extra temptation.

Pray, “Father, help me to be moderate in all things.” If you do things in excess it is really hard to pray this prayer too often.

Activities in excess often lead to exhaustion, depression and then addiction.

But, sometimes we have no choice but to work or study too much.

Pray: Father, take away my spirit of lust and give me a Spirit of toughness.”

Be aware of your activity level. Pray: “Father, help me to live in balance between doing too little and doing too much.”

 

[Gordon 7]

Psalm 119:37
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

Turning instantly from looking at sinful things is a key to freedom. Turning instantly from thinking about anything that leads to addiction is vital. Turning instantly from negative emotions is a key to change.

Pray: “Father, take away my spirit of lust and help me to turn from worthless things.”

Secondly, negative emotions lead back to addiction. So we must identify what emotion leads us back to addiction and fight it aggressively.

Anger leads to addiction: Pray: Father, take away my spirit of anger and fill me with a Spirit of love.” I have prayed this prayer a zillion times. It really helped. Anger increases satans' control, and that leads to...

Pray: “Father, help me to repent instantly from anger.”

Thirdly, bitterness. Life has taken a left turn and we let bitterness take control. They said or did the wrong thing. If we choose to stay bitter we ruin our life. Staying bitter is the exact opposite of creating your own Garden of Eden. Fight bitterness as if it will steal your joy (it will).

Pray: “Father, help me to forgive and forget.”

Pray: “Father, take away my spirit of bitterness and fill me with Your love.”

Fourthly hopelessness. The Bible encourages us to always hope. The reason for this is because sometimes we can only see what we see. And when it is bad we lose hope. But Jesus sees you, in the future, when the Holy Spirit is fully in you. He sees the person who can take anything satan throws at them, and still is capable of doing His will.

Pray: “Father, help me to always hope.”

Finally, we look at the second half of the verse, “and give me life in your ways. Give me “life” means starting to live in God's joy, glory, presence, and love. If you want to see a sharp increase in these, pray this prayer often: “Father, show me Your ways and help me to do Your will.”



I have added 2 links that have a lot more on emotions.



https://stoptheaddictions.com/home-page/sex-porn-freedom/sex-porn-freedom-in-30-days-day-6/

9 Common Emotional/Situational Pornography Triggers • Things Above Us

Of all my years counseling Christians and non about the dangers of pornography, there are 9 common emotional and situational patterns that trigger porn use. ...

thingsabove.us

 

[Gordon 7]

IF YOU ARE NEW HERE


Welcome. This site has a ton of advice. But we all want something new to solve our problem. But the truth is, the fastest way to solve our problem is with something old. Advice you get from today's forum could be very helpful. But, you could fill up 50 pages in a google doc if you look at all the old stuff on this site. Plus, it will not take you very long to figure out which people are giving a lot of tips on how to quit. So you can read their posts back from the beginning of time.

Secondly, fill up a Google doc or Word doc with tips. Then study those tips daily and most importantly, start to implement them into your life daily. You can choose to read 20% or more of your new “book,” every day. You can delete tips that you thought were great (but aren't really great for you). You can start a top 20 tips for quitting and work at seeing which tips should be in your top 20. You can move certain things to the front and demote others to the back to make sure you are working on the best things first.

If you fill up your book and put in the work, life will improve.

 

[Gordon 7]

Today, I have a stack of excuses a mile high as to why I can fall. 20 miles high really.
But I am giving up everything if I fall. And if I use my messed-up life as an excuse, I will have 1000 more excuses in the future to choose from.
God notices when you have 1000 reasons to fall and don't. He sees you when you are fighting hard.
If we understand that our mess plus Jesus equals a great life, then we will have a great life.

 

[Gordon 7]

John 15 says: “[7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. [8] Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”


I like to think that abiding in Christ means spending a solid amount of time in prayer. But it likely is also talking about our thought life, what we watch, what we are talking about, and several others things we do that are not perfect.


Pray: “Father, take away my fantasies, and wrong thoughts and show me how to abide in You.”


Secondly, do Christs' words abide in me. The Bible says:


Ephesians 5:5 ESV
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.


These Words don't abide in me anywhere near enough. My priority is pleasure. Life stinks, so I have temptations to go worship at the altar of pleasure.


But I was always curious as to why Paul in the Bible sang and praised God when he was in jail. Maybe is was because Christ's Words did abide in him. Strongly, powerfully, and in a way that allowed the Holy Spirit to fill him up.


Lastly, just thinking about this verse (Ephesians 5:5) today gives me something to work on.


Pray: “Father, help me to not covet pleasure or money in excess.”


Please change the last half of this prayer to fit your situation.


In conclusion, my life is not going smoothly right now and I still have my joy. I Guess the Bible was right again.

 

[Gordon 7]

ALTERNATE ACTIVITIES ARE VITALLY IMPORTANTLY

1. To quit an addiction we decide to do new activities and then we do them. They are not for fun, play, pleasure, or profit. It is wise to treat them like work or some great difficult goal.
   
