Good News and Bad News about Praying for Purity – Blog

I see in the Scriptures an invaluable truth when it comes to knowing what to pray in regard to our sexual brokenness and an insight that we need to take very seriously.  So, which do you want first … the Good News or the Bad News.  Psychology Today says;

“Most people (78%) wanted to hear the bad news first, followed by the good news, because they believed they would feel better if they got the bad news out of the way and ended on a good note.”

So, today the BAD NEWS about praying for sexual purity that I find in two passages and why your prayers might be falling flat and unanswered.

“Come and hear, all you who fear God;

let me tell you what he has done for me.

I cried out to him with my mouth;

his praise was on my tongue.

If I had cherished sin in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened;

but God has surely listened

and has heard my prayer.

Praise be to God,

who has not rejected my prayer

or withheld his love from me!”

(Psalm 66:16-20)

It is critical in your recovery that you are not saying one thing with your mouth and thinking another thing in your heart.  I mean how many times have you said to yourself, to God and even to your spouse that you will never ever look at porn again?  A few times?  A dozen times? Hundreds of times?  But what happens?

When we have been caught and our sin exposed, or God seems to be disciplining us with something very serious like losing our job, blowing up our marriage, or having our kids refusing to speak to us, that’s when we are going forward in church, getting on our knees, crying out to Him with all our might.  That might help for a while but a week or two later you are back at it again. What the heck is up with that?

In the heat of a crisis, we will say or do anything if the consequences are staring us in the face.  Every cell in our body wants to escape what is happening but once the crisis settles down and the worst of things has not happened we discover we still want to sexually sin.

I believe that happens for two reasons.  First, we are still cherishing this sin in our heart. Actually, this cherishing is in our flesh and not our heart. As a born-again Christian, we have a new heart in which we love God, but our old flesh still has its sinful desires for sexual sin. This calls for all-out war against our flesh and putting it to death, but that is another subject.

The second problem is that we are double minded. We are not consistent in our thinking and actions because we have not completely renounced sexual sin. James warns us of this in James 1:6-8;

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

What does this double-mindedness happen?  Why at one time are we thoroughly convinced at one moment that we will never look at porn again and then perhaps days, weeks or months later our eyes are glued to the screen and we are becoming sexually aroused looking at the garbage of smut?

The problem is we do not take our recovery seriously.  We are not living by the power of our own will and the power of the Spirit.  We allow our sexual desires to creep in by the tiniest of ways.  A glimpse here. A thought there. A fantasy for a split second and slowly that tiny ember in your flesh becomes a roaring fire of desire. Over and over again this happens and you finally begin to realize that you have become addicted to sexual sin.

Bad news sucks, doesn’t it? Well, tomorrow the Good news because these powers and choices can be changed.  The desires of our flesh can be extinguished and put to death.

Are you finally ready to do that?  It will take time.  It will take work and consistency and it will not happen if you continue to live in isolation trying to fight this battle alone.

1 thought on “Good News and Bad News about Praying for Purity – Blog”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *