Receiving God’s Mercy and Grace 

Every man I’ve treated with an addiction to pornography falsely believes he must do something to earn God’s favor. As a result they wallow in feelings of guilt that get them nowhere. 

Paul, who was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,” understood this. And so did Martin Luther, eventually. When he was still a Catholic monk, he struggled with unbounded feelings of guilt. He meticulously observed all the requirements of his religious order and confessed his sins repeatedly. He was so obsessed with confessing even the minutest sins that once his superior chided him: “If you expect God to forgive you, come in to confession with something to forgive!” 

When we relate to God out of a guilty conscience, we try to earn our worth by being severely critical of ourselves. Rather than relying on God’s mercy, we struggle to show God how good we are. A sense of inadequacy drives us to prove that we are deserving of God’s forgiveness.

But you’ll only experience God’s forgiveness when you quit trying to earn it. When Martin Luther came across Romans 1:17, “the righteous will live by faith,” he saw the futility of all his good works. For the first time, he recognized the futility of trying to earn God’s acceptance, and he rested in the gift of God’s amazing grace. His decision to base his life on faith changed his life and revolutionized the church. The same kind of faith will revolutionize your heart and help you win the battle against porn. 

If you sincerely ask God for forgiveness, you can be confident you are forgiven. “If we confess our sins,” scripture tells us, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9).