Stephen Kuhn

This post has been adapted from the chapter, “Lie #7: God Can Set Others Free from Pornography Addiction, but Not Me,” in my new book, 10 Lies Men Believe about Porn. This post is part 3 in an 8-week series on life-changing faith. If you would like to begin at part 1, you can do that here.

When God calls you to do something that requires tremendous trust—to “take a leap of faith” as we sometimes say—He isn’t doing it to test your ability to generate faith. He is doing it to offer you an opportunity to receive more faith. The more you trust Him, the more He allows your faith to grow.

This makes sense when you think about it. God has perfect knowledge, power over everything, and wants only what is best for you—so you can be confident He will never let you down or lose control of any situation. He will never fail you or leave you hanging. Every time you trust Him, He will come through for you. It may not be in the way you were expecting or hoping for, but it will always be for your best. When you experience His trustworthiness in your life over and over, it becomes easier to trust Him when He calls you to exercise faith in the future—not because of your ability to trust, but because of His unblemished track record.

But if you don’t trust God’s unconditional love for you, you will never be confident that He really is acting in your best interest. You will always be questioning His trustworthiness based on whether you feel you have been good enough to earn it or not. You will weigh everything He calls you to do on an imaginary continuum: Is God calling me to do this to better me, or to punish me? You will only trust Him to the degree that you understand how much He loves you, which is why having a proper understanding of His grace is key for life-changing faith to even be a possibility.

You can be certain, however, that God does love you—no matter how messed up you may feel—and everything He calls you to do is for your benefit. The more you trust in this truth, the more your faith will grow. Eventually, you will come to realize that you really can trust everything Jesus promises to be true—even for you—no matter how illogical or unbelievable it may seem. The blessings of the faith you read about in the Bible will become increasingly real to you, not because you have suddenly earned them or deserve them more, but because you are finally trusting them to be true.

Over the next four weeks, we will look at a few of these blessings and see how trusting Jesus determines whether we experience them in our lives or not.

Continue to Part 4: If Jesus Promises Me Rest, Why am I so Burnt Out?

This post has been adapted from the chapter, “Lie #7: God Can Set Others Free from Pornography Addiction, but Not Me,” in my new book, 10 Lies Men Believe about Porn. This is part 2 in an 8-week series on life-changing faith. If you would like to begin at part 1, you can do that here.

We often think the key to following Jesus is simply to believe in Him. But if belief were all that mattered, even the demons would be saved. The demons may believe in God, but they don’t trust Him. They don’t have faith—an absolute trust that everything the Word of God says is true.

A well-known story tells of a tightrope walker entertaining a crowd at Niagara Falls. At first, he simply walked across a cable strung above the waterfall, but as the crowd grew, he continued to up the stakes. He did a lap while juggling and another lap blindfolded. He even rode a bike across the line. The crowd watched in amazement, wondering what he would attempt next.

As he returned back to the side of the river where many had gathered to watch, he got off his bike and pulled out a wheelbarrow. He then turned to address the crowd.

“Do you believe I can walk across this tightrope without falling?”

“Yes!” roared the crowd.

“Do you believe I can walk across this tightrope while pushing this wheelbarrow?”

“We do!” they yelled.

“Do you believe I can walk across this tightrope while pushing this wheelbarrow with someone riding in it?”

The crowd went nuts. They couldn’t wait to see this trick.

“Then who would like to volunteer to be my rider?”

Silence.

Every person in the crowd may have believed he could do it, but no one was willing to trust him by getting into the wheelbarrow. So in reality, even though they said they believed he could do it, their lack of trust proved they didn’t.

This distinction is important to understand: What you say you believe is not necessarily what you do believe. Even what you think you believe may not be what you truly believe. What you do and what you trust are what exposes your true beliefs. In this way, faith is belief that is backed by trust and therefore results in action.

Everybody has faith in something. For many, it’s faith in their own wisdom or abilities. For others, it’s faith in a religion or in rituals. But if your true faith isn’t in Jesus, it will never result in a changed life. That’s because faith is only as strong as its object, and the only “object” that has the power to change you is Jesus.

•••

We see this misplaced faith in the Pharisees all throughout the Gospels. These men trusted in their knowledge of the Scriptures and their ability to follow the Law to give them life. They studied the Scriptures diligently, but when they met Jesus, they refused to take the next step by putting their faith in Him:

You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want (John 5:39–40 MSG)

These men believed the Scriptures, but when Jesus asked them to trust in Him to find the life they were looking for, they chose not to get in the wheelbarrow.

