Knowing that porn is wrong is not the struggle for me. Staying motivated to abstain from it…now there’s the real struggle!
To give myself a fresh shot of motivation, every single morning I remind myself of 33 reasons why I must abstain from porn. I call it “My Personal Purity Motivation.” It usually takes me about 5 minutes to read through it or to listen to it on my iPod. (Yes, I have myself recorded, reading these 33 reasons. I listen to them in my office or riding down the road or when I’m working out.)
I learned the importance of daily reviewing my reasons/motives from the author and counselor Joe Dallas.
Over the years, I’ve learned the hard way that I need this daily shot of motivation to live pure for God. The daily review always has a powerful impact upon the rest of my day. I encourage other Christian men who have a background with pornography to develop their own list of reasons/motives. Feel free to use any of mine that you want to. I don’t consider it plagiarism. If my bullet fits your gun, shoot it!
Type your reasons/motives up on your computer. Then print them out, and put a copy in your planner or Bible (some place you’re going to see them everyday). If you want to, record yourself reading through them—and keep that recording on your iPod like I do—and then listen to it daily. It really does help.
So here they are…
33 reasons why I need to abstain from porn
- For the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31
- I’m commanded by God to live self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
- Holiness is God’s will for my life.
- Jesus said loving Him comes down to obeying Him.
- It hinders my fellowship with God and everything flows out of that.
- My body is not my own. God purchased me with the shed blood of His Son.
- It’s worshipping the creature rather than the Creator (idolatry).
- It’s cheating on God (spiritual adultery).
- Only Jesus Christ can truly satisfy my heart’s thirst.
- God is always watching me.
- Angels and demons are often watching me.
- It prevents me from having an effective prayer life.
- It diminishes the spiritual power I need to impact this world for Christ.
- It interferes with my ability to make wise decisions.
- It hinders my fellowship with my brothers in Christ.
- It brings God’s discipline.
- It causes anxiety, paranoia, fear, irritability, anger, and depression.
- It causes God’s blessings upon my life, family, and ministry to be withheld.
- My children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren need me to be holy.
- It leads to more sin and worse sin.
- It diminishes my focus and motivation to work hard and achieve my goals.
- It creates impulse control problems in other areas of my life.
- It causes me to be angry, harsh, and disrespectful towards my wife and children.
- I made a vow to my wife before God to forsake all others.
- It puts spiritual and emotional distance between me and my wife.
- It diminishes my attraction/arousal for my wife.
- It deeply hurts my wife by making her feel like she’s not good enough for me.
- It diminishes my wife’s trust and respect for me.
- It causes my eyes to wander when I’m around real women.
- Every female is someone’s daughter.
- Every female is someone whom Christ loved enough to suffer and die for.
- The one who lives with integrity lives securely, but whoever perverts his ways will be found out. – Proverbs 10:9
- God does not withhold good from those who live with integrity. – Psalms 84:11
Jason George is the Founder and President of Narrowtrail Ministries. He’s an itinerant evangelist and teacher who speaks at churches, camps, conferences, schools, etc. He and his wife have been married for over twenty years and have three children. Jason utilizes Covenant Eyes Accountability Software on all of his computers and his iPhone. Jason also produces a weekly podcast called, “THE GRIZ PODCAST,“and it’s all about helping boys become men and helping men become better men. It’s available on iTunes.
You must be dumb as a rock it you think this will work. Do your research and find the cause and you will discover it is people like you. Jesus did the right thing you are just an ?
I don’t think he intends this list to be a be-all, end-all “cure” for porn use, just one more tool for the fight.
You think he’s dumb as a rock? Are you saying this because you’re not a Christian? If you are not, then your response makes sense. I will tell you in all my research that nothing is better than straight from Scripture. The cause is obvious – sin – the answer is Christian brothers coming along aside each other & helping each other with the Bible. The reason I hate text and email is tone cannot be interpreted – and mine is not argumentative – would truly like to understand where you are coming from and what you base your thoughts from/quote as authority in your life.
