accountability partner

[freeman46]

I have struggled with porn and sexual addiction for a long time .The Lord this weekend is leading me to stop. I really need some male to ask me tough questions ."What are you looking at? " . I pray someone will take up challenge . My church just had a HUGE SPLIT so things are unsettled.

 

[tjwallace2]

hey bro, I'd love to talk and set up something for accountability, as I could use it as well.

I just sent you an email. Let me know if you get it.

 

[Barnabas71]

The vast majority of us men suffer lusting to some degree, at some point during their lives. The underlying reasons are complex and often varied. It would be highly reductionist to say the cause of pornography addiction (as the world likes to label it) is simply ‘XY or Z’ Though many men struggle with lust, certain men (and women for that matter) are more prone than others to coming under long term captive to it. This is were thought patterns becomes deeply imbedded in our lives, and it changes from a habit to a ‘stronghold’.

Is there something in your life that you cannot get rid of, get over or get around? Is it something you come back to again and again and again? A particular tripping point? Something that just seems to hold you back from being effective in serving the Lord? If you feel like that do not get discouraged, because you are in very good company. Here is what St Paul said on the matter:

Romans 7 V 14 - 15
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Basically a stronghold is the work of the enemy, in the individual believers life, designed to trip us up repeatedly, and stop us for fulfilling our destiny and purpose, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Galatians it states the world itself is a slave to sin.

Galatians 3:22
But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Between 2004-2005 I went through an extremely tough time in business, it all worked through in the end but all the stress affected me deeply - for some time afterwards. As a way of seeking comfort I turned to lust, i.e. pornography. Because I was simultaneously struggling with a deeply held conviction that my emotional struggles were a consequence of God’s judgment upon my life, I felt even more cut off. I was not going to Church in those years as I felt I was simply not good enough or fit for God's church. I was under the impression that I had to get 100% cleaned up BEFOUR I returned to Church, and not after. In fact with God it is the complete opposite.

I was ‘spidered in’ to this forum, solely because I was one day hunting on google for an internet filter which was recommended by Christians. While visiting the other section (pornography addiction) I was immediately struck at what a massive problem pornography is among many other Christian men - I though I was vertually the only one.

Like yourself I reached a point where I felt the Lord was showing that I had no long term future continuing in this ‘sexual sin’. Besides, I had simply had enough. I actually heartily loathed it with all my being. While reading posts at this site I was let to ‘setting captives free’. I started it with much doubt and trepidation at the very end of October 2006. Even at this early stage of what was going to be a life changing experience I had a lot of buffeting by the enemy trying to get me to halt what I had now embarked upon. I stuck it out. I was very determined to pull myself out off this state I was in. I was assigned a very good and Godly man who was both my accountability partner and my personal mentor. He was superb. Totally unjudgemental, kind, supportive and with an ever willing ear to listen to all my worries and doubts along the way.

I would personally recommend you give setting captives free - way of purity a go. It will not cost you a single penny or dime. Just your personal commitment each evening for roughly an hour - or less. This, I assure you, is time well spent compared to all the time you spend struggling with pornography.

I really hope you can work something out with that huge split in your church. On those wild life programs a year or so back there were some astonishing film footage of lions picking off lone elephants which through fear had became separated from the rest of the heard. They do this because though the elephant is far larger in terms of size, once the elephant becomes separated from the other elephants they are highly vulnerable to attack. In other words there is safety in numbers! It is the same with the church. The devil is always prowling around looking for someone to devour and trip up. Don’t fall out of fellowship. Remain in fellowship. This was a big mistake for me and why I became so trapped by the devil in the past. If things are not working out for you at your present church find another one. Make sure you remain stuck into even a small church! The devil has a far harder task to pick on us when we remain in company, and in fellowship with other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope you find these words encouraging!
God bless you

1 Peter 5 v 8 - 11
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.


Way of Purity - Setting Captives Free

 

[JoshuaBuzz]

Dude, if you want, PM me your MSN and we'll talk on there?

God bless

 

[tjwallace2]

hope that you're doing well. I sent you a PM...I'd be willing to keep you accountable as much as possible.