If you are a Christian and if you are even remotely healthy, you face sexual temptation on occasion. If you want to resist these urges so that you do not fall into sin, here are some biblical ways to overcome sexual temptation (including the Bible).
1. Count the Cost
Sexual sin comes at a price, in this life and in the next. For one thing, adulterers and the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom (Galatians 5:19-21). That’s the eternal cost—your soul, punished forever, in the lake of fire. But there’s also a price to pay in this life if you give in to sexual temptation. Think sexually transmitted diseases. Unwanted pregnancy. Divorce. Loss of custody of your kids. Getting fired. Scandal. Loss of your testimony. Jail time. Your name on the Sexual Offender Registry.
2. Clean House
Sexual temptation is primarily a proximity sin. If there is something lying around the house that is likely to tempt you, it likely will. To resist sexual temptation, rid your house, garage, attic, cottage, workplace, storage locker and everywhere else of the books, videos, magazines, souvenirs and other things that are liable to trip you up. Throw them away.
3. Make a Covenant with Your Eyes
Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. And yet he was tempted sexually. We know this because Job admits as much. Job was tempted to look at young female virgins inappropriately, so he did something about it. “I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman?” (Job 31:1).
4. Know Your Triggers
There are people, places and things that are sure to set you off when it comes to sexual sin. There are people, sights, places, smells and other things that elicit a response in you. These are called triggers. They trigger sexual arousal in you just as the pull of the trigger on a pistol discharges the firearm. If you don’t pull the trigger, the firearm doesn’t go off. In the area of sexual temptation, you must discover your triggers and then avoid them. Catalog the people, places, things, times of day, emotional states and other things that you know trigger unwanted sexual desire in you. Then avoid them.
5. Retrain the Algorithms
Almost your entire online experience is curated by technology firms. The posts you see on Facebook, the images you see on Instagram, the search results you see on Google, they’re all determined by someone else, based on your past behavior. Tech firms serve you content based upon where you’ve gone in the past. They prioritize text, images and video in your feed based on what they know you like to consume. If you want to break free of online pornography and other inappropriate content, you must retrain the algorithms. You obey Romans 12:2 by renewing your mind, online. You start visiting healthy sites, consume sanctified content, click on pure links. Eventually, the bots (and the tech firms behind them) discover that your interests have changed, and they stop serving up tempting content. Don’t ask me how I know.
6. Pluck Out Your Right Eye
Jesus commands you to pluck out your right and to cast it away if it causes you to commit adultery in your heart by lusting after women (Matthew 5:27-29). He doesn’t mean to literally pluck out your eye. He means to remove anything in your life that is either valuable, or convenient, or helpful, if that thing causes you to sin. If something tempts you sexually, it has to go. Pluck it from your life and cast it away.
7. Flee Sexual Immorality
One way to resist sexual temptation is to flee from it (1 Corinthians 6:18). You don’t stand and fight. You run away. As soon as you see a pornographic image, flee. When you feel lust building up inside, escape. When you hear a solicitation to sin sexually, run away. Don’t stay where you are. Don’t remain in the same spot, hoping to put up an adequate defense. Don’t stay and pray. Run.
8. Ditch Your Smartphone
Around 80% of internet porn is watched on mobile devices, smartphones in particular. Why? Because smartphones are convenient (you can watch porn anytime) and they are private (you sin in secret). If you know that your phone is the primary way that you are tempted sexually, why do you still have it? This is not a trick question. Get rid of it. If you know from experience that sexual temptation comes to you through that internet browser in your pocket, throw it away. If you are trying to break a porn habit, don’t carry porn in your pocket. If you are trying to avoid sexual temptation, don’t carry temptation everywhere you go. Smash your phone into thousands of pieces and cremate the remains.
9. Put On the Lord Jesus Christ
Overcoming sexual temptation biblically often involves doing two things at the same time, typically one positive and one negative. Romans 13:12-14 commands you to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” You put on the Lord by thinking his thoughts, following his example, obeying his commands, following Him. You wear Christ as your protection. You put Him on as the supplier of all your needs. That’s the positive. And you make no provision for the flesh. That’s the negative.
10. Make No Provision for the Flesh
One way to resist sexual temptation is to avoid it in the first place. And one way to avoid it is to make no provision for it. This is the command that you and I have from Paul: “Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14). Provision in the Greek means advance knowledge, forethought, foresight. It means to either enable or to allow for something to happen. Since you are commanded to make no provision for the flesh, you are to do the opposite of enabling your flesh, the opposite of allowing something to happen. You purposefully think of those people and places and things that encourage or tempt you to fulfil your lusts, and you avoid them.
11. Adopt the Mind of Christ
Sexual temptation takes place between your ears, not between your legs. If you want to gain victory over unwanted sexual urges, change how you think. One way to do this is to adopt the mind of Christ. In particular, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Christ is your model. Frame your life according to his great example. Humble yourself. Have a mind to suffer.
12. Install a Porn Blocker
You overcome sexual temptation partly by avoiding it. Since the majority of sexual temptations arrive visually (videos, movies, photographs, text messages, phone apps, email messages), you must protect your eyes from seeing the things that fire you up sexually. One way to do this is with porn-blocking software (Covenant Eyes, Net Nanny, Canopy). Also known as porn filters, these apps block pornographic websites, apps and images. They help you “make no provision for the flesh” digitally (and automatically). You install the software on all of your electronic devices (desktop PC, laptop, tablet, phone). The better blockers let you add inappropriate website addresses, too. Any time you stumble upon a website that’s guaranteed to trigger lust in you, you block it. If you don’t trust yourself not to look at porn, trust a porn-blocker. Porn blockers protect you from your greatest source of sexual temptation—you.
13. Put Nothing Wicked Before Your Eyes
Sexual temptation often arrives through the eyes. If you are a man, you are particularly tempted by what you see. This is why King David wrote, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me” (Psalm 101:3). Note three things. First, some things that you can look at are wicked. Second, you have a choice over whether you look at wicked things. Third, you can decide, right now, that you will never deliberately look at wicked things, such as pornography, and strippers, and webcam models. You can purpose today to not put these wicked images before your eyes.
14. Don’t Listen to the Tempter
One way to overcome temptations to sin sexually is to refuse to listen to the person doing the tempting. This is what Joseph did. He was a servant in the house of a man called Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife found Joseph attractive, and solicited him repeatedly to lie with her. But Joseph ignored her enticements. We read that, “as she spoke to Joseph day by day, he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her” (Genesis 39:10). Joseph avoided having sex with her by avoiding her bed. He avoided her bed by avoiding her. And he overcame her solicitations to sin by not listening to her. Do likewise.
15. Flee Your Tempter
Sometimes you cannot simply ignore sexual solicitations. This is what happened to Joseph. He avoided Potiphar’s wife and ignored her repeated wicked solicitations to lie with her, but one day she took things a step further and caught him by his clothing. Joseph could no longer ignore her (Genesis 39:1-12). He had to act. So, he left behind the piece of clothing that she had grabbed and he fled and ran outside. Sometimes you have no choice but to run away from sexual temptation, and to stay far away.
