New Episodes every Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern)
Helping men and women find hope, help, healing, restoration and redemption
leading to lasting victory over sexual addiction through a growing, vibrant, powerful relationship with Christ.
Episode #13 - Trust or Bust: Learning to trust God with my Porn Addiction
Scripture is clear, we are to trust God. However, trusting God is far more than just believing in Him for your salvation. “Trust” in the Scriptures refers to having a bold confidence resulting in a sense of total security, surety and peace. It’s “placing all your eggs into one basket,” a basket that someone else is holding. It’s “putting all your weight” upon God with the firm conviction and assurance that He will not ever fail you.
Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. In today’s episode we continue our series on Psalm 25 – a powerful text of Scripture that will help you be the person of purity you long to be. So welcome to Episode #13 entitled “Trust or Bust – Learning to Trust God Especially in the midst of temptation!”
Transcript
It’s hard to fully surrender your soul – every moment of every day completely to God ... am I right? It’s a struggle we’re all too familiar with.
This is why David, after having said in Psalm 25:1 that he was choosing to lift up his soul to God ... choosing to daily surrender every part of his life – everything – over to God ... he then writes in Psalm 25:2 ... “O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies triumph over me.”
(01:37) Trust or Bust – really?
Listen my friend - Daily choosing to fully and completely, unreservedly trust God with everything is a central, vital, essential, critical part of living the Christian life.
Psalm 37:5 commands you to “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him. ”
You are probably familiar with the instructions of Proverbs 3:5-6 which says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
You are to, as Isaiah 26:4 says, “Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD God is an everlasting rock.” God will not fail you because He cannot fail you – it’s not who He is
Question: Do you want God’s richest blessing in your life? Do you want to live in spiritual victory and lasting freedom over the beast of sexual impurity? Choose daily to lift up your soul to God and then trust fully and completely in Him to take care of you – all of you. Jeremiah 17:7 promises “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD.”
In Psalm 118:8 David says, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.” Why? Because (as Proverbs 29:25 says) “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.” Do you want to be safe from the beast? Do you want to be safe from the sinful cravings of the flesh? Do you want to be safe from the roaring lion who wants to devour your soul? Trust in God! We saw a moment ago in Psalm 37:5 that you are to “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.”
It is vital to your Christian walk and sexual purity that you “Trust in him at all times, (and) pour out your heart before him;” Why? Because “God is a refuge for us.” (Psalm 62:8)
I’m sure by now you get the basic truth - you are to trust fully in God. But what does it mean to trust Him with your sexual temptations?
Psalm 28:7 says, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;”
Think about what the Psalmist is saying here. “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped.” You can’t do it alone. You cannot fight the beast of sexual temptation on your own and expect to win – you’ve tried too many times and failed. And so have I.
But God! He is your strength. He is the one – the only One – who enables you to stand firm and say “no!” to your temptations. God alone “a shield about you, your glory and the lifter of your head.” (Psalm 3:3).
(05:17) Fear Not! Yah, right.
Only God can protect you from the relentless attacks of the enemy upon you heart and mind. In Him your soul (the real you) must always trust – every part of you must rest confidently and securely on God’s power, God’s omnipotent strength, God’s unfathomable ability to help you overcome.
You know that what I’m saying is true, and yet the thought of giving all of your sexual desires over to God frightens you doesn’t it? I know it used to terrify me. Why? What is it you truly fear?
For many of us the fear goes something like this: “If I surrender my sexual desires and ‘needs’ over to God, He will take them away and leave me with either nothing in return – or He will give me something of lesser value, lesser pleasure and very little enjoyment.”
Question: What do those fears reveal about your relationship with God? What do they reveal about your understanding and knowledge of who God is?
(06:36) Not “if” But “When!”
In Psalm 56:3 David writes, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”
Why should you put your trust in God? Because (as God promises in Isaiah 43:2) “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, the flame shall not consume you.”
Remember, every single day of your life you are engaged in spiritual warfare. Let’s face it, fighting the three-headed beast is never easy. That is why – in Isaiah 43:2 - God uses the word “when” and not “if.” He says when you pass through the waters; when you pass through the rivers; and when you walk through the fire.
However, I want to be sure you notice that God also uses the word “through.” Yes, you will encounter the waters and the rivers of sexual temptation that will try to sweep you away in its sinful undercurrent. They will most assuredly make their presence and power known. They will tug at you and pull at you. But they won’t suck you under. God won’t let them. You won’t drown in the battle. You will pass through. That’s God’s promise.
Yes, you will encounter the heat of the trial. Yes, as you pursue purity it will be a struggle, possibly even painful at times. However, the flames won’t consume you. God will not allow you to be burned by your struggle; or your failures. You may feel the heat, but you will pass through. That is God's promise.
You must choose to (as James 4:7 commands) “submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” In other words, when you lift up your soul to God, when you choose daily, moment-by-moment, to fully yield and totally surrender every part of your heart to your Creator and Savior – including your sexual desires – God won’t leave you to fight the beast of impurity on your own. He won’t let the dragon take you down.
Psalm 32:10 assures us that “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.”
And in Psalm 73:25 David cries out to God: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”
Can you say that? Can you say with all truthfulness and honesty that there is nothing on earth that you desire besides God?
