Day 15

Who's Your Master

I started playing tackle football in fourth grade. I loved it all: throwing, catching, running, blocking, but especially tackling. We did lots of drills in football. My favorites were always the tackling drills. Head up, hit with your shoulder and head (this was before we worried about concussions), and drive your feet. Run through the ball carrier! At every practice, at every level (club, junior high and high school), we tackled or practiced tackling.

I played football in college. Guess what we did at every practice? We tackled or practiced it. What do they practice regularly in the NFL?

Tackling.

You don’t ever outgrow the fundamentals.

In any sport, the best players continue to practice the basics. This enables them to perform at a high level without thinking about it. The more we practice, the more we perform automatically. This is true in sports, and it’s true with a porn or sex addiction too.

When a person’s sex addiction cycle has lots of repetitions, the behavior becomes almost automatic. When you reach a certain place—the point of no return—you will act out. This is why it is important to understand what is going on so you can set up boundaries and adjust before you ever reach that point. 

You can build new habits that will lead in a new direction.

Think through some of the new habits we have learned. BRACE is so impactful because it contains several powerful habits: breathing, meditating, reaching out, escaping temptation.

Today’s Challenge: 

1. Continue to think through your routines (from yesterday's video “Addictive Cycle”). Have you identified them? 
2. What boundaries will address your routines? 
3. Read Romans 6:16 and answer the reflection questions.

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” - Romans 6:16

Reflection Questions: 

1. What happens when you offer yourself to something as a slave? 
2. What are the two different ways this verse tells us that it can play out? 
3. How does this verse apply to the sexual addiction cycle? 
4. What are some of the ways we can offer ourselves as slaves of righteousness? (practice new habits ie. prayer, Bible reading, etc.)

How are your holy habits?

#1 Confession

#2 Daily Bible Reading and Prayer

#3 Use and practice BRACE