Eight Lessons Learned After Eight Months Porn Free

I looked at porn for the last time on November 4, 2021. I remember the day because that’s the day I started this daily devotional. That’s the day I got serious about forsaking my sin and never going back. Eight months have passed since then, and I have learned a few lessons along the way.

1. Writing these daily devotionals is a great motivator: I wish I was motivated by a more spiritual ambition, but simply writing this devotional each day gives me a tremendous incentive to not look at porn. I figure I will lose all moral authority if I commit the very act I write against seven days a week, and that fear keeps me motivated to not look.
2. Porn will find a substitute: Once I stopped looking at immoral images and videos, I noticed that I still had a hankering for titillation and excitement, so I turned to action movies and crime dramas. I eventually realized what I was doing, and also realized that these movies weren’t edifying or helping me become Christlike. I noticed that, just because I have swept the house clean doesn’t mean the demons won’t return again in another form.
3. I am more sensitive to visual temptation: Now that I don’t look at sexually immoral materials anymore, I notice that I am keenly aware when I stumble across a bit of nudity in a movie, or an immodestly dressed waitress, or a suggestive scene in a TV show. I am more attuned to what is out of bounds for me. My standard for my sexual purity is higher than ever before.
4. The temptation to take the second look is weaker: I quit porn in November when snow was on the ground and no one was walking around with little on. Now that summer is here (I am writing this in July), temptations are all around with the hotter weather. But I notice that I am less inclined to take a second look when a female jogger approaches, or when I catch a glimpse of something provocative. This is none of my doing. The desire to look longer or to look away and then look back is simply weaker. I praise God for that.
5. I care more about God’s will: I find myself thinking more about God’s will for my life and what He expects of me day to day. I think more often and more carefully about where I should go, what I should watch and what I should read. I am reading AW Tozer, and missionary biographies, again.
6. I regret my past: Just because God has forgiven me doesn’t mean I have a tear-free view of my past. I look back with deep regret at the many opportunities I likely missed for serving the Lord because I was not a clean vessel for Him to use. I looked at pornography for 30 years as a Christian, and I still can’t shake the remorse I feel for those lost years.
7. Eight months without masturbating hasn’t killed me: I thought quitting porn was going to be the easy part and that quitting masturbation was going to be harder, and I was right. I have had urges and temptations these past eight months, but I have not succumbed. God has given me victory over masturbation. And the exercise hasn’t killed me.
8. Ditching my smartphone was a wise move: I have zero regrets about replacing my Samsung smartphone with a Jethro dumbphone that only lets me talk and text. My new phone has no apps, no internet access, no temptation. Not having a GPS and web browser in my pocket is a pain at times, but I am happier without porn in my pocket.

How long have you been porn-free? What lessons have you learned? Leave a comment below.