   
2. Example: I decide my new activity is playing the piano. First I set a goal: 30 minutes per day. # 2 Decide exactly when you will do it: 6:30 PM. # 3 Say 10 times daily why you need to do this activity: “I need to play the piano so that I stop being a slave to ______.” # 4 Pray, “Father take away this spirit of lust, and show me how playing the piano will help me to do Your will someday.”
   
   
3. Spiritual goals should be # 1 in life. But after that, your activity goals should sometimes be the next most important. But what about family. It is a balance, a juggling game that you need to play until you get healthy. One solution to the family question is to work out with them. Do a hobby with them.
   
   
4. New activities are not great fun if you are really addicted. Addiction uses up all our fun and leaves us dark and empty. So keep this in mind. The exact same activities that you don't love in week one of quitting seem a lot better in week 4 after you have been clean for a month and are in a good place with God.
   
   
5. Someday, some of your new activities will become positive addictions. I lift weights every day. I play either the piano or bass guitar virtually every day. I write articles about addiction every day and I do many other things every day.
   
   
6. Secondly, I want to try to explain how life gets better after we quit. With addiction, we move from fun event (hopefully) to fun event. Trying to find answers, fun, thrills. With freedom plus Jesus, we start to find increasing joy, and answers. With addiction, we watch TV always searching frantically for thrills. With freedom plus Jesus, we start to enjoy clean TV and we start to find contentment. With addiction, there are no answers. With freedom plus Jesus, we start to find a purpose for living. With addiction, we are driven, driven, driven. A constant flurry of trying to find... I don't know what. With freedom plus Jesus, we can ask Jesus what He wants us to do. Then we are filled with His peace and we can do His will. With addiction, we sometimes struggle with family and people. With freedom plus Jesus, we learn how important it is to live in love.
   
   
7. Activities are key. They will change your life if you make it a priority to do them daily.

 

[Gordon 7]

TO TRANSCEND HABITS


We transcend habits by rebuilding our foundation. We practice self-restraint with things like food and alcohol. We move to a higher level when we pray about valuing people above money in excess or any other non Godly thing in excess. We practice forgiveness, humility, calmness, and refrain from extravagant luxury or excessive spending.


This difficult, but fascinating focus works well because with it, we start to become small and God starts to become big. Some of you are shocked by my faith in the Bible, in Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. But if you dedicate your life to doing what God wants you to do, you will be even more shocked by the results.


When we practice the above virtues we are transferring water from one vessel to another. We empty out our bad water and we replace it with the Holy Spirits living water.

A dramatic example of this is when we go to war with our love of pleasure and replace it with the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1 says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.”

Pray: “Father, take away my love of pleasure and help me to fear You.” If we pray this prayer sincerely and often enough, we will begin to transcend our habits.

If someone asked me: How can I quit this addiction really fast? I would say: Pick the five harshest verses you can find about what you are struggling with. Memorize them, and think about them all the time.

This works because we only fall when we think wrong. Right thinking is taking the traits in the first paragraph and outlining a plan about how to start doing them. Right thinking leads to right actions. Right actions are studying the Bible and praying today's prayer as well as other ones that speak to you. When we combine prayer with our plan, the net result is that our right actions transcend our habits.

 

[Gordon 7]

We were created to love God and to love others. A focus on increasing in love for people (platonic) is a key for quitting. When we replace our unhealthy thoughts with love, we make progress. Love is doubly important because when we are weak with it, isolation increases and addiction thrives in isolation. But when we fight to increase in love we start to reverse the tendency to put “something” as more important than people or God.

To begin, we focus and pray about making love a priority.

Pray: “Father, take away my spirit of lust and fill me with a love for others.”

Love is patient. Pray: “Father, help me to be patient and help me to care about people.”

Love is kind. Pray: “Father, take away my spirit of lust and help me to increase in kindness.”

Love does not envy. Pray: Father, help me to be content with the pleasures that lead to joy. Help me to not envy pleasures that lead to destruction.”

It is impossible to pray: “Father, fill me with Your love,” too often. God is love. Increasing in love starts to force our bad stuff out. Praying about love is a powerful tool for fighting habits.

 

[Gordon 7]

Part of quitting this addiction is that this is what you do. Tomorrow I will write about what “to do” again, but today we will look at recovering from a fall and the Holy Spirit.

If we fall we need to understand repentance. Repentance is a sorrow for the wrong activity and a plan of how to change. Repentance is as often about what we did not do, as it is about what we did do. Example: life stinks, work stinks, and you want to fall. You come home and you are under severe temptation and you are at the crossroads.

Background: If you were under severe temptation in the last 24 hours, and you reacted by studying the top 60 verses on quitting for an hour, and still fell. Please post that that happened.

