Please help

[NewbelieverinChrist]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

 

[com7fy8]

Repenting can mean you confess it to God and get forgiven. But, also, we need how God changes us from a wrong thing.

Hebrews 12:4-14 guarantees how our Heavenly Father corrects his children.

What helps me is to love inappropriate content people, so I am not interested in using them. Also, I need to be kind to women I see in public and church and my thinking of them; love them, instead of using them just to look at them.

 

[disciple Clint]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation? | GotQuestions.org

 

[timf]

Repent is from the Greek metanoia (to change ones mind). inappropriate contentography is difficult in that it overlaps a natural biological drive.

1Co 7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

If one is unable to marry, it may be that maintaining an infrequent indulgence is the best one can achieve.

 

[Ceallaigh]

The fact that you now see it as something you shouldn't be doing and are seeking help about it a sign of repentance. Pray and ask God for help as well. He wants to help you overcome. Remember that while we have to put in effort to get past or over something, ultimately it's God who heals and delivers us.

 

[Andrewn]

Post #16 may be helpful:

The way of salvation

 

[TatiG]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

I have heard from others that this verse in particular has helped:

"Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters."
1 Timothy 5:2​

Just like @com7fy8 said, you need to change the way you see them.

God bless you! Praying you overcome this!

 

[aiki]

Crocodile Tears.

I Wanna Be Free!

 

[jelena.j4]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

Keep in mind that with the help and strength of the Holy Spirit you can overcome sin and temptation. Greater is the one living in you then he who is in the world. Dont give up. Ask for His help. We are weak but He is strong.

 

[Sketcher]

The aforementioned strategies help some people. They do not help others. If one of them does not help you, keep coming back to Christ on the cross. He paid for it.

 

[aiki]

If God's way to freedom, laid out clearly in God's word, does not "help," the problem is not with God's way. It is the immature, carnal believer who "lays again the foundation of repentance from dead works," over and over. This is NOT the way to victory over sin nor should it be the normal character of spiritual living. Continually and intentionally relying upon the atonement of Christ for your sin, willfully taking regular, persistent advantage of his sacrifice, despises his work on the cross.

Hebrews 10:26-29
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

For every one of your sins for which God must extend His forgiveness, Christ bled and died. Your sin cost Christ terribly. Every single one. It cheapens and despises his atonement to intend to take advantage of it, which is what you do when you console yourself with the idea that, even though God's way to freedom doesn't "work" for you, you're okay because He's obliged to forgive you, regardless.

 

[SANTOSO]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

Beloved one, REPENTANCE is to return to God.

This is what we have heard:

“O Israel, return to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
Take words with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.”
‭‭Hosea‬ ‭14:1-2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, return to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your inappropriate contentography.
Take words that Christ have spoken with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity;
Receive me graciously,
For I will offer the sacrifices of my lip.

Also, we heard:
“So you, by the help of your God, return; Observe mercy and justice, And wait on your God continually.”
‭‭Hosea‬ ‭12:6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, you, should perceive and understand by the help of your God, you can return or repent, to observe mercy and justice, and serve on your God continually.

So how you should perceive and understand this help ?

““Return, you backsliding children,
And I will heal your backslidings.” “Indeed we do come to You,
For You are the Lord our God.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭3:22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, believe that He will heal your backslidings, that by your COMING to the Lord our God, you will be healed.

For we heard:
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
‭‭John‬ ‭7:37-39‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, all these times that you haven’t come to the Lord, you should perceive and understand that you are spiritually thirsty or dry. Now, Jesus have been glorified, the Holy Spirit has been given so come to the Lord and drink, that you may not be thirsty.

Beloved one, by you,coming to the Lord Jesus, that He may send you the Holy Spirit, may drink of His righteousness and be filled.

Beloved one, perceive and understand how the Holy Spirit helps you. This is what we have heard :

“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, the Holy Spirit helps us by strengthening with might in our inner man so we should perceive and understand that by the Lord’s strength, we will be strengthened to do His commandments.