Just like these Pharisees, if you believe in Jesus but don’t trust Him enough to do what He’s asking you to do, you will keep looking for other things to make you feel like you are actually following Him. But you will miss out on the blessings of knowing Christ. Not because His blessings are not true, but because you are looking for ways to receive them without actually trusting Him.

Many people interpret this lack of blessing
as a sign that Jesus isn’t working for them.
In reality, it’s a sign that they aren’t trusting
in Him—they are still trusting in themselves.

Please don’t interpret this as a call to buck up and try harder. You may be thinking, I just need to work up some more faith! I need to follow God’s rules better! These may sound like the righteous things to do, but by doing them you would be putting your faith back on yourself and your own ability to please God. None of us will ever be able to generate more faith on our own, though, because faith is a gift that God gives to you.

So if you feel the need for more faith, don’t try to muster it up on your own. Pray like the man who approached Jesus, asking Him to free his son from demonic oppression:

“I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

Continue to Part 3: Why Isn’t God Coming Through for Me?

This post has been adapted from the chapter, “Lie #7: God Can Set Others Free from Pornography Addiction, but Not Me,” in my new book, 10 Lies Men Believe about Porn.

This is the first post in an 8-week series on life-changing faith.

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I live in the most beautiful state in the Union. Sure, some states have great beaches. Some states have great mountains. You can find amazing forests in Vermont and spectacular deserts in Arizona. Oregon, however, has all of these. So, as you frequently hear on ESPN during football season…Oregon wins.

A few months back I went for a hike to Steelhead Falls, a 25-foot waterfall along the Deschutes River in the high desert of Central Oregon. I had only been planning on a leisurely hike, but once I reached the falls, plans changed. I ran into a group of college kids jumping off the cliffs into the river below. Immediately, the part of my brain that still thinks I’m a teenager began pushing me to jump off the cliff as well.

Come on, old man! It’s hot. The water is perfect. Everyone else is jumping in, so you know it’s safe. Do it! What’s the matter, McFly? You chicken?

I took off my backpack, stripped down to my shorts, walked to the edge of the cliff, looked down at the water…

Nope.

Fear showed up. Logic kicked in. I came up with many compelling and well-thought-out excuses of why this was a terrible idea.

I backed away from the cliff.

•••

We do the exact same thing with God, don’t we?

When was the last time you felt Him leading you to do something that made no sense or was outside of your comfort zone? Perhaps it was an urge to share your faith with a friend. Maybe you felt you needed to ask forgiveness from someone you had wronged. For me, it was coming clean and confessing the full extent of my pornography addiction and adultery to my wife.

Why would I ever do that? That makes no sense at all.

But God’s ways aren’t always logical in the eyes of man. He knew the only way I could ever be free from my addiction, and the only way our marriage could ever heal, was if I brought everything into the light where it could finally be dealt with.

I wrestled with God for years on coming clean. I kept inching up to the cliff, looking over the edge, and saying no. I was too afraid it would cost me my marriage. I kept telling God He didn’t know what He was asking me to do. I convinced myself that what He was asking simply wasn’t logical.

I wasn’t being logical, though. I was being a coward.

I looked for other ways down to the water, such as marriage books or counseling, but those roads never led anywhere. I tried wading into the water slowly by confessing only part of my sin to her, but that only caused pain without opening the door for any real healing.

Ultimately, I didn’t believe God could be trusted.

But He kept standing right there with me, gently saying, “Jump, my son. Jump into this adventure of faith. There is no other way to get to where I want to take you. Just trust me in this. It’s worth it.”

And so one day, when I realized I had no other options left, I jumped. I confessed everything to my wife. Yes, there were tears. There was immense pain. The consequences were devastating.

But in that moment—when I finally jumped in and trusted God no matter how illogical it seemed—He became real to me.

•••

You can believe jumping off the cliff is safe. You can watch others do it. You can admire the drop from the top, carefully climb down the rocks, and dip a toe in the water. But no matter what you do, if you don’t jump, you will never experience the thrill of jumping off the cliff. There’s just no way to experience it halfway.

Likewise, you can’t go halfway with Jesus. If you aren’t all in, you’re not really in at all. You must come to a point where you trust Him enough to jump off that cliff.

Being all in is not about being perfect. It’s about believing that Jesus really is the Son of God and that He knows what’s best for you, and trusting what He asks you to do no matter what. It’s an absolute trust that every word, every promise, and every blessing spoken in the Bible is true—even for you—whether it feels true or not.

TRUTH: If you believe Jesus is Lord,
you can trust that everything He promises
you is true, even for you.

Continue to Part 2: Do You Truly Believe what You Think You Believe?