How To Identify And Overcome The Struggles Of Pornography Addiction

How many times have you told yourself you didn't have a problem with porn and that you weren't hurting anyone?

Have you had that moment of shame and guilt of being caught watching Porn?

How about the effect it had on your relationship or marriage?
 
Well, the effects that pornography can have on us is just as powerful as any drug or alcohol.

In this episode, I talk about the struggles that I had with pornography and the over 30 year addiction that nearly cost me losing family because of it.

Many men don't see it as an issue or look at it as a right of passage into manhood to look at a X-rated magazine, movie or website. Many fathers even encourage their son's to look or participate with them in watch it. But, we are seeing the effects it is having on marriages and relationships with the lack of intimacy and unity that God wants us to have in a marriage.

Pornography is Satan's attempt to counterfeit what God has created and distort it to think that this is normal.

God even spoke against sin with a women. In Exodus 20:14 it says as one of the Ten Commandments that  "You shall not commit adultery." and then in verse 17 of " You shall not covet your neighbors wife...".
Then in the New Testament when many came to Jesus, He told them in Matthew 5 :27-28 of not only of the physical act of adultery itself, but  "if anyone who even looks on a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Temptation isn't a sin, but when you dwell on it; then it becomes sin. Temptation becomes a sin only when you go after those sinful, wrongful desires.  Being tempted to sin and the sinful act itself are two different things.

Quotes:

Dr. Edwin Louis Cole - " Lust is the desire to benefit self at the expense of others, while love is the desire to benefit others at the expense of self. (Maximized Manhood) (Sexual Integrity)

Michael John Cusick- from the book Surfing For God
 "Desiring something that is contrary to what is God's best that He has for your life."
" The reality is that your heart needs something, and porn promises to meet that need."
"Like all idols, porn promises us something we desire. In reality it overpromises and underdelivers."
"In our minds, porn makes us bigger, stronger and more desirable. It affirms our manhood."
"We run to porn at times than normal intimacy with our spouse due to fear of conflict."
"If you don't have something in your life that regularly inspires adventure, risk, and passion; beware, because if you don't, you will seek the counterfeit.

John Eldridge - What makes porn so addictive is that more that anything else in a man's life, it makes him feel like a man with ever requiring a thing of him."

Resources for statistics mentioned:

https://conquerseries.com/15-mind-blowing-statistics-about-pornography-and-the-church/
https://keyloggers.mobi/pornography-addiction-statistics/?amp
https://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/
https://www.guystuffcounseling.com/porn-addiction-statistics

Book resources -

Surfing For God - Michael John Cusick
Maximized Manhood - Dr. Edwin Louis Cole
Sexual Integrity -  Dr. Edwin Louis Cole
The Real Win -  Colt McCoy and Matt Carter