Beloved one, consider if you can break free from inappropriate contentography, by your own will and strength, there is no need to thank God. But if you break free from inappropriate contentography but the strength of the Lord, you acknowledge His strength and give Him thanks. For we heard:

Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! -Psalms 105:4

Beloved one, seek the Lord’s strength continually, you will have the strength to resist inappropriate contentography.

This is also what we have heard:
“Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55:6-7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Beloved one, as you seek the Lord and call upon His name. Beloved one, forsake your wicked or guilty ways and forsake your unrighteous thoughts; whether you awoke or aslept, whenever inappropriate contentography images or deceitful desires came to your mind, turn away from them, believe that God can give you strength, and turn to Him or take His words or identify with His words that He has spoken in your mind and heart.

For we heard:

“For those who identify with their old nature set their minds on the things of the old nature, but those who identify with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Having one’s mind controlled by the old nature is death, but having one’s mind controlled by the Spirit is life and shalom. For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God, because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah — indeed, it cannot.”
‭‭Romans (Rom)‬ ‭8:5-7‬ ‭CJB‬‬

If you give your mind to inappropriate contentography desires, you cannot be subject to God’s Torah ( law of Spirit of life ) but if you give your mind to the words that Christ have spoken and you let the Holy Spirit rule your mind, you will be strengthened to keep His words.

Beloved one, wholeheartedly, give your heart and mind to the Lord, by being taking the Spirit of His words with you, you will be strengthened in your inner man, to stand strong in His might.

To God be glory and thanksgiving through Christ. Amen.


‭‭

 

[ViaCrucis]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

Repentance isn't going to magically make your sinful habits go away. If you believe you have an addiction to inappropriate contentography there are people you can talk to to try and find meaningful ways to help curb your addiction.

Repentance is our recognition of our wrong, that we have failed to live holy and righteous lives. God calls us to live good and just lives, but we fail because we are sinners--and so we sin.

Repentance looks like grief and contrition over our sin. We confess our sins because through our confession we openly acknowledge and confront our sin. God's grace finds us in our misery, in our guilt, in our brokenness--the Gospel is preached so that we have faith and trust in Christ, believing in Him, our sins are washed away in forgiveness, we are justified freely as a gift from God in Jesus Christ.

Under our own power there is never going to be any righteousness or holiness. Even our most noble of good works are stained with sin.

But, and this is key: The Good News--the Gospel--is that God so loved this world full of sinners (you and me) that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who suffered and died for the sins of the world (again, that's you and me, your sins and my sins); and after having been buried He rose again on the third day, as Victor over sin, death, hell, and the devil. Your sins are forgiven, your sins are washed clean by the blood of the true Paschal Lamb, Jesus. You were crucified with Christ, you died with Christ, you were buried with Christ--that is the meaning of your baptism when you were baptized (Romans 6:3-4)--and so you have been raised up with Christ.

Having died with Jesus, you have also been raised up with Jesus to new life, new and everlasting life.

He shared in your death that you might share in His life.

So you are forgiven. You are justified--you are declared and made just (righteous) on account of Jesus Christ. His righteousness, not yours (recall, we have no righteousness of our own) reckons us as righteous before God; and on this basis alone (in Christ alone) we stand freely, fully, and entirely justified before God. We are saints, not because of our own holiness, but because Christ makes us holy in Himself.

The call to carry our cross as disciples of Jesus is, in part, the call to live daily in repentance. Repentance shouldn't be seen as just one thing we do, or just something we do now and again. Rather, through repentance we drown the old man. The old humanity, fallen, mortal, in bondage to our disordered desires. It's what is frequently called "the flesh" in the New Testament--our disordered passions or desires, our broken, mortal, and sinful humanity which we have received from Adam. In contrast to the new man, the new humanity, of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.

