People ask me all the time what they need to do to find freedom from their sexual brokenness. They have tried so many times and failed. Many just give up and give in and hope they can keep it a secret sin. Which can happen for a while but eventually it is discovered putting in danger their marriage, family, job, and even their career…like me.
The closer their little raft is getting to Niagara Falls; they realize they are going faster than before. They can begin to hear the roar of the tons of cascading water and then there comes the moment when they are past the point of no return and they use that the saying “let go and let God” may not be the best solution.
Have you ever tried using that thought while jumping off your roof…probably not? That would be just plain stupid unless the law of gravity would be stopped for just a moment and just for you…but that is not going to happen.
And yet on and on we go slipping in the moment of temptation, falling back into sexual sin because our head below our waist is overpowering the one on our shoulders, and our desires are so aroused it seems impossible to stop. So, we rationalize. We imagine this really will be the last time…yet we thought that when the last time was supposed to have been the last time…but it wasn’t the last time.
Over the past 16 years, I have been working on my recovery and have put what I have learned into something we call the 180 Recovery Program. In that package of information, I cover just about all the biblical basics we need to understand about our sexual addiction. By the way, it is available for you to purchase along with the workbook and audio files…just email me and ask. I will negotiate with you a price you can honestly afford and you will at least have the biblical, physiological, emotional, and relational teaching on this issue.
However, in retrospect, I believe there is one essential part of recovery that I did not cover. The more I think about it the more important I believe it really is. In fact, this ingredient is one of the major ideas in the Bible. In fact, it is mentioned 540 times in the Bible…208 in the Old Testament and 332 in the New.
It is a simple word of only 5 letters and Jesus used it 53 times in the Gospels while Paul uses it 177 times in his writings. That simple 5 letter word is…
FAITH
Here is a passage critical to this idea about faith in Hebrews 11:16…
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
Think of all the times faith was essential to bring God into some desperate situations. Whether it was when Jesus was present or even before He came in the flesh. One of my favorites comes from a man who was a giant in having faith…Abraham. Remember God had him wait till he was 100 years old and Sarah, his wife, never conceived a baby until she was 90.
Can you imagine going to the nursing home and seeing a 90-year-old woman having a baby? Queen Elizabeth is 95. She has been sitting on the throne for 70 years but it’s been quite a while since she was in the birthing room…like 76 years ago.
So, the miracle child of all time…Isaac…is born. And when he is still a young…probably an early teenager, God tells Abraham to sacrifice him as a burnt offering to God on Mt. Moriah. Now in case, you did not know it a burnt sacrifice was not like a burnt piece of toast. It meant Abraham was to slit his throat, drain out his blood, ignite the fire and burn him to ashes.
The bible does not record any lack of faith on Abraham’s part. There is no bargaining with God like when he was negotiating for the city of Sodom. He believes and does everything for it to happen. Bounding Isaac and placing him on the wood, Abraham is taking his knife to the throat of Isaac, and just before committing the deadly surgery an angel intervenes and provides the ram, who up until then was silent and in hiding.
But here is the thing we learn. Abraham believed in God. Abraham had faith that even if he went through the entire process of making Isaac into ashes God would resurrect him from the ashes and he would have Isaac back…with a slight aversion to wood, fire, and knives…I would imagine.
We learn that Abrahams’s FAITH was counted to him as righteousness. His act of believing God would resurrect his son…a great act of faith…against all odds…with death being the result of every sacrifice he had ever offered…he had faith in His God.
In Hebrews 11 we read these words…
“Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
So now…let me ask you. Do you believe that the God who created the universe by speaking it into existence? Who demonstrated His love for us by becoming the sacrifice for all our sins? Who knitted us together in our mother’s womb and who has loved us from eternity past and will continue to love us into eternity future…wants to heal us from our sexual brokenness?
So much so that He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit as our guarantee for us receiving our inheritance in heaven. Who has said He will never leave us or forsake us? Who has cleansed us from all of our sin’s past, present, and future? And has adopted us as His children…
Can you believe that He wants to and will heal you
from your sexual brokenness?
And whether He determines that your healing will happen in an instant or gradually through the years as you learn to walk in His Spirit in a community of other men who are struggling as well…
Either way…I absolutely believe that it will take you having faith that He not only wants to heal you…but will bring healing into your life here on earth…and for eternally in heaven.
If you cannot have that faith…then ask Jesus, like the father of the demon-possessed son who said…
“I believe…help me in my unbelief.”