16. Avoid Places Where You Know You Will be Tempted
A few thousand years ago, a father wrote to his son, teaching him how to avoid sexual temptation. In particular, he warned him how to avoid the neighborhood prostitute: “Do not go near the door of her house” (Proverbs 5:8). You learn two vital lessons from this teaching. One, you can know where sexual temptation dwells. And two, you can avoid those places. Today, sexual temptation happens outdoors, indoors, online, everywhere. Your primary defense in your battle against sexual sin is to know where you are tempted to sin. Draw up a list. Create a map. Plot all of the places where you know you will face enticements to sin. Then avoid those places. As Solomon says, do not even go near them.
17. Beware of Your Worst Source of Temptation
In your battle with sexual lust and sexual temptation, you may have fallen into the error of believing that your fight is outward. You may mistakenly think that your enemy is porn sites, or hookup apps, or strip clubs, or so-called adult magazines, or movies. You may think overcoming sexual temptation means overcoming outside influences. But your greatest enemy in your fight for sexual purity looks back at you in the mirror each morning. Your worst source of temptation is you. James tells you that, “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1:13-15). You are tempted sexually because you desire sexual sin. You can’t be tempted by something you don’t desire. So, in your fight to conquer sexual temptation, start by changing what (and who) you desire.
18. Use God’s Way of Escape
Not a single sexual temptation is irresistible. No sexual urge is impossible to overcome. God promises that, in every temptation, in every trial, He always gives you a way out so that you do not have to sin. Here’s the promise: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God always provides a way of escape from sexual temptation. Always. Look around and you’ll find it.
19. Focus On Your Heart
You are tempted sexually because you are wicked. Sexual sins start in the heart. You face sexual temptations because your heart is contrary to God. As Jesus says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications [sexual immorality], thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man” (Matthew 15:19-20). Sexual immorality proceeds from your heart. Sexual sin isn’t “out there” somewhere. It’s in your heart, waiting for a chance to act out. If you want to overcome sexual temptation, ask God to change your heart.
20. Never Be Alone with Someone Who Tempts You Sexually
When Potiphar’s wife wanted to tempt Joseph sexually, she got him alone with her (Genesis 39:7-15). She waited until it was just her and him, alone in a room together, and then she made her move. Joseph escaped the temptation by running from the room and leaving the house. If you want to get victory over sexual temptation, follow Joseph’s lead—never spend time alone with someone who tempts you to sin sexually. In Joseph’s case, the sexual advances of his employer’s wife were unwelcome. But in your case, you may enjoy being in the company of someone you are attracted to but not married to. To avoid sexual sin, never be alone with that person. Don’t share a cab. Don’t share a meal after work. Don’t go swimming together. Don’t climb into the back seat of your car together, hoping you won’t be tempted. If you want to avoid the sexual sin, avoid being alone with the person who tempts you sexually.
21. Be Filled with the Spirit
One of the secrets to resisting sexual temptation is “not this, but that.” You avoid the temptation by doing something else instead. This is the essence of what Paul means when he says, “do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). In other words, do not be drunk, but be filled. Not with wine, but with the Spirit. Not this, but that. To gain victory in your life over sexual urges, replace the sources of the temptation (the “wine”), with the Spirit. Invite the Spirit into your life. Seek His presence, His guiding, His sanctifying power.
22. Remember Lot’s Wife
One biblical principle for avoiding or resisting sexual temptation is to never look back. Don’t return to the people or places or things that tempted you in the past. Don’t re-visit the sources of your sexual temptation. Why not? Because you must “remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). This is what Jesus commands you to do. Jesus says a great judgment is coming upon the world. The wicked will be punished and the redeemed will be saved. The redeemed, says Jesus, must remember Lot’s wife and not look back at the wickedness they have been saved out of. Lot’s wife looked back. God turned her into a pillar of salt. Don’t look back at your sins. Don’t long for the wickedness you have been redeemed out of. Remember Lot’s wife.
23. Walk with a Limp
Jesus says: “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8). Your feet are helpful, practical, convenient and valuable to you. But if one of them causes you to sin, you are to cut it off and cast it from you. Jesus is being metaphorical, of course. He doesn’t want you to literally cut off a hand or a foot. But what Jesus expresses metaphorically He means literally. Jesus literally wants you to take anything that is helpful, practical, convenient or valuable to you, and to remove it from your life—brutally and permanently—if it causes you to sin. This includes sexual temptation. You must rid your life of anyone, and anything, and any place, that tempts you to sin. Doing so will hurt. And people will notice your limp. But who cares, right? You will avoid everlasting fire.
24. Watch and Pray
“Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). Your enemy is the flesh. Your spirit wants to avoid sexual temptation, but your flesh doesn’t. If you want to gain victory, you must watch and pray. You must remain alert, vigilant, awake. And you must seek God’s enabling power and protection through prayer. The disciples fell asleep in the garden even though they wanted to stay awake. Their flesh won out. If you want to win the battle with sexual temptation, your spirit must be willing. And you must make your flesh willing, too, through vigilance and prayer.
25. Renew Your Mind
One way to resist sexual temptation is to replace your wicked memories with sanctified ones, to replace your sinful thoughts with holy ones, to replace your evil desires with pure ones. Through the apostle Paul, God commands you to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). The world wants you to conform to its way of thinking and acting. Think pornography, sex before marriage, adultery, and every other kind of sexual immorality. The world wants you to enjoy these sins, to think about them, to remember them. But God commands you to turn your back on them by being transformed through the renewing of your mind. Start with the Bible. Look for Christ, and fill your mind with His precepts, His promises, His plan for your life.
26. Put Lust to Death
The most effective cure for sexual temptation is execution. “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). Take those parts of your earthly nature that respond to sexual temptation and put them to death. Kill them. Execute them. Don’t let them live. How? Put tempting thoughts and desires to death by changing the subject. As soon as a lustful thought enters your mind, kill it by thinking of something holy and pure. When an image of a porn actress enters your mind, put that image to death. When a strong sexual desire enters your mind, kill it by reciting Scripture you have memorized.
27. Get Off Social Media
Roughly 13% of all material on Twitter is pornographic. Visit the other social platforms and you will find varying percentages of porn and sexually suggestive images and videos. So, if you want to avoid sexual temptation, should you even be on these platforms? No. Jesus commands you to pluck out your right eye and cast it away if it causes you to commit sexual immorality (Matthew 5:27-29). In practical terms, this means you delete your social accounts. Not pause them. Not simply remove the apps from your phone. Delete them. Cancel them. Never go back.
28. Take Every Thought Captive
Sexual temptation thrives in an undisciplined mind. The more you allow your thoughts to wander towards, and entertain, and think about, sexually inappropriate topics, the more likely you are to fall to sexual sin. The cure is “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). Every sexually suggestive thought or image or sound that enters your mind has a chance of leading you to sin. Sexually tempting thoughts are thoughts that you must bring into captivity by subduing them and ensnaring them. You must act quickly and decisively. If you want to conquer sexual temptation, change the way you think. When you change the way you think, you change the way you act.