Even if you just took my top 10 tips for quitting, and went through most of them, I am guessing you probably made it. But now back to our example. What did you do?

WHAT I DO

I have sheets of notes on what I will do during times of severe temptation. The last time that I was severely tempted, I got out my notes. And just by starting my counterattack, my temptation level started to decrease. And the more I studied, the more I felt the Holy Spirit flowing into me. And it worked.

This system will work very often. But... some of you are completely addicted because your life right now ain't good. So you need to focus on the good flowing into you while you fight temptation with all you have. And you need to get more and more good flowing into you.

Pray: “Father, show me how to quit this habit.”

Develop your system to quit, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Design your system to get the good flowing into you. And once the good has flowed into you enough, your life will be good.

 

[Gordon 7]

MY BOOK

My book is on sale today at Amazon. It is a collection of inspirational stories about quitting porn. Today, the 12th and 13th it is 2 dollars, on the 14th and 15th, it is $3.

Reading something like this is a grade A distraction idea. It can help with your relationship with God, with your habit, and with your future. Please write a good review if you like it. It is called How Peter Quit Porn. Here is the link. https://amzn.to/3SlzDnr

 

[mrhodes51879]

I wrote a thread called how Jesus overcame temptation. But, within a few days, I was back to fighting temptation the way I like to fight it. I like to pray when I am tempted. Praying when you are tempted is a great idea. Keep doing that. But when you feel yourself starting to fall it might be a good idea to do exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted. Jesus fought temptation with the Word.

We struggle to quit because we either don't completely believe the Bible or because we don't know the Bible. Below are my top 40 list of Bible verses for quitting porn. I can guarantee you that I believe the Bible. So my problem is that I don't know these Bible verses the way I should.

Just look at the first verse. Darkness is code for no joy. A bit of short-term evil fun, but no joy. And when we don't truly repent, how great is the darkness. This verse pretty much says that lust and porn lead to depression. And if we keep bouncing back and forth between sin and Jesus we can still sometimes feel that darkness a week or two later.

We always talk about skills for quitting. Toughness is today's tip. Life beats us up again and we need to increase toughness to overcome P. Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust and help me to be tough."

I bring this up because we need to read the Bible, spend time in prayer and increase our skills and habits for quitting. But at the key moment of temptation, we fight back with the Bible exactly the way Jesus did. There is power in the Word. Print it out, try it, believe it.


TOP 40 VERSES FOR QUITTING

Matthew 6:22-23
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Romans 6:12 ESV
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

James 1:14-15
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Psalm 119:37
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Matthew 5:27-29
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Matthew 26:41 ESV
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Proverbs 6:25 ESV
Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

Matthew 5:8 ESV
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

John 10:10 ESV /
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Psalm 101:3 ESV
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

Romans 6:16 ESV
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Ephesians 5:5 ESV
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 John 2:16 ESV
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV /
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Philippians 4:8 ESV
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Colossians 3:1-10
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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

John 14:15 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

I really appreciate this writeup and the scriptures you've contained herein. Thank you,

Mark

 

[mrhodes51879]

I wrote a thread called how Jesus overcame temptation. But, within a few days, I was back to fighting temptation the way I like to fight it. I like to pray when I am tempted. Praying when you are tempted is a great idea. Keep doing that. But when you feel yourself starting to fall it might be a good idea to do exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted. Jesus fought temptation with the Word.

We struggle to quit because we either don't completely believe the Bible or because we don't know the Bible. Below are my top 40 list of Bible verses for quitting porn. I can guarantee you that I believe the Bible. So my problem is that I don't know these Bible verses the way I should.

Just look at the first verse. Darkness is code for no joy. A bit of short-term evil fun, but no joy. And when we don't truly repent, how great is the darkness. This verse pretty much says that lust and porn lead to depression. And if we keep bouncing back and forth between sin and Jesus we can still sometimes feel that darkness a week or two later.

We always talk about skills for quitting. Toughness is today's tip. Life beats us up again and we need to increase toughness to overcome P. Pray, “Father, take away my spirit of lust and help me to be tough."

I bring this up because we need to read the Bible, spend time in prayer and increase our skills and habits for quitting. But at the key moment of temptation, we fight back with the Bible exactly the way Jesus did. There is power in the Word. Print it out, try it, believe it.


TOP 40 VERSES FOR QUITTING

Matthew 6:22-23
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Romans 6:12 ESV
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

James 1:14-15
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Psalm 119:37
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Matthew 5:27-29
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Matthew 26:41 ESV
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Proverbs 6:25 ESV
Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

Matthew 5:8 ESV
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

John 10:10 ESV /
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Psalm 101:3 ESV
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

Romans 6:16 ESV
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Ephesians 5:5 ESV
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 John 2:16 ESV
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV /
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Philippians 4:8 ESV
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Colossians 3:1-10
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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

John 14:15 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Amen and hallelujah. Thank you