"Until you learn that your feelings don't dictate what is true about you and your circumstances, but rather the truth of God's Word, you will never be able to "quit sin completely."
Even if I learned the truth of gods word I could never quit sin completely. But I am going to try and step out on a limb here in faith to start afresh and sincerily try. I have attempted these things before but I slipped, fell down and admitted defeat over them. Instead of getting back on the wagon, so to speak, I just figured I was doomed and why even try again.....
LOL! Sorry if I gave you the impression you could be sinlessly perfect. Not gonna' happen. BUT, you
can live so that sin is the exception rather than the rule in your life. See, the Bible tells us that you and I as born again believers are dead to sin. Paul the apostle says some really incredible things about this. Check it out:
Romans 6:1-4
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Anyone who is born again has "died to sin." This isn't a physical fact, but a
spiritual one. In fact, Paul explains above that every Christian has, spiritually, been buried and raised again with Christ and now walks in "newness of life." How is this possible? Don't ask me! I have no idea how, exactly, this was done, but this doesn't really matter. What
does matter is that it
has been done. And Paul says that as a result you and I no longer have to "live in sin that grace may abound." In fact, Paul goes further and says,
Romans 6:6
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Here Paul says that we are no longer slaves to sin. Its power to control us has been broken by Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, and by our identification with what he has done for us. Of course, I don't always
feel like I'm dead to sin. Sometimes I don't feel very dead to sin at all! Its pull on me seems very real and strong! So, what do I do when this is the case? Well, Paul tells us:
Romans 6:11-14
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Paul says here that we are to "reckon," or count on the fact that we are dead to sin. Act as though it is so because it is. Your feelings have nothing to do with this. When the temptation to view inappropriate content seizes you, remind yourself that you are not its prisoner, that you are dead to sin and alive unto God, and you have the capacity to say "No!" to sin and walk away from it. And walk away you must. It's no good saying you are dead to sin while you stare at inappropriate content. As Paul says above, "Do not yield yourself as an instrument of unrighteousness."
You see, much of the Chrsitian life is about bringing your spiritual position into your daily condition. Your spiritual position as a Christian is set the moment you are saved, but experiencing the effect of your position in how you live every day (your condition) takes time and a knowledge of who you are as God's child. This is what Paul is talking about in the above passages. He says your spiritual position is that you are dead to sin. Not soon to be dead or in the process of dying, but dead - right now. Are you experiencing this in your condition, in how you live every day? Not yet. But, as you count on the fact of being dead to sin even when you feel - and perhaps feel strongly - that you are not dead to sin, you will begin to experience the truth of your position in your condition. All of this happens, of course, as you depend entirely on God's Spirit to enable you to stand on the truth without wavering.
so do you think it is a "BAD" thing to know that I will probably touch in the future?
I don't think masturbating is a sin. I think doing so with inappropriate contentographic images in your mind, or on a screen or page in front of you most definitely is. It is going to take time to be in your daily condition what God says is true of you as His child the moment you are saved. You will very likely stumble and fall so take the apostle Paul's advice:
Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Keep on keeping on, brother!
Selah.