29. Read Oswald Chambers
In August 1992, when I was 32 years old but barely one year old as a Christian, a sweet couple at my church, Irene and Charles, handed me a copy of My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. Next to the Bible, this daily devotional did more to influence my walk with the Lord than anything else. Chambers is forceful, biblical and unsparing. He exposes my hypocrisy, uncovers my pride, roots out my self-righteousness and other sins of self. If you need a daily dose of sanctification, read your Bible daily, and read Oswald Chambers, too.
30. Reckon Yourself Dead to Sin
One way to resist sexual temptation is to reckon yourself dead to it. This is what Paul commands: “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:11). Don’t let sin have influence or control over you, any more than the enticements of this world have influence or control over a corpse buried six feet underground in the cemetery. Be dead to sexual temptation, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
31. Cancel Your Streaming Accounts
If you are serious about avoiding sexual temptation, cancel your subscription to HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Tencent Video and any other streaming service that broadcasts sequences of sex, nudity, sexual inuendo, rape, incest and more. Don’t put any money in the pockets of people who glorify the very sins that Christ died to conquer. Don’t watch any movies or shows that tempt you sexually. But go a step further and remove the temptation to watch this filth altogether. Cancel your streaming subscriptions. Pluck out your right eye and cast it from you.
32. Memorize Scripture
If you want to conquer sexual lust or sexual temptation in your life, use the scriptures. First, memorize a pertinent scripture. Then, when tempted to sin, recite that scripture from memory. Scripture memorization, after all, is one way to prevent yourself from sinning against God (Psalm 101:3-4). Start with Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” When you think you lack strength to resist sexual temptation, Christ is your strength. When you lack encouragement that you can quit, this verse reminds you that you can.
33. Install an Electronic Accountability App
Want to discover the easiest and fastest way to avoid falling to sexual temptation online? Get caught. Arrange your life so that anytime you look at pornography, someone catches you in the act, and then confronts you about your sin. This is what I do. Works for me. I happen to use Covenant Eyes on all of my electronic devices (desktop PC, laptop, tablet, mobile phone), but there are other options on the market. If I visit an inappropriate website with my laptop, or look at sinful images on my phone, or browse sexually immoral images on my tablet while at work, Covenant Eyes takes screenshots of my activity and emails them to my accountability partner. Then my accountability partner sees those images, and confronts me. The fear of getting caught in the act keeps me from doing the act. Knowing for sure that I will get caught keeps me pure when I am tempted sexually.
34. Get an Accountability Partner
I didn’t start gaining consistent victory over sexual temptation until I began making myself accountability to someone. The whole reason for having an accountability partner is to be accountable to someone so that you don’t struggle alone. That someone helps you stay on the path, encourages you when you fall, rebukes you in love when your thinking is off, and helps you keep Christ as the focus of your life. Your accountability partner must be someone you trust. Ideally, it should be someone who has victory in the area of sexual temptation.
35. Be Accountable to Your Accountability Partner
This will sound redundant, but you must be accountable to your accountability partner. Accountability requires two things: frequency, and honesty. You must meet with your accountability partner often enough that they help you avoid sexual temptation. Make the time between accountability chats too long and you will struggle unnecessarily in the times in between. And if you are not honest with your accountability partner, you don’t get the benefit. One way to be honest is to have your accountability partner ask you three questions each time you talk: 1. Have you been tempted sexually since we last talked? 2. Have you fallen to sexual sin since we last talked? 3. What biblical steps are you going to take to improve this situation?
36. Get Out of Bed an Hour Earlier
The ultimate protection against sexual temptation is the indwelling Holy Spirit. When you live a life that is consecrated to God, one that involves daily, secret communion with Him, you are less likely to fall to sexual temptation. If you feel that you lack the time to spend with the Lord each day, get out of bed an hour earlier. Set your alarm clock to wake you when the rest of the house is still asleep. Start each day in meditating on God’s word, praying to Him, and communing with Him. Spend at least an hour with God before your day begins. Get up an hour earlier to make sure this happens.
37. Keep a Simple Journal
Victory in the area of sexual temptation, pornography and sexual sin involves self-discovery. As you spend time each day reading the Bible, and seeking God through prayer, you discover things about God, about yourself, about your behavior, and about your sin. Write down what you discover. Buy a simple ruled journal. Each day, write out the date and the chapter (or chapters) of the Bible that you read. Then, write out in full the Bible verse that caught your eye, and then jot down your thoughts and observations about the truth that God showed you in his word that day. Do this daily. When you keep a journal, you force yourself to come to God’s word looking for answers, promises, warnings, lessons, and more. You put yourself in divine discovery mode each morning. The effort pays off in a transformed life.
38. Pray Daily
I began to get victory over sexual temptation when I started praying to God each morning. Before then, my devotional life was spotty. Sometimes I read my Bible and prayed, but mostly I didn’t. I discovered through spending time with God each morning in prayer that I had been avoiding Him. I discovered that I cannot be a hypocrite while on my knees. I learned that my sin is between me and God, and that my relationship with Him is vital. That relationship must involve communication—frequent, meaningful communication. Friends talk. And so, because I want to be close to God, I now pray to Him each morning, before my busy day starts. My prayers are often stilted, and I am often distracted, but I tough it out anyway. God deserves my undivided attention each day, and so I give Him that first thing. The deeper my relationship grows with the Lord, the easier my battle gets with sexual temptation.
39. Get Up and Do Something
One way to overcome sexual temptation is to find something else to do. Since temptation is something that happens in your mind, you can conquer temptation by changing the subject. As soon as a sinful thought enters your brain, as soon as the memory of a sexually immoral act comes to mind, think of something else. Kill the thought before it has time to fester. Some men get victory in this area by changing their position. If they are sitting in the living room watching a show when the wicked thought arrives uninvited, they get up, walk out to the garage (for example), and start tinkering on their car. An immediate change of location and activity quickly puts sexual temptation to death. When you move to a new location, when you start doing something different, you change the subject in your mind. You replace the wicked thought with a healthier one. The temptation to sin vanishes.
40. Consecrate Yourself to the Lord Daily
God wants all of you. Your will. Your affections. Your devotion. The works. One way to give God what He wants is to consecrate yourself to Him daily. You obey the command found in the book of Romans: “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Romans 6:13). You present yourself to God. You make yourself available to Him, to use you as He sees fit. Consecrating yourself to God in this way each day keeps your focus on God and His will for your life, which includes abstaining from sexual sin.
41. Resist the Devil
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” That’s the promise of God found in James 4:7. This word resist is the Greek word that means to stand against, to oppose. It is a verb, an action word. It is an imperative, a command. In other words, resist is a command that you are to obey. When you are tempted to commit a sexual sin, and when the agent behind that temptation is the devil, there is a command that you are to obey, there is an action that you are to take. That action is resistance. You are to stand against the devil. You are to oppose the devil. And what happens when you resist the devil? He flees. James doesn’t suggest that the devil might flee, or that he will think about fleeing. James promises that the devil will flee—guaranteed. And also notice that the devil doesn’t simply leave, or walk away. He flees. That is, he runs away, he vanishes out of your sight.
