The United States of Pornography
Recently I was reading “Is This the End?” by Dr. David Jeremiah, and he shared a stat in his book that literally made my jaw drop. “In January 2016, the Internet’s largest online pornography site released its annual statistics. On just this one website in just one year – 2015 – consumers watched 4,392,486,580 hours of pornography.” Wow! If we convert those hours into years, it equates to more than 500,000 years’ worth of pornography.
Mind you this is just one site! Welcome to the United States of Pornography.
Dr. David Jeremiah continued, “On this particular site in 2015 alone, people watched 87,849,731,608 X-rated videos. Over 87 billion! That’s twelve videos for every man, woman, boy, and girl on the planet.” To say there is a huge demand for pornography would be a gross understatement.Pornography has taken something very good (sex between a husband and wife) and turned it into the sins of lust, adultery, rape, homosexuality, coveting, and idolatry. I truly feel for the teenagers growing up in a world where pornography is so easily accessible and accepted. In a Barna study, they found that teenagers are so desensitized to porn that they believe not recycling is more immoral than pornography.
Related Content: Marriage Oneness - Sexual Intimacy
If you are currently struggling with this addiction, you might be suffering from immense shame and guilt because of it. I’m here to tell you that those feelings are coming straight from Satan himself. God does not view your addiction as any worse than any other sin out there. In fact, in the book of James chapter two, God tells us that when you sin, you commit all sins. So even when we tell a “little white lie,” we are still guilty of breaking all of God’s law.
James 2:10-11 - 10 A person who follows all of God’s law but fails to obey even one command is guilty of breaking all the commands in that law. 11 The same God who said, “You must not be guilty of adultery,”[a] also said, “You must not murder anyone.”[b] So if you do not take part in adultery but you murder someone, you are guilty of breaking all of God’s law. (NCV)
The subject of pornography addiction is very near and dear to my heart. I suffered from it for 15 years. It started when I was in middle school when I was genuinely curious about sex and the male and female body. I never had any intention or inclination that I would end up being addicted to pornography. But thankfully, today, I can write about my addiction in the past tense only because of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I desire that anyone struggling with this addiction will experience the same liberating freedom.If you are interested in becoming free from this, there is one thing I want to make absolutely clear - you have to be intentional, and you CANNOT do this by your own power. I wanted to quit the last 13 years of my addiction, but I always came at it half-heartedly and/or thinking I could do it independently. You HAVE to give this to Jesus and ask that He fill you with the Holy Spirit. Then, and only then, will you have the strength to conquer this. Once you reach that point, you can begin to incorporate as many of these next steps as possible and say goodbye to your addiction once and for all.
Next step for getting free from the addiction to pornography:
- Memorize at least 1 (preferably more) Bible verse to repeat to yourself (out loud if you can) when you feel the pull to indulge in pornography. My main go-to was James 4: 7-8, 10.
James 4:7-8, 10 - 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you…. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (NIV)
- Spend time with God.
- When I came home from work, it helped me go straight to a downloaded sermon podcast. Please do this before you turn on anything else for entertainment purposes (it also helps to turn your phone off too)
- Consider installing porn blocking apps/software, such as CovenantEyes, on your phones/computers.
- Seek out an accountability partner such as a spouse, family member, pastor, or close friend
- Make a huge reduction (at least half) in screen time (i.e., phone, tv, tablets, computers)
- Pursue a good Christian counselor that specializes or has experience with pornography addiction.
- Focus on the Family has a great referral website.
- Surround yourself with people that won’t tempt you to view pornography
As always, you can contact us here at DailyPS (contact@dailyps.com). We would love to come alongside you on your journey to freedom!
1 Timothy 5:2 - 2 Treat older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (NIV)