Life Challenges

How to Stop Watching Porn?

You need a miracle. According to the Bible, victory over a pornography addiction doesn't begin with trying, but with a transformation that God works in you. "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27). Begin with honestly asking, "Do I want to change?" And if so, ask God to help you do the impossible, and he will.

Listen
On Spotify

We have curated a playlist for you, relevant to this topic.
Listen for free on Spotify!

Short Content

Here's How to Stop Watching Porn

Here’s the deal. You can’t stop, and won’t stop, watching porn on your own. But you can. I know, sounds contradictory, but stick with me here.

Try as you might, resolutions and reform and rhythms can’t do the heavy lifting you need in this area. We are all for self-control, but merely finding ways to avoid porn or deny yourself the usual opportunities to indulge in it—Just. Won’t. Work.

 “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom…but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 3:23 NIV).

Behavior modifications can suppress what you want, but they can’t stop what you want. Sure, you might break your habit for a month, or six, but you won’t get rid of the hunger, the emptiness and reason behind why you watch porn. Before you stop watching porn, you have to stop wanting to watch porn.

And we all know the heart wants what it wants—you’re going to need a miracle. That’s just what you’re offered. 

There’s a tiny verse in the Bible filled with hope for you. It says this: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6 ESV). See that word grace? It’s not a churchy word or just a girl’s middle name. That word can change your life.

You find yourself enslaved to porn. You’re not alone. “The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22 NIV). Friend, there’s no sin that we can escape from by merely trying harder. God has to perform miracles in our heart to make us love what we don’t love and want what we don’t want. Rescue from sin—for anyone—can’t be earned (Ephesians 2:8). But it can be received.

That’s why God promises grace to the humble. He will give you what you cannot earn or deserve on your own if you just ask him.

A proud person won’t receive God’s help, God’s Word, or God’s gifts. A humble person knows their need, their inability to improve. So they ask for help.

How will you stop watching porn? God will stop you if you will yield your life to him, confess to him your need (1 John 1:9), and ask him to do the miracles in your heart you cannot do for yourself. He will replace your spirit with His, your loves with his (Ezekiel 36:26).

If you’re serious about this, then grab your Bible and take a look at Galatians. It’s a letter written to a church who keeps trying to earn God’s favor. They keep trying to do for themselves what only God can do for them. Pick it up and read about the freedom God offers you.

God promises his grace to the humble person. This includes forgiveness for your past sins. God paid the penalty you owe in the crucifixion of his own son for your porn addiction (John 3:16). God can give you the grace of his presence—offering to clothe you in his perfect Son’s righteousness (Galatians 3:27). God says he will come make his home within you and will change your heart to love what’s good and hate what’s evil (John 14:16-18). God can give you the undeserved gift of freeing you from the chains you prefer (Romans 8:2), for if you ask him, he will change your whole identity—making you no longer a slave to sin, but his own son (Galatians 4:7). 

by Bibles.net

OPEN YOUR BIBLE

Theme Verse

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.

1 CORINTHIANS 10:13 ESV

Featured Resource
Ban unwanted content from your technology.
Tech Lockdown provides real solutions to help you stop watching porn. If you're serious about keeping porn out of your personal and family life, Tech Lockdown will give you strategies for keeping porn out of reach. Alongside technical services, their website offers free informational guides, as well as helpful content on how to stop watching porn on their blog.
How to Stop Watching Porn?
Article: 8 Min

Is It Possible
to Stop
Watching Porn?

Contributed by our Friends at Crossway
Article: 10 Min

A Plan for the Problem of Pornography

by Philip Ryken at Reformation21

Article: 7 Min

Praying for Freedom from Pornography

Prayer is an expression of our dependence on God. It's asking God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We have asked the Lord that he would deliver you from pornography. 

by Bibles.net

Image

With man
this is impossible,
but with God
all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26 ESV
Infographic

30 Things to Do
When You're Bored

So many times when we are wasting our time in sin or sloth we cry out to God for help. We may, however, feel like heaven responds with silence. After all, God can’t tell me what to do with myself when I’m bored... or can he?

Verse
1 John 1:5-7 NIV

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Article: 10 Min

The Life-Changing Insight of Thomas Chalmers

Friend, there's a 200 year old sermon you must read. It will take an hour of your time, but it will change your life. To encourage you to read it, pastor John Piper has written this compelling introduction to Thomas Chalmers' work: "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection."

by John Piper at Desiring God

Article: 60 Min

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

"The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one; and by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil."
- Thomas Chalmers

by Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847

Quote

Do You Want to Be Free of Porn?

A living, breathing relationship with the Savior of the world will drive porn out of your life quicker than anything else. When you turn your eyes to Jesus, there isn’t room for anything else in your heart because he fills it up. When you open the blinds of a pitch-black room, the sunlight drives away the darkness.

by Heath Lambert | Source
Verse
James 5:16 ESV

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Short Content

FIVE STEPS TO FREEDOM FROM PORNOGRAPHY

by Dr. Nicholas Ellen

Verse
Romans 8:1-4 NLT

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

Quote

It does not do
to leave a live dragon

out of your calculations
if you live near him.

J.R.R. Tolkein
Article: 12 Min

C.S. Lewis on Lust

Read this chapter of C.S. Lewis' book, "The Great Divorce," where he illustrates our battle with temptation and our arrival at transformation in compelling interchange between an angel of heaven, a man, and his pet dragon.

by Luke Gilkerson and C.S. Lewis

Verse
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.

Verse
1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 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; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

Books
Books