42. Abstain from Fleshly Lusts
If you ever have the feeling that your struggle with sexual temptation is a battle, take heart—because it is. Peter commands you to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). You are at war with yourself, with your fleshly lusts. That is, you are engaged in a daily conflict with inordinate bodily, animal, unregenerate desires. These lusts come in the form of sexual fantasies, sexual temptations, sexual urges. They attack you when you are watching pornography (something you shouldn’t be doing, obviously), when you are lying in bed, even when you are sitting in church. Your job as a soldier in this war is to never surrender to these fleshly lusts. Abstain from them. Keep away from them as an alcoholic stays away from the bottle. Stay distant from them as drug addicts stay distant from the friends and places where they used to get their supply. When a sinful thought enters your mind, recite a Bible verse. When you are gripped by a sexual urge, take a cold shower, go for a run, lift weights, climb stairs, skip rope, play with your kids. Do whatever you have to so that you abstain from sexual lust.
43. Don’t Take the Second Look
Are you tempted sexually primarily by your eyes? Does the sight of a seductive woman inflame your lust? Does the sight of the female form cause your blood to rise? Then, to conquer sexual temptation, you must conquer the second look. You know what I am talking about. You are walking down the street, minding your own business, when a female jogger appears before you, headed in your direction. As she approaches, you look away, but as she passes, you turn about, your eyes following her. That’s the second look. You can’t avoid the first look. In our hyper-sexualized culture, your eyes are assaulted daily with billboards, store displays, TV commercials, magazine covers at the checkout, sex scenes in movies and TV shows, and more. This is why you can’t control the first look. But you can control the second. You can, and must, control whether you look the second time. Solomon had the right idea. “Let your eyes look straight ahead” (Proverbs 4:25).
44. Call Your Sin what God Calls It
You will never overcome sexual temptation if you see sexual sin simply as a mistake, or a habit. Victory in this area requires you to call your sexual sin what it is—sin. You are not a sex addict. You are not addicted to porn. Committing adultery is not a fling or an affair. Looking at a woman to lust after her is not harmless (it’s adultery). Living with someone you are not married to is not co-habiting or shacking up. It’s fornication (sexual immorality). The road to victory over sexual temptation is to call your sin what God calls it. Don’t obscure your sin with soft-sounding phrases. Don’t call it what the world calls it. Give it a biblical name. Call it what God calls it. Then you can work to get free of it and to no longer be tempted by it.
45. Keep Short Accounts with God
Have you discovered that, the longer you go without reading your Bible, the longer you neglect communing with God in prayer, the easier it is to fall to sexual temptation? And have you also learned that, the more you sin sexually, the less you desire to talk with God? The remedy is to keep short accounts. In accounting, to “keep short accounts” means to keep your accounts payable paid up and to never allow them to become extended. When you pay off your credit card balance in full at the end of each month, you keep a short account with your bank. With God, you keep short accounts by never allowing sin in your life to go unconfessed for more than 24 hours. You make yourself accountable to God daily. You never carry the sins of yesterday forward to today, or the sins of last week forward to this week. As soon as you sin, you confess to God. You ask God for His forgiveness.
46. Block Anyone Who Flirts with You On Social Platforms
Facebook is cited in one out of every five divorces in the United States, according to the Loyola University Health System. Relationships that start innocently online quickly turn into full-fledged adulterous relationships thanks to Facebook and other social platforms. One spouse connects with someone they knew in high school, or flirts with someone they meet online, and within a short amount of time the chats get personal, the personal gets intimate, and the couple eventually meet and commit adultery. Neither person sets out to commit adultery and wreck their marriage, but that’s what happens with undisciplined use of Facebook. If you want to avoid the divorce court, block anyone who flirts with you on Facebook or another social platform. If you receive a friend request from an old flame, block them. And, this goes without saying, but here goes anyway: don’t initiate flirting on social platforms, and don’t send friend requests to old flames.
47. Arm Yourself with the Mind of Christ
Your primary weapon in your war against sexual temptation isn’t filtering software, or an accountability partner, or a 12-step recovery program, or an online forum or will power. Your primary weapon is your mind, a mind conformed to the mind of Christ. When you think as Christ thought during His earthly ministry, you stop sinning. You are to arm yourself with the mind of Christ (1 Peter 4:1-2). That is, you are to view sin the way Christ viewed sin. You are to respond to temptation the way Christ responded to it. Christ was tempted in all points as we are, yet He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). When you arm yourself with the mind of Christ, you do the same.
48. Crucify Your Flesh
Overcoming sexual temptation requires you to crucify your sinful passions and desires. If you belong to Christ, you are to take your sinful lusts and nail them to a cross until they die (Galatians 5:24). When a wicked thought enters your mind, when you see an image online that stirs up your lust, you crucify it, put it to death, execute it. This is your responsibility. God doesn’t do this at the time of your conversion. And you aren’t supposed to struggle with sexual temptation all your life, waiting until your death for your sinful passions and desires to finally expire. Instead, you are the one who must crucify your flesh. Crucify your passions and lusts daily.
49. Never Climb Into a Hot Tub with Anyone But Your Spouse
Sexual temptation is like fire—the closer you get to the flame, the more likely you are to get burned. This means, if you want to avoid sexual sin, you must avoid sexual temptation. Don’t put yourself in situations where you know you will be tempted. Don’t watch pornography, for example. Don’t watch R-rated movies. Don’t flip though the TV channels in your hotel room alone at midnight. Don’t climb into a hot tub with anyone but your spouse. In other words, stay far away from temptation. Avoid the people, the places, the images, the devices, that you know tempt you to sin.
50. Don’t Conform to Your Old Evil Desires
One way to avoid sexual temptation is to avoid your sinful past. Peter commands you to not conform yourself to your former lusts, the ones that you indulged in “in your ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). Instead, be holy, because God is holy. Now that you are redeemed, forgiven and sanctified, now that you have a new nature and the indwelling Holy Sprit, don’t conform to your former lusts. Conform in the Greek is a derivative of schema, and means to fashion according to the same pattern. You are commanded to look at your former sexual immorality, and to not conform your present way of life to that old, wicked pattern.
51. Don’t be Deceived
Do you struggle with sexual temptation because you are deceived? Do you fall to sexual sin, and repent, then fall again, then repent again, over and over, because you are deceived? If you profess Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, but continue to fall into sexual sin, you might just be deluded about how you can be both a Christian and a habitual fornicator at the same time. Because you can’t. The Bible says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). This collection of unrighteous people, 40% of whom commit sexual sins, will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, they are not heirs to the kingdom. They are not God’s children. God is not their father. So, they will receive nothing from God by way of inheritance when they die. You cannot fall to sexual temptation as a manner of life and inherit the kingdom of God.