(10:22) Trust Begins with Knowing
We are currently looking at Psalm 25:2 where David cries out, “O my God, I trust in you.” Are you able to cry those same words from deep within your soul ... and mean them?
Consider this: to trust someone, you must first get to know them. I submit that you are struggling with fully trusting God in large part because you do not truly know God. To know God is to trust God.
Let me illustrate it for you this way: picture with me a College-age couple going out on their first date. On that very first date, as they enjoy a slice of pizza together, she looks into his eyes, smiles, and then demands that if they are to continue pursuing this relationship, he must give her a copy of the keys to his car, as well as to his apartment, and to his safety deposit box ... and on top of that, she must know all his passwords (computer, phone, tablet, bank account, everything) before the end of their first date.
How do you think he would respond? How would you respond? Of course, he won’t do that! Why? Because he doesn’t trust her. Why doesn’t he trust her? He doesn’t know her yet. So, how does he get to know her? By investing time with her daily.
Now let me apply that illustration: You see - God wants you to surrender everything over to Him, every nook and cranny of your life. He wants you to lift up your soul to Him – including all your sexual passions, longings and desires. Everything.
Yet you hold back. You are hesitant to give him “everything.” Why? Because you’re not sure you can trust Him. You’re not confident He has your best interests at heart. I submit: you struggle with trusting Him simply because you don’t know Him. So, how do you get to know Him? By investing time with Him daily. By talking with Him and listening to Him talk with you.
You can trust God because He IS trustworthy. That’s not just something He occasionally does when the mood suits Him. It’s part of His character. It’s who He is! If you could remove trustworthiness from God (which you cannot), He would instantly cease to be God (which He cannot).
2 Timothy 2:13 tells us that God “remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.”
That means you can lift up your soul to God, surrendering everything you are and everything you have to His Lordship and leadership because He IS trustworthy.
Psalm 9:10 reminds us that “Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.”
In the Bible a name is far more than what it is today. It’s more than just an identifier (such as “Hi, my name is Steve Etner! What’s yours?”). In Scripture, a name tells you something about that person’s character. This is why knowing the names of God is vitally important.
The names of God reveal something about who He is and shows us the ways in which He is there to help us in our times of need. To know the names of God is to begin to know the God whom that name describes. The One in whom you can always trust!
Psalm 20:1 says, “The name of the God of Jacob protects you.”
Think with me for a moment about the names of God in the Bible. Have you ever studied them? I strongly encourage you to do so. Did you know that God’s names include Elohim, Yahweh, Jehovah, Adonai, El Elyon, El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh and so many more that describe the many facets of who God is? Each of those names uncovers something important, unique, special and powerful about God. Knowing each of those names will bring you great comfort and peace as you discover that God IS trustworthy.
In Psalm 91:14 God declares, “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.”
Now I want you to think about Acts 4:12 which says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Do you completely trust God for your salvation? Assuming your answer is “yes” I have this question for you. If you are completely trusting in God for your eternal soul, why is it so hard to trust Him for your sexual purity?
(16:32) The Way of Yahweh
Here is a powerful truth for you to sink your spiritual teeth into and chew on. Psalm 18:30 says, “This God – his way is perfect ; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.”
“His way” refers to the journey or path He has chosen for you. That “way,” that path god wants you to walk down includes your sexual purity. The way of Yahweh (God’s way), is perfect! Do you believe that? You should. Why? Because God Himself is perfect, therefore His way must of necessity also be perfect.
His perfect way, the path He has laid out for you, is made clear in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like (those) who do not know God.”
And in 1 Corinthians 6:18 we read, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
The path to sexual purity that God wants you to walk is “perfect.” It is spotless, without blemish, and completely undefiled. In other words, when you choose daily to walk that path - you will want for nothing. You can always trust God to deliver on His promises.
Why is that so hard to believe? The answer, in part, is because up to this point, we have been focused on what the flesh wants vs. what our soul needs . Let me repeat that. There is a big difference between what your sinful flesh wants and what your spiritual soul needs.
You have been placing your emphasis on the desires of that which is dead, that which has no eternal significance (your flesh). You tend to think – thus typically believe – that the desires of the flesh are what must be satisfied.
You are under the false impression and evil delusion that sexual satisfaction is what will make you (your body that is dead in sin) feel alive. So, you interpret your “need” as being sexual satisfaction and fulfillment as opposed to spiritual growth and enlightenment. With that faulty, finite understanding is it any wonder you fear God won’t keep His end of the bargain?
(20:12) God is Faithful!
Let me remind you of what David cried in Psalm 25:2 “O my God, in you I trust.”
You can trust God – even with your sexual desires – because “God is faithful.”
Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 says of god “his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”
And 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
Oh, my friend, choose right now to lift up your soul to God! You can trust in Him completely!
Listen to God’s promise in Isaiah 26:3. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
And Psalm 31:14-15 says, “I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors.”
(22:20) Closing Soundtrack
I look forward to meeting with you again next week in episode #14 as we talk about the Shame of sexual Sin. Until then if you would like to learn more about our ministry, if you would like to reach out to me, if you would like to see the multitude of resources available to you in your pursuit of sexual purity be sure to visit our website – www.thepuritycoach.com (repeat) and don’t forget to download our free APP by going to your favorite app store and looking for My Purity Coach – that’s My Purity Coach.
May God continue to bless you as you continue to serve Him!