Challenging pornography with purity
In today’s world, online pornography and other venues offer easy ways to indulge in sensuality and sexuality. The result is that many people struggle with the pull of sensuality. For those who wish to be free of that pull, there is an answer. It is the reality that you are actually spiritual, and much loved by God.
Even if you feel very far away from that concept of yourself right now, the Christ—the message of God’s love that Jesus brought to humanity—is with you, and will show you who you really are. Instead of a mortal being driven by sensual cravings, you are pure and good, and through the power divine Love gives to all of us, you will be able to see this and to live this way.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described various states of blessedness, one of which is, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8 ). Such purity is a practical path to healthy relationships and peace of heart.
In the teachings of Christian Science there is a wonderful biblical theme, which is actually a provable law. It is that the great heart of God, divine Love, always responds to the poor suffering heart of humanity. Jesus showed the saving effect of divine Love by healing an adulterous woman, and thus demonstrated how Christ, the spiritual idea of God, can transform the heart of one who is trapped in a world of sensuality.
Such freedom is also possible today through Christian healing, which is based solely on a spiritual understanding of God and the man and woman He created. Prayer that rests on this divine law helps one overcome addiction to sensuality by bringing to light a correct understanding of oneself as the child of God.
The textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, puts it like this, “The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind” (p. 162 ).
What is this change of base? It is the shift from the belief that one is a material being driven by physical urges or compulsions, to an understanding that each of us is spiritual, governed by divine Love. Then when temptation is knocking at the door of one’s thought, it becomes possible to resist. Turning to Christ, Truth—the reality of God’s love, which Jesus taught—strengthens one to change course. By accepting the spiritual fact that God is an ever-present help, one discovers that with Him all good is possible.
Shifting the foundation of one’s thought is best accomplished through spiritual reasoning—the process by which one becomes more conscious of God’s loving presence and wise guidance. These changes in the base of thought not only require one to think differently, but to act differently as well.
Since God, good, is not helpless, it follows that man, God’s image and likeness, is not helpless.
Even if we feel we can’t help ourselves when we are tempted, we are not helpless. Recognizing, however dimly, that we are not mortals, struggling against innate urges, but are the sons and daughters of God, puts our feet on solid ground. Since God, good, is not helpless, it follows that man, God’s image and likeness, is not helpless. We always have a choice, and we do have the power to choose good.
A foundational prayer on which to resist temptation is: “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity” (Psalm 119:37 ). Vanity in this case may be a vain involvement with the body and the material senses. Instead, we need to turn thought to the bright star of purity and all the good that comes from it.
To overcome an addiction to pornography also requires one to exercise one’s God-given dominion. Use this power; exercise your dominion. Without this spiritual exercise, your dominion over evil may appear to be weak. Prayerfully affirming your dominion, you gain the strength and power needed to overcome evil. What happens when one turns to scientific prayer is a progressive understanding that God gives each of us as His spiritual ideas. And this is dominion over temptation.
Prayer helps one realize that as children of God, we all have a pure desire to help and bless others, rather than to “sexualize” them. Higher, purer motives will always overcome lower sensual indulgences.
This may require one to honestly ask: “Do I want to give in to a physical compulsion? Or, would I rather learn to know who I really am as God’s pure and loved idea?”
If someone is already addicted , changing the basis of how one thinks and acts may seem very difficult, but here’s where the Christ, Truth, that Jesus taught is our helper. One of the keys to resisting temptation is found in the Lord’s Prayer (see Matthew 6:9–13 ).
One of the keys to resisting temptation is found in the Lord’s Prayer.
What it teaches about temptation and deliverance is vital to saving oneself from the pull of pornography. As Jesus made clear, God doesn’t lead us into temptation, but delivers us from it. The Bible also points out that one will never be tempted beyond what one is able to resist because God will always “make a way to escape” (I Corinthians 10:13 ).
For many, the best escape plan is daily prayer, which delivers one from temptation by firmly establishing one’s thought, motive, and activity at the start of each new day on the basis of a pure heart and with proper motivation. A good plan should include choices such as shifting thought away from sexual urges, being brave and resisting wrong desires, and knowing God gives man dominion—and using it.
This escape plan leads to more constructive and less destructive activities. Or as Science and Health puts it, “Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Christian Science, and he will get the better of that desire, and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness, and existence” (p. 407 ).
No matter what the “wrong desire” may be, each of us has a right to health and happiness and to support its presence in the lives of our friends, relatives, neighbors. So even though it might seem that only those who have an addiction need to overcome this challenge, the fact is that all of us have a role to play. Let us all be willing to support one another as we work, watch, and pray to overcome evil wherever it claims to exist. And experience the joy and satisfaction—the blessing Jesus promised—of being pure in heart.