52. Just Say No
Want to know the secret to avoiding sexual temptation? Avoid sexual temptation. Want to know how to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions? Say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions. This is the biblical path to sexual integrity. The secret to not masturbating? Don’t masturbate. The secret to not looking at porn? Don’t look at porn. The guaranteed way to avoid sexual immorality is to avoid sexual immorality. That’s what the Bible says. “The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Just say no, with God’s grace.
53. Avoid the Temptress
The key to victory over sexual temptation isn’t fight, but flight. Your sexual purity depends not on your moral backbone, nor on your strength of character, nor on your level of willpower. It depends on your ability to avoid temptation in the first place. To conquer sexual sin, including the sin of looking at pornography, you must learn to bypass—not battle—sexual temptation. Solomon says the way to overcome the temptation is to avoid the temptress (Proverbs 5:8). He doesn’t advise you to be strong in the moment, or to battle temptation, or to expect to resist the immoral woman when you meet her. Instead, Solomon prescribes radical avoidance. “Remove your way far from her,” he commands. When you walk through town, take the route to your destination that avoids her. But notice the modifier. You are not to simply remove your way from her. You are to remove your way far from her. You don’t avoid the sexually tempting woman by simply crossing the street. You avoid her by taking a detour of 10 city blocks.
54. Run Out the Clock
The good news about sexual temptation is that it can’t last. Just look at the occasion when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. The Devil tempted Jesus for 40 days, but then the Devil “departed from Him for a season” (Luke 4:13). The temptation to look at pornography, the temptation to masturbate, the temptation to commit other sexual sins, no matter how strong, eventually goes away. It doesn’t last. The good news about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, if I may put it this way, is that it lasted only 40 days. Jesus got the victory over the Devil, and then the Devil departed from Him. That’s the good news of temptation—it only lasts for a season. You should expect to be tempted again. But when that temptation arrives, just resist it again. It will depart from you.
55. Look at Sexual Purity as a Journey, Not a Destination
Sexual purity isn’t a destination you hope to reach tomorrow. It’s a walk you take today. In Paul’s words, you must “walk properly as in the daytime.” That is, you are to walk honestly (KJV), behave decently (NIV), conduct yourself properly and honorably (Amplified) (Romans 13:13). Your walk is to involve no orgies or drunkenness, no sexual immorality or sensuality, and no quarreling or jealousy. Your walk is to be different from those who live in darkness. Just don’t expect to arrive at a place in your life where you experience zero sexual lust, zero sexual temptation or zero sexual fantasies. That place doesn’t exist, so don’t make it your destination. No amount of effort can ever get you there. Instead, look at sexual purity as a walk that you take with the Lord today. To “walk properly” means to conquer sexual lust, resist sexual temptation and overcome sexual fantasies today, not tomorrow. It requires you to spend today exercising self-control. Don’t aim to eventually conquer your sexual urges and temptations and sexual sins. Don’t think that working your way through 12 steps of recovery will one day land you at your destination with a halo waiting for you. You don’t have a destination. You only have your walk with the Lord today. And today’s walk involves no porn, no masturbation, no sexual immorality, and victory over sexual temptation.
56. Detour Before the Dopamine
Resisting sexual temptation is all about the stopwatch, because sexual temptation follows a predictable sequence of events (what Dr. Kevin Skinner calls The Activation Sequence). Sexual sin starts with a Trigger, such as an image, a video, or a thought. That’s followed by an Involuntary Emotional Response (delight or disgust, for instance), which is then followed by the First Thought. If you are a Christian man and if the trigger is a pornographic image, this first thought is likely whether you should keep looking or not. Then comes the Chemical Release, the dopamine that travels to your brain, and feels good. Then your Body Changes. Your pulse increases, your breathing increases, you begin to get an erection. Then you have the Second Thought. Here you battle with reasons for continuing looking at the porn, and reasons for stopping looking. Whichever thought wins, that is the Action you will take. Dr. Skinner suggests that you take a U-turn before you reach step 4, the hit of pleasurable dopamine. Resisting sexual temptation gets progressively harder after the dopamine starts flowing, because dopamine drives you to seek and repeat pleasurable activities. Dopamine motivates you to seek the reward of orgasm. So, to avoid the sin, avoid the dopamine.
57. Read A. W. Tozer
If you want to overcome sexual temptation, draw closer to God. If you want to draw closer to God, read A. W. Tozer. Aiden Wilson Tozer was an American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor. He wrote a number of books that are considered devotional classics, including The Knowledge of the Holy and The Pursuit of God. Tozer does my soul good because he calls out my sin and worldliness and draws me closer to my Lord. He makes me want to get to know God better, to live a holy life. His writing is lucid, lyrical, and penetrating. A few gems:
“The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things.”
“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts”
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
58. Understand Your Adversary
Next to yourself, your greatest adversary in your struggle with sexual temptation is the Devil. The Devil uses all manner of tactics to get you to sin sexually. But these stratagems can be known. For example, Paul says that we should forgive those who sin against us, and not withhold forgiveness, “lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” As you can see, Satan has devices, he uses them to take advantage of you (to outwit you, to defraud you), but you can know all about these devices, these schemes. For one thing, Satan is a liar, and a murderer (John 8:44). And he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Plus, Satan is not simply the adversary, he is your adversary (1 Peter 5:8). So be on your guard.
59. Avoid Her Corner
If you want to avoid sexual temptation, stop walking though the places in town where you know you’ll find it. You know where they are, offline and online. This is the advice that Solomon had for his son. He describes for his son the immoral woman, the seductress, who solicits business in town from a place that Solomon calls “her corner.” People in this town see this prostitute at this corner during so many hours of the day and night, and on so many days throughout the year, that the corner is hers. What is Solomon’s advice to his son? “Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths” (Proverbs 7:25). In other words, to overcome sexual temptation, prevent yourself from visiting the places where you know you’ll find it. Install porn blocking software (like Covenant Eyes) on every device you use, including your desktop PC, laptop, tablet and phone. Stop visiting the places where you know you’ll find the immoral woman who leads you into sin. If you want to avoid sexual temptation, avoid her corner.
60. Walk in the Spirit
Turns out one way to conquer temptations to sin sexually is to change the way you walk. “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,” says Paul (Galatians 5:16). To “walk in the Spirit” means to conduct yourself in the power of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit directs, following His leading. “Live under the influences of the Holy Spirit; admit those influences fully into your hearts. Do not resist him, but yield to all his suggestions. Never was a better, a safer, or a more easy rule given to overcome our corrupt and sensual desires than that here furnished [to walk in the Spirit]” (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible).
61. Admit You Have Power
Do you consider yourself powerless over sexual temptation? Do you look at your problem with lust and consider it something you are unable to manage? Do you, in short, believe that you are a slave to sexual immorality? If you believe these things about yourself, then you believe the first lie of the Celebrate Recovery 12 Steps: “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.” The Bible says otherwise. The Bible says you can flee sexual temptation (1 Corinthians 6:18), you can abstain from sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3), and you can put lust to death (Colossians 3:5-7). After all, no one forces you to pull out your smartphone and search for porn. No one stands over your bed and compels you to masturbate. No one forces you to take that second look. These are sins you do willingly. Your habitual sin is manageable. You have moral agency, self-control, willpower. And you have the Holy Spirit to empower you. As a bond-slave of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:22), you are free to forsake your voluntary sexual sins any time you please, to resist sexual temptation, and to serve Christ instead.
