Fallen Heroes: A Devotional for Dads Who Struggle With PornSample

OK, confession time. I like superheroes but I don’t like the superhero mash-up stories. Yeah, the big blockbuster Avengers series? Not my thing. I prefer the solo hero who relies on his cleverness to beat the bad guys, like the Lone Ranger. If you get too many of these guys shooting lightning bolts together it’s less impressive to me.

I say confession time because that’s the wrong opinion. 

Even heroes need to collaborate—at least fallen heroes do. There’s only one superhero who actually won on his own: Jesus. The rest of us need teams. Most specifically, we need to be on his team. 

And the beautiful thing is, Jesus—who didn’t need a team—started one and asked us to be on it. Psalm 68:24-27 shows a team of worshippers following their hero. 

For a lot of guys, it’s hard to throw ourselves into the mix of the worshipping community. It feels weak, cheesy, or maybe just weird. But we were built for community. When God saves you, He doesn’t just save you individually; He saves you to be a part of His team. 

And that means He saves you to have deep relationships with others who are following after Him, relationships that will help you in the fight against porn. 

We saw in the last section that when God saves you and beats the sin in your life, He also empowers you with special gifts. These gifts are the tangible testimony of what God has done and is doing in you as his child. But when we see the way these gifts work in the Bible, it’s always in the context of the worshipping community. God doesn’t empower you to be a Lone Ranger. God never calls you to rely on your own powers to overcome the Enemy. God never calls you to rely on your own powers to beat a recurring temptation like porn.

Reflection:

1. Are you currently part of a worshipping community of believers? Are they part of your battle against porn? Do you meet with other men regularly for accountability?

2. If you don’t have an ally already, deepen your involvement with the worshipping community by asking someone to keep you accountable!