Deuteronomy 7:25-26
25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
Have you brought "an abominable thing into your house" (verse 26)? Isn't that what happens when we bring pornography into our homes? These verses talk about not bringing idols into our homes, "lest you be ensnared by it" (verse 25), and that is exactly what we do when we bring in pornographic or other ungodly materials. To be in recovery we need to "clean house", which can mean to literally clean out any pornography from our home, including blocking access to pornography on our TV or computer. We often hesitate to do this because we minimize and think "it's not that bad" or "I won't expose anyone else to it". But God does think that it is bad, and doesn't want us to expose ourselves or anyone else to it. In verse 26 we are commanded to "utterly detest and abhor it". The problem for most of us is that we don't really abhor it; instead we secretly like it and wish God would leave us alone and let us wallow in our sin. To truly be free of our compulsive sexual desires, we need to get to the place of hating the sin, of detesting and abhorring it.
Lord, my desires are often backwards, for I desire that which is detestable. Help me to detest what You detest, and to do whatever it takes to remove those things from my life.
25 The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
Have you brought "an abominable thing into your house" (verse 26)? Isn't that what happens when we bring pornography into our homes? These verses talk about not bringing idols into our homes, "lest you be ensnared by it" (verse 25), and that is exactly what we do when we bring in pornographic or other ungodly materials. To be in recovery we need to "clean house", which can mean to literally clean out any pornography from our home, including blocking access to pornography on our TV or computer. We often hesitate to do this because we minimize and think "it's not that bad" or "I won't expose anyone else to it". But God does think that it is bad, and doesn't want us to expose ourselves or anyone else to it. In verse 26 we are commanded to "utterly detest and abhor it". The problem for most of us is that we don't really abhor it; instead we secretly like it and wish God would leave us alone and let us wallow in our sin. To truly be free of our compulsive sexual desires, we need to get to the place of hating the sin, of detesting and abhorring it.
Lord, my desires are often backwards, for I desire that which is detestable. Help me to detest what You detest, and to do whatever it takes to remove those things from my life.