62. Love Not the World
Your struggle with sexual temptation might be related to your love of the world. After all, the world includes the lust of the flesh. The flesh is that part of the human condition that is weak and still subject to the attack of sin, that is opposed to the Spirit and wars against it, and that becomes the instrument of sin. The Apostle John says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). If you struggle with sexual lust, you likely have too much of the world in you. You watch the wrong movies. You watch the wrong TV shows. You read the wrong books. You visit the wrong websites. You use the wrong apps. To conquer sexual temptation, forsake the world.
63. Own Your Wickedness
When you watch a pornographic video, this is essentially what you say to the woman:
I don’t care about you. I don’t care about your personal story that got you onto this wretched porn site. I don’t care about what will happen to you when the filming is over—how you’ll drag yourself back to your apartment and get drunk just to stop feeling the pain. I don’t care about what you’ll be facing tomorrow, which will be yet another day of this torment. I don’t want to know what you’re suffering. I don’t even want to know your name. You don’t matter. All that matters here is me. And not the ‘royal me’ God created but the predatory me, the masturbatory me, the urge-of-the-moment me, the selfish me that Satan is robbing of life, even as I rob you of life. So whoever you are there on the screen—I’ll click over to some other victim soon, but you just keep up the show, okay? Keep smiling while you’re abused. Keep it up, while I masturbate and masturbate and masturbate, because nothing about me or you really matters anyway.
Ray Ortlund, The Death of Porn
64. Reduce Your Screen Time
Last time I checked the stats, the average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone each day. That’s 22 hours a week, 98 hours a month, 1,183 hours a year. That’s too much time. Too much time wasted on vanity, the world, gossip, fear of missing out, and things that have zero value in eternity. That’s also too much time exposing yourself to sexual temptation. The longer you spend glued to your phone screen each day, the more likely you are to happen upon inappropriate images on Twitter, suggestive videos on TikTok, and downright wicked sights on apps and websites that I won’t name. If you spend too much time on your phone because you need something to fill your day, replace that wasted screen time with something that pays spiritual dividends—and keeps you away from sexual temptation. Study the Book of Romans. Read the biography of Hudson Taylor. Read anything by Andrew Murray. Spend less time on your phone, and more time on things that pertain to eternity, and you will grow in power to avoid, resist, and overcome sexual temptation.
65. Fix Your Eyes on the Great White Throne Judgment
The Bible teaches that there is going to be a final judgment. Anyone not found in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). Included in the number that are punished forever are the sexually immoral (Revelation 21:8). Those who watch porn, have sex outside of marriage, commit adultery, and who commit all manner of other sexual sins, will spend eternity in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. In other words, all those who fall to sexual temptation will be punished. All who fail to overcome sexual temptation in this life will be punished in the life to come. If you want to avoid the lake of fire, avoid the sexual sin. If you want to avoid the sexual sin, overcome the sexual temptation. If you want to overcome the sexual temptation, think about eternity each day, and contemplate where you are headed if you fail to repent and to amend your life. After all, those who appear before the Great White Throne will be “judged according to their works” (Revelation 20:12).
66. Disable the Hotel Room TV
One source of temptation for many Christian men is the TV in their hotel room when they are travelling on business. Tired and alone after a long day of travel and meetings, some brothers boot up the TV and hop from channel to channel, hoping not to find anything pornographic, sort of, maybe. Their will is weak, their flesh is strong, and they eventually succumb and watch something pornographic, or as good as pornographic. If this sounds familiar, and if you want to avoid the temptation of pay-per-view porn, take action as soon as you enter your hotel room. Unplug the monitor from the wall outlet. Unplug the cable from the wall. Then take the TV remote downstairs and hand it in to reception. Ask them to look after it until after you check out of the hotel. Ask them to block all access to pay-per-view movies in your room. Then return to your room, cover the monitor with a blanket, and seek the Lord through Bible reading and prayer.
67. Watch Only G-Rated Movies
The problem with avoiding sexual temptation is that the world keeps moving the goal posts. What was considered illegal 50 years ago is now considered simply X-rated. What was considered X-rated 10 years ago is now rated 14+. And what was rated 14+ not so long ago is now rated PG. As the years go by, sexual content on TV shows and in movies gets ever more vile and frequent. You can no longer watch a show or movie that’s rated PG (Parental Guidance) and expect it to have no nudity, no sex scenes, and no suggestive dialogue. Your only safe rating for shows and movies these days is G. But even G-rated entertainment has characters frequently taking the Lord’s name in vain. So, if you want to avoid sexual temptation in what you watch, watch only shows and movies rated G. Or skip TV and movies altogether.
68. Deny Yourself, Take Up Your Cross, and Follow Jesus
“The first lesson in Christ’s school is self-denial” (Matthew Henry). “I take the love of God and self-denial to be the sum of all saving grace and religion” (Richard Baxter). “Bearing a cross is an elaboration of Christ’s demand for self-denial. Bearing a cross is every Christian’s daily, conscious selection of those options which will please Christ, pain self, and aim at putting self to death” (Walter Chantry). “To abandon all, to strip one’s self of all, in order to seek and to follow Jesus Christ naked to Bethlehem, where he was born; naked to the hall where he was scourged; and naked to Calvary, where he died on the cross, is so great a mercy, that neither the thing, nor the knowledge of it is given to any, but through faith in the Son of God” (John Wesley).
69. Sow to the Spirit
“For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:8). When you spend your time, strength, talents, and anything else that God has given you for the glory of God, in obedience to the commands, motions, and dictates of the Spirit, or the revelations of the Divine will, you reap everlasting life (Matthew Poole Commentary). And, in the process, you avoid sexual temptation. After all, you can’t sow to the Sprit and sow to your flesh at the same time. When you sow to one, you of necessity avoid the other.
70. See Yourself Crucified with Christ
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “We have a bundle of paradoxes in this verse. First, ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.’ The Christian life is a dying life. If we are in any real sense joined to Christ, the power of His death makes us dead to self and sin and the world. In that region, as in the physical, death is the gate of life; and, inasmuch as what we die to in Christ is itself only a living death, we live because we die, and in proportion as we die” (MacLaren’s Expositions, Galatians 2:20).
71. Walk in Newness of Life
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). “The word ‘walk’ is often used to express the course of a man’s life, or the tenor of his conduct. We should rise with Christ to a new life; and having been made dead to sin, as he was dead in the grave, so should we rise to a holy life, as he rose from the grave. The argument in this verse is, therefore, drawn from the nature of the Christian profession. By our very baptism, by our very profession, we have become dead to sin, as Christ became dead; and being devoted to him by that baptism, we are bound to rise, as he did, to a new life” (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Romans 6:4).