The old man is to be drowned through repentance. We live a lifestyle of repentance, just as we live a lifestyle of prayer and hope and worship. And through God's grace, through the Gospel, through the Sacraments, God gives and works faith into us, and through faith God justifies us. Thus the new man is strengthened day by day with the faith and hope of the Gospel, and through this we are being renewed day by day, by the renewing mercy of God, as we read in the Scriptures, "Your mercies are new every morning, great is Your faithfulness!"

For myself, I have found teaching myself the habit of praying the Jesus Prayer to be incredibly helpful. It's a simple prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." And it can have shorter forms too, such as "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner" or "Lord, have mercy" or "Jesus, have mercy". In the Eastern Orthodox Church this prayer is often called the Prayer of the Heart.

There are going to be those who tell you that if you don't see certain kinds of moral and spiritual improvements in your life that maybe there's something wrong between you and God. They will tell you that your own frail shortcomings mean that you need to "get right with God", because they falsely believe that the Christian life is a life of "victorious living"--by which they do not mean the victory of Christ in our lives which heals and saves us; but rather our own personal victory through our own attempts at holiness and righteousness. Stay far removed from these sorts, who will try and dismantle your faith and hope in Christ, not by calling you to repentance and faith; but by calling you to conform to their own private models of what they wrongly think holiness and justice looks like.

You don't need to "get right with God". God has already made you right with Him, in Jesus Christ, that is what Christ accomplished for you on the cross. That is what you have been given in your baptism, that is what you are given every time you hear the Gospel preached, that is what you are given every time you receive the Lord's Supper. God gives these things to you. They are yours freely, through faith.

Now, I want to be clear that I'm not saying we shouldn't be trying to eradicate sin from our life. We should, we should be striving to, by God's strength, walk in good works of love in the world. But who you are in Jesus does not depend on your performance or your ability to sin less.

Strive against your sin, fight against it! Absolutely. And with time you may find that certain sins become less of a struggle, you may also find that as you grow and go through life, new temptations, new struggles shall come as well. But do not be disheartened, do not despair: Jesus Christ loves you and saves you, His blood covers you, and you are holy and righteous before God in Him. You can cleave to that in all things, this world is filled with struggle and trouble; but our Lord says this, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have conquered the world!" By His death and resurrection our Lord has triumphed over the powers and principalities of sin, death, hell, and the devil--of all the powers of violence and hate and awful that is present in a world that is sick with sin and death and crying out in pain to God. And through Jesus God is going to take this old world and make it new again--when Christ returns, the dead are raised up again to life everlasting, and God makes all things new.

In light of God's promises, live! Live now, love your neighbor!

When you fail, confess, repent, trust in Jesus.
And then, continue to trust in Jesus.
And trusting in Jesus, love your neighbor.

Believe the Gospel
Love your neighbor.
That is the Christian life.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

Just to add a second post, because I think this might be useful as well:

In Greek the word we translate as repentance is metanoia. In its most literal sense it effectively means a change of mind.

There's a story that I've heard a number of times about the ancient Jewish historian Josephus. One day Josephus encountered a violent Zealot--a Jewish revolutionary trying to liberate Judea from Roman occupation--and Josephus says to him, "Repent, and come after me." The essence of what Josephus was saying to the Zealot was, "Change your way of thinking, and come see how I do things, try my way of doing things."

We see this exact kind of thing in the Gospels. Jesus is saying time and again, He says: Change how you think about things, come see how I do things, come see My way of doing things. That's what being His disciple really means. Doing things Jesus' way, living life Jesus' way, thinking about things Jesus' way.

In that sense repentance speaks to the consistent and ongoing work of God in our lives transforming us--changing and transforming our minds, conforming us to be like Jesus.

So St. Paul writes, "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

It's not about climbing up the rungs on a ladder, and then comparing where each of us is on that ladder. It's about God actively at work in our lives.