@Steve,Let Those with eyes see & those with ears here. If one cannot even pick out one helpful tip that could make one stronger & act on it to live through Christ day by day, then that is sad.
At the end of the day, it comes up to ones self.
Do you want to let go of Porn Use?
Are you ready for the pain/suffering that you shall go through to100% be free of it?
Are you ready to seek the help of Jesus to guide you through and strengthen you as you do his will(not ours)?
I personally have decided to take the path and follow Jesus and let go of all these sin. I definitely was hooked to porn like all my friends were. Talking about stopping…It did hurt/trouble me badly especially at the beginning, but due to Jesus strengthening us day by day, we keep moving a step forward away from sin…further & further away.
So nothing shall make one stop until it comes from ones heart to repent and be determined to make their life right once again.
Thanks.
Aren’t you being a bit dumb by insinuating that he means at as a “cure all”?
He intends it as a tool, not as a self-help panacea!
Be careful not to read your own thoughts into what he has actually written.
Or, to take a bit of my own medicine…have I mistaken you what you intended to say? If so, please clarify…
My 2c
Steve. I am praying for you! The list reflected the authors desire to align his heart with Christ. I pray the God will move you to make a list to address your heart.
Great list of things to be focusing on!
This is so helpful and practical. You shed light on key issues and you know the topic well. You go straight for the heart. Honestly brother, you should think of writing a book.
Ur thinking is good but “a thing or practice is right when it is in right amount,EVERYTHING has bad effects when we do the thing in worse amount,so be doing the things in right way and amount if that they will not spoil our life.
Singh, you are surely not suggesting that porn can be holy when used in moderation are you?
kudos on your determination to abstain from something that perverts the great gift God gave a husband and wife. porn defiles and perverts sex like eating and gluttony and drug abuse does perverting the natural need for food and drink. porn is designed to twist the whole concept, and one of hte best ways to avoid it is to keep the computer in a public place like the living room or dining room where eveyrone else is, if you cannot control the computer access then get rid of the computer or have your wife put the blocks on using a password and she not tell you. second avoid others who talk about sex especially fornication adultery and perverted aspects of it, avoid movies on the tv that have sexual inneuendos and jokes, and obescene jestings, (trying to make a scene funny while giving the idea of sex) spend as much time with your wife too, if your focused on her the rest will be alot easier to control as when your alone tha relationship will be so precious to you you will not risk losing it, praying to Jehovah is another tool that has more power then people realize, I know your not a jehovah witness but it couldn’t hurt. develope a strong love for your wife and for God and over time it will get easier like any withdrawl from addictions goes. keep up your dtermination and don’t let others criticise or convince it is okay in moderation, breaking a marriage vow and God’s laws is never acceptable in moderation.
Jason – this list was inspiring and so right on – tons of scriptural references back up every one of your points. Thank you for sharing this!
Very good article. Many are looking in the dark corners for some super solution or ‘miracle cure ‘ but shall never find it.
The solution is so simple as the article has put it, God puts out the answer in the light so that all with eyes/ears can see/hear.
If you are willing/determined to change/follow the lords ways, then you will find most of these points helpful. If not, then one shall keep looping till their end of time looking in the dark for an instant cure or quick-fix.
The Lords ways are simple and straight. (Matt. 7:13,14).. determination is mainly needed.
So Great Article. Keep it up
Good list. But one thing concerns me: whoever wrote this list didn’t even mention wife until 23. Our wives need to be a priority right under the glory of God.
Really useful, thanks for your efforts pulling this together – I think when I’m getting tempted I tend to be actively disregarding God so the ones that would help me most would be those further down the list, but the whole thing is great! Keep up the good work!
wat a tool. U really need to consider writing a book bro
Keep praying and keep reading that God would feed your
Spirit the more so that your flesh would die to this device
that is now leading you.
Be strengthen daily by the word of God.
Submit daily and He will become Lord of your life and order your steps. Obedience is sacrifice;
I pray God will search your heart while your’er praying that you may be found, and His purpose and plan be made clear to you…His will for your life.
Blessing,
@Daniel u can simply 23rd point to anywhere on the llist. Really I like this.
