If you want to put the sins of pornography and sexual immorality behind you, take the promises of God that you find in the New Testament, and make them personal. Find the passages that promise victory over sin to believers in general, and apply them to you in particular.
For example, if your primary battle is with the temptation to look at pornography, then find a promise in the New Testament where God tells Christians how they are to get victory over temptation. Consider the tenth chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians, for instance, where the Apostle Paul writes:
“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
This promise applies to believers today because Paul wrote this letter both to the church in Corinth and to “all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:1). That includes you and me, today. But you may think of this promise as an abstraction, a promise made to a group. You may have trouble applying it to your own life, particularly if you have a track record of defeat, of giving in to sexual temptation.
So, take this infallible promise from the New Testament, which Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Sprit, and take it to its logical conclusion. Make the promise about you and no one else. Grab a pen and paper and make the subject of the verse not the church in Corinth, nor believers everywhere down the ages, but just one person—you. Write something like this:
“No temptation has overtaken me except such as is common to man; but God is faithful to me, who will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I am able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape for me, that I may be able to bear it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 paraphrase
See the difference? You haven’t changed the meaning of this passage, just tweaked it so that it speaks to you personally. This exercise helps you see that the promises in the New Testament that are for all believers in this age are also for you as an individual person. So take them personally. Claim them as your own. See what happens.
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