Editor’s Note: Please excuse the focusing issue on this video. I got a new camera and didn’t know it would do that. I plan to reshoot it soon, but I didn’t want to delay answering this question any longer.
Transcript:
Hey guys, Steve here from Belt of Truth Ministries. I’ve got another reader Q&A. I got a question from a reader and they asked, “Is my pornography addiction holding me back from Jesus?”
To be honest, that’s a question I get quite a lot, and it was a question I had myself. The truth is, kind of. Well, let me explain that.
As far as, “is my pornography addiction holding me back from Jesus?” Well it’s holding you back from experiencing the life that He offers you. You’re going to miss out on a lot of the peace and joy and just general life that He offers as long as you keep wrestling with porn.
But here’s the deal: I think typically what people are really asking when they say that isn’t, “Is my pornography addiction holding me back from Jesus?” What they’re asking is, “Is my pornography addiction keeping Jesus away from me?”
That’s the real question, and that was something that I wrestled with, frankly, my entire addiction. Because here’s the deal: I believed that I had to overcome my addiction (I had to clean myself up and fix my junk) in order for Jesus to want to hang out with me. It was up to me to clean myself up before He would accept me into his presence, and frankly, that’s just not the truth we see in Scripture.
You read Romans 8:1, it says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.” If you’ve trusted Jesus, He’s paid for all of your sins. He’s taken all of your punishment away, even for the sins you have yet to commit. There is absolutely no condemnation. He loves you unconditionally.
The other verse that really pertains to this is Romans 5:8. It says that, “God showed His great love for us in that while we were still sinners, He sent Christ to die for us.” While we were still sinners. We still had junk and God showed us how much He loved us by sending Jesus to die for us.
So if that’s the case, if God sent Jesus to die for us while we were still sinners, why would God (or Jesus, for that matter) pull away from us now when we already have a relationship with Him, because we still struggle with sin? The fact of the matter is, He won’t.
Just like the Prodigal Son, if we run off and we’re off to Vegas and just blowing our inheritance and doing all kinds of crazy stuff, is God going to reject us? Is Jesus going to pull away from us? No. They’re going to be standing there with their arms wide open, just looking over the hill waiting for us to come back. That’s how much God loves you, even in the midst of your sin.
So instead of feeling like Jesus is pulling away from you, maybe we shoulder consider the truth that we see in Hebrews 4:16, “So let us come boldly to the throne of grace, in our time of deepest need.”
You see, God wants us to run to Him, in our time of deepest need. And when is our time of deepest need? Well, for people with the same struggles we have, it’s probably right there when we’re tempted to look at porn, or if we’ve just looked at it; that’s your time of deepest need. That’s when God wants you to run to Him, not away from Him.
So back to the initial question, is your porn addiction keeping you from Jesus? No, it’s not. Jesus is right there, waiting for you to run to Him. So in reality, your porn addition isn’t keeping you from Jesus. In fact, Jesus may even be using it to draw you to Him.
