The following is an email we received from Justin Joseph, a Covenant Eyes member. Thanks for the encouraging story, Justin!
Covenant Eyes has been installed on my laptop for about four months or so now. Being living proof of its fruitful effects, I thought it would be encouraging to provide my testimony in this respect.
I’m currently 24 years old, having celebrated my birthday just a couple weeks ago. However, for the majority of those years, I was trapped in various forms of pornography, mostly dealing with TV and the internet. It’s especially heart-breaking that this started when I was eight.
Well, this past March, Christ broke my heart and I sought the help I really needed. This led to exposing my sin to the assistant pastor of my church, Mark, who’s become an invaluable friend and brother in the body of Christ. I’ll never forget the first question he asked after I explained my burden: “So Justin, on a scale of 1 to 10, how willing are you to do whatever it takes to gain freedom from this?”
I immediately responded, “Fifteen!” Needless to say, he got a good chuckle out of that, but was pleased to see just how serious I was. Though at the very moment, I also wasn’t aware of the extreme measures that would be necessary to permanently break free from the shackles of sexual sin. I do now.
Since then, I’ve destroyed all porn I’ve ever owned, have CE installed on my laptop, and am rarely bothered by temptation to view internet porn. In addition, books like 13 Ways to Ruin Your Life, Every Man’s Battle, Resisting the Lure, along with others like Boy Meets Girl and Stop Dating the Church (authored by Joshua Harris, a man I’ve come to greatly respect) have completely changed my perspective about Christian relationships and how to sever all ties to sexual sin. Through my church and God’s love, grace, and mercy, my resolve to bounce out impure thoughts has never been stronger, not to mention my personal relationship with Christ has never set me more on fire.
In fact, I have such a growing hatred for it that God is slowly turning me into a pioneer against the adult media industry. I’m in the process of writing a book that will explain what happened to me when I was initially trapped at eight years old, to present day. Lord willing, it will one day be published and provide a ray of hope to the millions of other men and women out there experiencing the same struggles and looking for freedom.
I can’t thank God enough for blessing me with the product of Covenant Eyes’ labor. I feel that the annual fee isn’t just the cost of the tool, but an investment in my long-term spiritual health and growth.
To end this off, I’d like to share the Scripture that Mark first showed me, because it’s had such an impact on my every day strive for Christ-likeness.
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; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you. (1 Thessalonians 4: 3-8)