You are an unfinished project, but you are God's project. You are God's workmanship, you are God's craftsmanship. And He who began that work will continue that work until it is finally completed. That work won't be finished until Christ returns and we are raised up bodily from the dead; but it will be completed. You can trust God on that.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Tionbai]

Hi! I think it's so great that you want to live for God and give up inappropriate contentography, even though it has turned into a difficult habit for you to quit. You are not alone in struggling with bad habits, and we need to rely on God, and I think also fellowship with other believers, to stay with good habits.

Do you have a Church community around you that can help keep you accountable? Not necessarily just a church building, but other believers who love the Lord and can help you stay on track, support you and motivate you.

As Jesus says in Matthew 26:41: 41 Stay awake and pray that you will not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!”

And Paul in Romans 7:15-25:
15 For what I am doing I do not understand, because what I want to do, this I do not practice, but what I hate, this I do. 16 But if what I do not want to do, this I do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me. 18 For I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want to do, this I do. 20 But if what I do not want to do, this I am doing, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me.

21 Consequently, I find the principle with me, the one who wants to do good, that evil is present with me. 22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person, 23 but I observe another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that exists in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.

Here Paul is talking about how our bodies as still subject to the "law" of sin, that our nature is still inherently sinful, so we will still be subject to temptations and imperfections. However, our inner person is born again with Christ, and we have received His Spirit. So now we recognize these old behaviors as sinful, and we in fact hate that we do them, even though our bodies are still drawn to them and enticed by sin. So there is an inner conflict in us, where the Spirit and our flesh are fighting each other - the Spirit being holy and perfect and is subject to God, and the flesh being imperfect and is subject to sin.

Don't beat yourself up that you are struggling, it is only a sign that you now recognize in your spirit that inappropriate contentography is wrong, and your love for God makes you want to obey Him and His will for your life and other people.

I am also struggling with some addictions in my life that I have had for many years, so I know the feeling.

1. Pray to God. Speak with Him and know that He loves you. You are not accidental and you are not insignificant to God. He knew you before you were born (Psalm 71:6), the hairs on your head are all numbered (Luke 12:7), and your life will bring glory to God. Walk with Him, and believe that He cares, even about the everyday things in your life. Nothing is too small for Him, just believe and come to Him like a child who runs to their parent.
2. Please try to find a community you can be 100% honest with. It doesn't help if the Christian community is a church setting where you're wearing a mask (in a literal and figurative sense) and cannot be real. True relationships with other people will save you.
3. Recognize and see inappropriate contentography for what it is. How it destroys lives, families, and how it hurts God. Watch this:
   It is an interview by a Christian apologist with an ex inappropriate content-star who turned to Christ and completely turned his life around. He shares a lot of in-depth things about the industry which I think will help you get the right perspective.

You will get through this.

1 Corinthians 6:15-20: 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.

Now, I pray that God bless you, and that Jesus love for you is made apparent to you by His Holy Spirit.

 

[1watchman]

Hi, I don’t know where else to post this:
Can someone please please direct me to scripture that discusses what repentance is and looks like? Can someone define it to me in biblical or laymans terms? I am struggling with turning away from watching inappropriate contentography, and I don’t know how to completely quit. I was able to go 77 days without watching it but fell back into it. Can someone please help?

If one TRULY seeks to stop thinking and acting in ungodly ways, they need to come to God in repentance; and that is in being "born again" spiritually by receiving God's gift of a NEW life in His "..beloved Son": the Lord Jesus. If one wants to be 'godly', the one needs to have God's salvation and eternal blessing as must be found in "Jesus: the Christ" ---see John 3; John 14; John 17; Romans 8; etc. and hear God speaking to one personally. Religion cannot save a soul, but the Savior can. Make Him Lord of your life, and best Friend --walking and talking with Him daily.
Read all the four Gospesls to learn salvation, and then study the Epistles to learn about Church Truth. It speaks to "unity of the faith" as the universal Church in the world. Write me at Conversation Page herein if you wish to chat about this, friend! -1watchman