72. Locate Your Computers in Public Places
If you are tempted to commit sexual sin by what you see, hear and read on computer screens in your home or office, locate those computers so that other people can see what you are viewing. Sexual sin thrives in secrecy. So, the more public your viewing habits are, the less likely you are to fall to sexual temptation. Naturally, this doesn’t solve the challenge of sexual temptation that arrives by smartphone or tablet, but it does take care of temptations that come through desktop PCs and laptops. If they cause you to sin, expose your computer activity to public view.
73. Walk in Resurrection Power
Do you suppose Lazarus lived a mediocre Christian life after Jesus raised him from the dead? I think not. If you are a Christian, you have died and been resurrected. The same One who raised Jesus and Lazarus from the dead also gives you supernatural power to resist sexual temptation. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:8).
74. Block YouTube
If you can visit YouTube without being tempted to sin sexually, do. YouTube does not host any videos that are outright pornographic or sexually explicit, of course, but it does host hundreds of thousands of videos that are nevertheless sexually suggestive, that inflame sexual lust, and that are therefore inappropriate for a Christian man to watch, or for anyone to watch, for that matter. If YouTube tempts you sexually, block it. And, while you are at it, block Vimeo, DailyMotion and any other video-hosting platform that hosts inappropriate content.
75. Don’t Give Place to the Devil
The Letter to the Ephesians teaches that you give the devil opportunity when you hold onto anger (Ephesians 4:26-27). You give him a foothold, a chance to lead you into sin. How much more so when it comes to sexual immorality. When you allow lustful thoughts to bounce around in your head, when you view pornographic images, when you listen to sounds that inflame your sex drive, and read words that stir up sexual lust, you give place to the devil. If you want to avoid the sexual sin that the devil offers, don’t give sexual temptation a single second of mercy. Kill it as soon as you experience it.
76. Don’t Flirt with Temptation
“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” (Proverbs 6:27). This verse warns us of the dangers of flirting with temptation. Just as fire inevitably burns, entertaining sinful desires leads to spiritual harm. In today’s world, temptation is often subtle, creeping into your life through seemingly harmless actions or thoughts. To avoid being scorched, you must be vigilant, setting boundaries and seeking God’s strength to resist. Remember, even small compromises lead to significant consequences—choose purity and righteousness instead.
77. Watch and Pray
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Jesus’ words remind you of your vulnerability to temptation, particularly in the area of sexual purity. While your spirit may desire righteousness, your flesh often battles against it. In today’s culture, where sexual temptation is pervasive, Jesus’ command to watch and pray is crucial. By staying spiritually alert and consistently seeking God’s strength in prayer, you resist the pull of temptation and live in a way that honors Him.
78. Glorify God with Your Body
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are commanded to “glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Your body is sacred, belonging to God. In today’s world, where self-indulgence is often glorified, you are called to glorify and honor God with your body, making choices that reflect your commitment to Him. Whether through purity, health, or how you treat others, remember that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that you must glorify God in all that you do.
79. Put on the Whole Armor of God
“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). You are in a spiritual battle, and the enemy is always looking for ways to bring you down. This verse calls you to equip yourself with the full armor of God—truth, righteousness, faith, salvation, and the Word of God—so you can stand strong against temptation and deception. These days, where challenges to your faith are constant, remember that you’re not defenseless. Daily, put on God’s armor, and you’ll be prepared to face whatever comes your way.
80. Cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). When you face sexual temptation, remember that the Holy Spirit empowers you to produce His fruit, including temperance (self-control). This verse reminds you that living by the Spirit leads to a life of righteousness, where desires of the flesh are subdued. Because sexual temptation is so prevalent these days, cultivating these qualities is crucial. Daily, ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen you in love, goodness, and self-control, so that you resist temptation and honor God in all you do.
81. Draw Nearer to God
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded” (James 4:8 (KJV). When you struggle with sexual temptation, God calls you to draw nearer to Him. This verse assures you that as you seek God’s presence, He will come close to you, providing the strength and purity you need. In today’s world, where distractions and temptations abound, prioritize your relationship with God. Spend time in prayer, read His Word, and seek His guidance. As you draw nearer to God, He will help you resist temptation and live a life that honors Him.
82. Pursue Holiness
“Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). God calls you to pursue holiness, reflecting His pure and righteous nature. This verse reminds you that holiness isn’t just a suggestion—it’s a command. In the face of sexual temptation, striving for holiness means setting yourself apart from the world’s standards and choosing to live according to God’s. In today’s society, where moral boundaries are always blurred, commit yourself to God’s standard of purity. Seek His help daily, and let your life reflect the holiness that honors Him.
83. Remember that Your Body Belongs to God
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Your body is not your own. It belongs to God. This verse urges you to offer your body as a living sacrifice, dedicated to His service and holiness. When faced with sexual temptation, remember that your body is meant to honor God, not fulfill sinful desires. In today’s world, where the body is often idolized or exploited, choose to treat yours as holy and precious. By doing so, you reflect God’s righteousness and live in a way that pleases Him.
84. Remember that God Is Watching
“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). God sees everything you do, both in public and in private. Nothing you do is ever hidden from His sight. When sexual temptation arises, remembering that God is watching helps you make choices that honor Him. Secrecy leads to sin. So, let the knowledge of God’s constant presence guide your actions. Choose integrity and purity, knowing that God’s eyes are always upon you, and seek to live in a way that pleases Him.
85. Rely on God’s Sufficient Grace
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). When you face sexual temptation, remember that God’s grace is enough to sustain you. This verse assures you that in your weakness, His strength is perfected. You don’t have to rely on your own power to overcome temptation—God’s grace is sufficient. Temptations these days are strong and persistent, so lean on God’s strength rather than your own. His grace will empower you to resist and live a life that reflects His holiness, even in your weakest moments.
86. Avoid Overconfidence
“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). When it comes to sexual sin, never say “never again.” Overconfidence is dangerous when facing sexual temptation. This verse warns you that feeling too secure in your strength can lead to a fall. You must remain vigilant, recognizing that no one is immune to temptation. People these days celebrate pride and self-reliance. So be mindful that your strength comes from God, not yourself. Stay humble, continually seek God’s help, and remember that reliance on Him is the key to resisting temptation and maintaining a life of purity.
87. Pursue Holiness
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Holiness is essential in your walk with God, especially when resisting sexual temptation. This verse urges you to pursue peace and holiness because it is through holiness that you draw near to God. In today’s world, where moral boundaries are often blurred, the pursuit of holiness sets you apart. Make intentional choices to avoid temptation and align your life with God’s standards. As you seek holiness, you’ll find strength in God’s presence and experience a deeper relationship with Him, free from the entanglements of sin.
88. Flee Youthful Lusts
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). When facing sexual temptation, God’s command is clear: flee. This verse instructs you to actively avoid youthful lusts and instead pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. These days temptations are readily accessible, so you must be intentional about fleeing from situations that lead you into sin. Surround yourself with those who seek God with a pure heart, and focus on cultivating virtues that draw you closer to Him. Remember, fleeing temptation is a sign of strength, not weakness.