This has really blessed my life. I am actually deep into porn and masturbation and it has really affected me. Sighting this article gave me a new hope for life. Aint giving up. With prayers and constant confession of this, I’m sure things will change. Just let me know how this worked for you.
I really like part that said, “My children and grandchildren needs me to be holy” Everytime I read that part, it makes me cry.
Please permit me to share this article. I beleive so much that there are many people like me who need to see this.
God bless you.
Great article and wonderful list, Jason. It will come in handy in my line of work. Thank you for sharing.
FEMALE? I don’t think my sister/wife would be happy to be called a Female. However, 33 reasons is a nice work. I appreciate it
Not catching what you’re saying. Why would a woman object to being called a female?
Thank you for this list of why men should abstain from viewing pornography!
Please check out my blog which has articles and sermon notes on a variety of topics including: “About Pornography”, “Homosexuality”, and “About Masturbation.”
this article and peoples comment spoke volumes to me, and i am going to follow God more intensely in order to get rid of this vice
I’m really blessed and enlightened by this post. I try not to get a glimps of pornographic pictures, but before i know it, here i am. Yea, im really gonna save this page and go through it everytime.
Just couldn’t believe it was 2 years back- well, good words never fades out. Thumbs up sir!
porn is human nature and it’s a problem for usually only males. Some couples like to have sex while watching others have it on the screen. If it was so bad why does God allow it to feel so good and so spiritual? Why didn’t he include porn in the 10 commandments? Simple to answer this cause mankind this was one of their creations and where did they learn it from? The Garden of Eden the forbidden fruit the Nakedness of Adam and Eve. That is where Porn got it’s start. Sex has been around before Christianity/Bible but porn is entirely a creation and point of view shared by mankind. It’s a cop out to say God never sinned when he looked at eve naked or adam. It’s a misconception than Mankind created SIN. Sin was the name of mythical and evil God long before the Bible was ever written.
God knew how Adam and Eve looked before He made them, and why would he lust over Adam’s wife? God is the Creator of all things, he made their workings and breathed the breath of life into their nostrils. God also is a holy and pure God, so it would make no sense for Him to lust over His own creation. Now, Satan was the one who tempted and won over Eve and Adam to where they discovered their nakedness and made clothing out of fig leaves. Going forward a bit, Cain murdered Abel because he wanted what Abel got from God, and the word want, or wanted, is a synonym for lust and you could say that Cain lusted over what Abel got from the Lord. Mankind let sin into the world and death crawled in with it because they allowed Satan to tempt them.
To make this short and sweet, God created mankind in His image, so why would He lust over Himself? Also, Satan convinced us that it is good to lust after the opposite sex, so I think you are a wee bit confoozled.
I am a believer in Christ and a member of a 12-Step recovery group for sex and love addicts anonymous. I have come to realize that shame is the fuel of addiction. The cycle goes like this: Shame – acting out (sin) – guilt, sorrow, more shame – acting out… etc.
Whether we’re talking about hard-core addiction or just the habit of viewing porn, the list that Jason has laid out could work for the habitual user who’s trying to get motivated to quit. But it’s not enough for a hard-core addict, even one who claims to be a born-again Christian.
I tried to quit many, many times when I was a teen, and on into my early twenties, (I am in my sixties now), but the cycle continued. Confession to God wasn’t enough to stop the cycle of shame, and I continued to act out.
What was wrong? I was isolated, too afraid to talk to anyone about it. I was too ashamed to come forward.
My fractured life proved that keeping my sexual addiction a secret was all wrong. By keeping it hidden, I failed to deal with the shame. And the power of shame continued to fuel the addiction.
Through the help of a skilled therapist, I joined a 12-Step group. As I attended meetings and worked through the 12 Steps, I learned what was missing: The help of another addict who knew the way. Anonymity was another factor that gave me a safe place where I could work through my addiction.
Glad to hear your story. I’m just in the process of getting started in recovery. Just joined SA but right now during the pandemic, everything is via Zoom. But I’m glad to have exposed the secret to my wife, hooked up with a counselor who directed me to SA and Covenant Eyes.