Pornified Mind: Reclaiming your thought life—Part 2
To begin reclaiming your mind from the accumulation of porn’s images, consider seeing the images from an entirely different perspective – how they point in some small way to the Creator who alone is worthy of our focus and attention.
Read Dave’s related blog post, Renewing Your Mind from Pornography.
If you’ve been engaging pornography for any length of time, you have a toxic waste dump in your mind that takes time and intentionality to clean up. In the last video, we talked about taking our thoughts captive, and the idea that this means bringing them into the throne room to consider them before the King.
Now, what does this look like practically? Admittedly, I’m not really familiar with mixed martial arts, but the little I know is that part of the strategy is to use your opponent’s strength and weight and momentum against him. I want to challenge you with this same approach in facing your sexual sin. What does that look like? A couple of thoughts.
Number one: anyone you’re tempted to lust after, it’s because you’ve caught a microscopic glimpse of the glory of God in what he has made. The essence of idolatry is to worship the creature rather than the Creator. The answer is to begin acknowledging your Creator at those very places where you’re tempted to idol worship. Confess the pull of your heart to idolatry, but ask for eyes of faith to see him as infinitely more glorious than anything he’s made. Meditate on passages like Isaiah 40 that describe his glory and majesty in ways we can just barely comprehend, like holding the Pacific Ocean in the palm of his hand.
Secondly, talk with him about his promises. Part of the lie of temptation is that we’re missing out. God becomes the heavenly buzzkill who is out to ruin your good time. The lie is that he wants to rob you of life. Years ago, I remember reading Psalm 36:8: “They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” I felt a visceral reaction in my heart against that truth, a bald denial that God is a God of pleasure who wants to feast us and delight us. We need to start embracing those promises and asking God to undo the power of that lie. Acknowledge to him the ways that you continue to see him as a killjoy, and ask him for the grace to see him for who he truly is.
So usually, in the face of temptation, we’re prone to shrink away from God in guilt and shame. I want to challenge you to move toward him in those specific places. Realize that whoever you find desirable is merely reflecting, by an angled, dusty mirror, the glory of their Creator, and ask for eyes to see his glory and majesty. And push back against the lie that he’s holding out on you. Ask him to show you the reality, as Jesus said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
