The 40 Day Challenge Part 2: Run To

For the follower of Christ, the ultimate goal is not merely “quitting pornography.” If merely modifying behavior was the most important thing, there are any number of psychological tips and tricks one can use. But for Christians, the true goal is to be remade by God Himself into the image of the perfect Man, Jesus Christ.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Just as sure as pornography stirs up lustful cravings in us, the Holy Spirit is a source of new, holy cravings. Galatians 5 says we who have the Holy Spirit have the “desires of the Spirit” (5:17). God promises that when we “keep in step with the Spirit,” the lusts of the flesh that lead to sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality will not have their way in us (5:16,25). We can become new men and women from the inside out.

What does it mean to keep in step with the Spirit of God, to walk in the Spirit?

1. Walk in Accountability

When Paul says we are to “walk in the Spirit” he is writing to a full church community. The Spirit of God has placed us in the family of the church, among trusted friends who are also filled with His Spirit, so we can stir up in each other what God has already put within us.

Keeping in step with the Spirit of God is a community activity, something we do together. In community, we slay the power of sin through confession. James writes, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

Sin must be habitually exposed to the light of confession. This is called accountability: being honest with another trusted believer about our temptations, sins, and the state of our heart.

2. Walk According to the Word

To keep in step with the Spirit we must know and obey the Book He inspired. By exploring the Bible, we can “reverse engineer” the bad training pornography has given us and replace it with God’s thoughts.

Porn promises gratification but only decreases our sexual satisfaction. But God is the creator of sexual satisfaction and has designed marriage for its enjoyment (Song. 4:9-16). For single men and women, it means pursuing wholesome, intentional relationships with each other (1 Thess. 4:4). For married men and women, it means making our spouses our standard of attractiveness, and returning again and again to the enjoyment of sex in marriage (Prov. 5:18-19; Song. 7:11-13).

Porn disconnects us from real relationships, training us to believe that the best sex is solo-sex. But God has defined good sex as an expression of “oneness,” not emotional detachment (Gen. 2:24).

Porn hooks us deeply, leading to possible addiction and sexual bondage. But God redeems our warped sex drive so that sex is a holy act of love and giving, not selfishness and slavery (1 Cor. 13:4-7; Gal. 5:22-23).

The more we engage with the Bible, the more our minds will be rewired to see things the way God does.

3. Walk in Pure Pleasure

The human spirit was never meant to be devoid of desire. If, in the battle against pornography, we only spend time trying to empty ourselves of the desire for it, we will inevitably fail or make ourselves miserable. Some desire will always try to fill the void.

The Holy Spirit longs for all things that God calls good: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy—wholesome pleasures become a means to practicing God’s presence (Phil. 4:8).

The world is full of holy pleasures for God’s people, and they can become windows of worship when they are infused with gratitude. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:4).

Over time we will no longer look to porn-induced pleasure as a means for satisfying our desires, we will recognize the goodness of consecrated pleasure. Simultaneously, we will value that goodness and worship God as the giver of every good gift.

4. Walk in Your True Identity

Rather than action steps and personal rules, Paul says that real change is first about knowing who we already are. “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:3). “You have been raised with Christ” (3:1). “You have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self” (3:9-10). Only those who first know this about themselves have the power to slay sinful sexual desires and habits (3:5).

As much as porn feels alive to you, if you are in Christ, you are dead to porn. The Spirit of the living God is in you.

God is not holding back His love until we get our act together. He wants us to relate to him as one dearly loved—so much so that Christ’s Spirit whispers his prayer in our hearts, “Abba, Father.” He loves his true children now, in the midst of their unworthiness, and in time his love transforms our desires.

5. Walk in Hope

Our great hope is that one day Christ will judge the world and make all things right again (Acts 17:31). He will destroy sin and death forever. He will recreate the world anew, and we will be just like him (1 Cor. 15:51-55).

God also promises that we will see foretastes of this “hope of righteousness” in the present age. Paul writes that as citizens of the kingdom of God, our lives should be filled with “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

Porn, for many, will always carry some appeal. But we are promised that God’s Spirit will “give life to your mortal body through his Spirit who dwells in you” (8:11), and by his grace, we can present the members of our bodies to God “as instruments of righteousness” (6:13).

This is our astounding hope: that fallen, porn-loving sinners like us will become like the holy Son of God.