Overcome Porn: The 40 Day ChallengeSample

Good accountability relationships go deeper than just talking about porn. If we don’t “technically” look at porn but we still indulge in lust, fantasy, or wasting time online, it can be easy to tolerate these “harmless” activities. Therefore, we need to be ruthlessly honest with our friends and ourselves.

What are the danger zones? They’re not the websites you think. They’re Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Some of the most popular and most used websites are often the most compromising.

The dividing line between black and white is often not the type of content found online, but how we interact with that content.

Our concern needs to be the state of our hearts (Eph. 5:3). The key questions to ask yourself is “why?”. Why am I so interested in the beach pictures on Instagram? Why am I curious about what lies behind that link on YouTube?

In this sense, the difference between black and white isn’t necessarily the image on the page; it is in our own hearts and motives. Visitors to any image-rich website should remember to heed the ancient proverb: “Know thyself.”

“Plausible deniability.” This is Alasdair Groves’ concern about so-called grey areas. “I’m just Googling something harmless—the kind of thing that if you saw me type it in to the search box you wouldn’t think much of it. But I’m inwardly aware that it might turn up some racy or explicit results, and I’m trying to pretend that’s not why I’m doing the search.” These hidden motives are evidences of a heart that wants to have its cake and eat it, too.

Moreover, not all so-called grey areas have to do with lust or titillation. “I think Facebook—and really any social site—is endless babble and ranks up there with porn as an indulgence,” says Lawrence Arledge. Those who sit cloistered in their homes and spend too much time connecting online are lonelier now than ever, says Arledge. 

“The real enemy is fantasy—the state of hypnotic fascination that monopolizes my time and prevents me from engaging in productive activity and real relationships,” says Nate Larkin. “And almost any website can serve that purpose.”

Reflection  

What is one “grey area” question you can talk about with your accountability ally?