89. Remember that Sexual Sin Has Consequences
David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba, described in 2 Samuel 11-12, led to devastating consequences, including the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, and the death of Bathsheba and David’s child. This tragic story shows you that sexual sin can have far-reaching effects, bringing pain and suffering not just to you but to others as well. In today’s wicked world, where sexual temptation is pervasive, remember that giving in often leads to serious and lasting harm. Choose to honor God with your actions, knowing that the consequences of your sin are never worth the temporary pleasure. Seek God’s strength to resist and walk in purity.
90. Walk in the Light
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Walking in the light means living transparently and in alignment with God’s truth. This verse assures you that when you walk in the light, you not only maintain fellowship with others but also experience the cleansing power of Jesus. Remember, sexual temptation thrives in secrecy. That’s why walking in the light is your safeguard. Choose to live openly, confess your struggles, and rely on God’s grace to keep you pure. As you walk in the light, you’ll find strength and freedom in Christ.
91. Obey God’s Revealed Will for You
You discover the crucial key to resisting sexual temptation in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.” If you’re serious about avoiding temptation, begin by aligning with God’s will immediately. To “abstain from fornication” means to desist, refrain, cease, discontinue—simply put, stop. Fornication refers to sexual immorality, which includes any actions that violate God’s guidelines for sexual conduct. This encompasses adultery, premarital sex, bestiality, incest, viewing pornography, and masturbation. While there may be aspects of God’s will for your life that are unclear, resisting sexual immorality is not one of them. You know God’s will on this matter, so it’s time to obey and stop indulging in it, starting right now.
92. Understand, then Act
Resisting sexual temptation requires quitting porn. And quitting porn requires both understanding and action. First, you need to grasp why you turn to porn. Once you identify those reasons, you must take deliberate steps to counteract them. Porn is tempting because it’s easily accessible, affordable, and anonymous. Therefore, you need to make it difficult to access, unaffordable, and expose it to the light. The pleasure it brings, coupled with a sinful heart, keeps you trapped. To break free, you must renew your mind and desires, aligning them with God’s will. Immerse yourself in God’s Word, pray consistently, and dedicate your life to God daily, so you no longer crave what He detests or engage in what He forbids. At its core, watching porn stems from a lack of faith. Trust in God, and you’ll overcome it.
93. Understand that Sexual Sin is Progressive
To resist sexual temptation, you must quit porn. And to quit porn, you must recognize that pornography is a progressive sin. Men who engage with pornography over time find themselves needing increasingly more-extreme content. What once aroused them with milder material eventually requires something more depraved, more explicit, even illegal, to achieve the same effect. Speak with any sexual offender serving time for crimes like rape or child abuse, and you’ll discover a pattern that began with softcore pornography at a young age and escalated from there.
94. Don’t Call Your Sexual Sin an Addiction
To break free from the hold of sexual sin, you must first acknowledge that you’re not an addict. If you regularly consume pornography, you are choosing to sin and willingly becoming a slave to it—you’re not a victim of addiction. The more you see yourself as someone needing treatment, recovery, and constant support, the longer it will take for you to truly repent and overcome pornography and the sexual immorality that goes with it. The term “Christian porn addict” is a contradiction, much like “exact estimate” or “working vacation.” If you habitually engage with porn in any form, God sees you as an adulterer, a fornicator, lacking understanding, deceived, and wicked—but never a powerless addict.
95. Put God First
The key to resisting sexual temptation biblically is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.” Pay attention to the sequence: God, His will, your sanctification, and then your abstaining from porn and sexual immorality. When you prioritize God, you discover His will; when you align with His will, sanctification follows; and as you are sanctified, you naturally turn away from porn and sexual sin. Your primary aim isn’t just to quit porn—it’s to know God, obey His will, and become sanctified. Avoid starting at the wrong point. Focus on knowing, loving, and obeying God first, and everything else will fall into place.
96. Consecrate Yourself Daily
God desires every part of you—your will, your affections, your devotion, everything. One way to fully surrender to God is by consecrating yourself to Him daily. Romans 6:13 instructs, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” By offering yourself to God, you make yourself available for His purposes. When you consecrate yourself daily in this way, you remain focused on God and His will for your life, which includes resisting all forms of sexual temptation.
97. Delete Lust, Not Apps
When you’re striving to break free from sexual temptation, it’s essential not to focus on the wrong issues. Questions like “Is it fine to watch Game of Thrones?” or “Is TikTok acceptable?” or “Is Netflix okay?” miss the point. Technology evolves, apps rise and fall, and what society considers pornographic shifts over time. So don’t get caught up in debates with yourself about specific apps, movie ratings, or the latest HBO series. The only question you should ask yourself is: Does this content lead me to lust? If a show, app, book, or movie causes you to look with lust and sin against God, you must follow Jesus’ command to remove it from your life entirely.
98. Don’t Resist Sexual Temptation (Flee)
When it comes to sexual temptation, the key is not to resist—it’s to flee. Temptation is not something to be battled head-on, but rather something to escape. This is the advice Paul gives when he urges, “flee from sexual immorality” and “flee youthful lusts.” He doesn’t say, “stand and fight,” or “pray about it,” or “wrestle with the temptation.” Instead, he tells you to run. The moment you encounter a pornographic image, flee. When you sense lust rising within you, get away. If you hear an invitation to sexual sin, run for your life. Don’t stay put, thinking you can defend yourself. Don’t linger and pray. Run. Overcoming porn addiction is about managing temptation, and the best way to manage temptation is to run away from it.
99. Stop Asking God for what He Has Already Supplied
If you’re trying to quit porn, stop asking God for the strength to do it. Don’t ask for something He’s already provided. Look at 2 Peter 1:3: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” If God has already given you everything you need for life and godliness, there’s no need to keep asking for it. Instead, start receiving what’s already yours. Don’t keep asking for help—begin using the help that’s already been provided. God has already given you the divine power needed to quit porn. It’s yours. You just need to claim it.
100. Understand that Sexual Sin is a Process, Not an Act
Recognize that sexual immorality isn’t merely a single act. It’s a process, a sequence of events leading up to that act. Take porn as an example. The act of viewing porn is simply the culmination of a series of steps. It starts with a craving—a desire to seek out porn. Then you reach for your phone, navigate to that familiar site, search for a specific term, and start watching. The process continues until it culminates in actions you’d rather not admit. This final act, however, began with a simple temptation. If you want to break free from porn, you need to learn how to handle that initial craving. True freedom comes by overcoming temptation, not just once, but daily—even hourly.
101. Recognize Your Greatest Source of Temptation: Yourself
In your struggle against sexual lust and temptation, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that the battle is external. You might think the real threats are porn sites, hookup apps, strip clubs, adult magazines, or certain movies. You might assume that quitting porn is all about resisting these outside influences. But the truth is, your biggest adversary in the pursuit of sexual purity isn’t out there—it’s the person staring back at you in the mirror every morning. Your strongest source of temptation is within yourself. James reminds us that “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” The reason you’re tempted by porn is because there’s a desire for it within you. Temptation only has power when it connects with something you already crave. Therefore, if you want to overcome porn, begin by addressing and transforming your desires.
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