The Path to Freedom: 5 Steps to Porn-Free LivingSample

Your First Step to Freedom: Shutting the Door

Imagine you’re on a train that’s torpedoing toward disaster. Run as hard or as fast as you’d like to the back of the train, this futile attempt to move in the opposite direction of the locomotive won’t change anything. Unless you get off the train, you’re on your way to disaster.

Many of our attempts to break the cycle of porn addiction are as effective as a sprint in opposite direction of a train we can’t get off. As much as we want to stop and as hard as we try to stop, we still find ourselves on the runaway train of our desires and the hijacked, habit-forming mechanisms in our brains. So, how do we get off this train?

If you’ve started this devotional then you’re ready to make a change. You might think the first step is simply wanting to quit porn, but a desire to quit won’t take you very far on the pathway to freedom. Willpower and desire are like any depletable resource—they diminish over time or use. If you’ve ever wanted to quit porn before and failed, you know this is true. Your first step has to be an action—and a big one. You need to shut the door to your biggest threat: the primary way you have accessed pornographic materials in the last 6-12 months. You probably know what it is without thinking about it: your phone, your computer, your gaming device, your TV, or the bookstore.

You may need to cancel the cable or internet (or both), delete the browsers and apps on your phone, get rid of your smart phone, or even give your gaming system or tablet away. This might seem extreme, but the path to freedom requires you to make a change. Trying harder won’t be enough. You must make a deep, deep change in order for this to work.

Consider taking these action steps to help you shut the door to your greatest threats:

1) List all devices, locations, and methods you have used to access pornography in the last six months.

2) From that list, identify which one is your greatest threat.

3) Determine what decisive step you need to make to remove or severely limit your access to your greatest threat.

4) Pick a date and time you are committing to complete this action.

5) Try to anticipate the obstacles or roadblocks you may face in this decision, and make a plan to address them.

Thought of the Day: Today, I will take my first step toward freedom from porn. I will take action and shut the door to my greatest threats. God is with me as I begin this journey, and I am not alone.