Video #10 - Do Your Duty Soldier!

In Ecclesiastes 1:14 Solomon says, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”  A little bit later he states, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Eccl. 2:11; cp. 2:17, 21; 3:19).

In our battle against lust, porn and sexual impurity in our life, sometimes (nah, let’s be honest – most of the time) we can relate with Solomon.  We look at all the effort we’ve expended in trying to be a pure man, we consider the agony of the battle as we white-knuckle our way through the rough spots and we can become easily discouraged.  We feel defeated because, after all that, we still gave in during a weak moment.  All that effort, and nothing was gained.

At that instant, as we are engaged in hand-to-hand combat with our enemy, he is whispering his lies into our mind.  “God doesn’t love you, God doesn’t care about your struggles, God won’t help you, what kind of a God is He anyway that He would let you suffer like this.  Why try, why fight it, why not give up and give in?  You’ll feel a whole lot better when you do!”

In 2 Cor. 10:5 the Apostle Paul calls those “arguments that set themselves up against the knowledge of God.”  And what are we to do with those arguments?  The verse goes on to say that we are to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we are to take captive every thought, and make each thought obedient to Christ.”  Why?  Because what we think will become what we do.

Consider this: God never expects you to fight this battle on your own.  He simply wants you to focus all your attention and energy on two things – keeping His commands and fearing Him.  Those two things comprise the “whole duty of man.”  When you make your life all about Him, God will help you with everything else (see Matt. 6:33).  God wants you to stand firm in your faith in Him. As you do, He will give you the tools and the strength to just say NO!

The reason we experience defeat and discouragement is because we’ve been trying to win this thing on our own.  Oh, we may memorize Scripture, meet regularly with our accountability partners and read our Bible, but what is the motivation of our heart behind all those things?  If it’s so that you can be victorious over lust, porn & masturbation ... if it’s just so you can be free from this sin that hounds you, if it’s just so your friends and family respect you again, if it’s so you can save your marriage or keep your job, then you have a wrong motive and God is not in the battle.  You will not win (see Jas. 4:3).

So, the next time you feel overwhelmed in the fight, the next time you think God isn’t helping you against this beast in your life, remember this:.  The Lord is your strength.  He alone is your source of power – today, tomorrow, the next day and the days, weeks, months and years after that.  And oh what power He has!  1 Chron. 29:11  says that,

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.  Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all”

Only through Him, only through His might can we stop, once-and-for-all, the rampaging beast of sexual immorality that is running amok in our heart.  “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Exod. 14:14).  As you worship God today, just be still and know that He is God (Psa. 46:10).  He is your strength, your shield and when you fully trust in him, you are victorious (Psa. 28:7).

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About Steve Etner
Steve Etner is a National Men’s Speaker, Author and Purity Coach (www.thepuritycoach.com). He has authored many books, including “Extreme Mind Makeover: How to Transform Sinful Habits into God-Pleasing Patterns of Life”; “The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide: A Biblical Toolbox for Purity”; and “Are You A Super Man? Becoming God’s Man of Steel.” 

Steve’s conferences, seminars and retreats focus on what God has to say about the way we think and the impact it has on our behavior. By teaching men how to live in moral purity by equipping them with Biblical answers, Steve’s goal is for men to have a re-ignited passion for Jesus and learn how to prepare their minds to successfully overcome their temptations and thus live pure lives for Christ.