Renewing Your Mind from Pornography—Part 3
In my third post, we need to look at how renewing your mind requires “putting off.” If you’ve been looking at porn for any length of time, you have a toxic waste dump in your mind that takes time and intentionality to clean up.
The first blog in this short series talked about the importance of taking thoughts captive, which means considering them in God’s presence. In the last blog, we looked at specific ways to engage God, turning temptation into opportunities for worship. In the language of Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4, both of these blogs were focused on the importance of “putting on.” This is a crucial aspect of the Christian life: becoming the man or woman God has created you to be.
This time, I want to briefly consider the importance of intentionally “putting off” things that keep you stuck in old patterns of thinking and behavior.
By the end of our introductory group at Harvest, as men grow in sexual obedience, they usually begin to experience conviction in other areas of their life. First, they start intentionally battling against their roving eyes. They realize that this “low level” exploitation of others, reducing them to commodities to consume, is part of their bigger lust problem.
A renewed mind is the result of both “putting off” and “putting on”
They also begin to realize that their engagement with certain cultural items or events is a problem. Some men realize that listening to sports radio with the incessant ads for strip clubs is a hindrance to keeping their minds focused on Christ and his kingdom. Because it calls to mind past experiences or fantasies, they choose to abstain from listening.
A renewed mind requires an active fight against a culture that continuously tilts toward the pornographic
Many have a growing conviction that various forms of entertainment (like movies and cable TV shows depicting nudity and sexuality), not only entice them to sin, but are actually dishonoring to God. They become spiritually attuned in ways they hadn’t been for years, since they’d been searing their conscience through their sin. Many are awakened for the first time to the importance of all the seemingly small decisions they make throughout their days, learning that there is a growing cumulative effect from what they see and do.
What we watch and hear sinks in and impacts our hearts. We are constantly bombarded by messages running counter to God’s calling and Christ’s kingdom. A renewed mind requires an active fight against a culture that continuously tilts toward the pornographic.
Conversely, men who continue to indulge their flesh in these outwardly less significant ways, struggle to make real traction overcoming their enslavement to pornography. So, some questions for you:
Where do you need greater conviction of how your use of entertainment might be part of the problem, keeping you stuck in a pornified way of viewing the world?
Are you actively fighting against the “second look” when you see someone you’re attracted to?
Where are the broken views of sexuality in our culture affecting your heart?
And, as we’ve been discussing in the past couple blogs, are you more quickly engaging God when that happens? Are you living with an increased awareness of his presence?
A renewed mind is the result of both “putting off” and “putting on.”
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This means an important part of renewing your mind is breaking the ways we’ve been fitted into the world’s mold.
You need to realize that pornography has radically warped your worldview in all kinds of ways: views of sex and sexual activity, diminishing the intrinsic value of all humanity, and prizing people according to “sex appeal.” If you’re married you need to understand this: A significant reason why many are dissatisfied with sex is because we’ve bought into lies about sexuality. Unrealistic lies that lead us to use our spouses rather than give to them; lies that need to be addressed by the truth of God’s Word.
Until you start intentionally distancing yourself from all the ways this twisted worldview is being reinforced, you will not experience a renewed mind and you’ll stay stuck in patterns of sexual sin. But consider what is available to you: living joyfully within God’s will and design for your life, experiencing the blessing of his presence as you keep in step with his Spirit, and knowing what is “good and acceptable and perfect.”
Your loving, heavenly Father wants you to know freedom from the curse of broken, insatiable sexuality as you enter the wide, spacious places of his love and renewal.