Overcome Porn: The 40 Day ChallengeSample

One of the most common Hebrew words to describe God’s love in the Old Testament is hesed. It’s repeated throughout the Psalms: “His hesed endures forever.” Moses calls on God’s hesed to beg God not to destroy the wandering, scared Israelites in Numbers 14:17-19. In Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, Hosea is to show hesed to his wife in a picture of God’s hesed to the unfaithful Israel.

Michael Card defines hesed as, “When a person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.” 

Sally Lloyd-Jones calls it “A Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” 

The same principles of this love for us are clearly at work throughout the New Testament, especially in 1 Corinthians 13. There’s a clear contrast between hesed and porn. Let’s briefly look at two areas of life where this is apparent. 

Loving Our Families

Our families are among the immediate victims of our porn use. If you’re married, you’ve been pitting your spouse against thousands of “perfect” porn bodies—a physical standard no single person can possibly reach. If you’re not married, your porn use is setting up your hypothetical future spouse for failure. 

In contrast, hesed means loving our families. Are you practicing faithfulness on your own by serving your wife, husband, parents or siblings, and serving in the church? 

Loving the Downtrodden

Watching porn means using—and abusing—other peoples’ bodies for personal pleasure. Often those people are struggling in the first place; by performing in porn, they may even be pushing themselves deeper into despair and addiction.

James 1:27 teaches that pure religion looks out for the poor, the weak, and the helpless. 

Reflection

What if, instead of taking what we can from other people via porn, we started serving those who will never give us a return? This may mean volunteering in a soup kitchen, or signing up to do regular welfare-checks for an elderly widow in your church. Maybe it means being a host family for an international student. Maybe you can help run a Bible study in a jail. Maybe it means sending regular monetary contributions.

This is the love by which Jesus displays his love for the world. And this is the love that can transform a heart of stone into a heart of flesh—even hearts like ours.