I WAS A WILLING SLAVE

As I look back on it all now, I was A WILLING SLAVE. Sin called and I answered. It was so charming, alluring and exciting. It felt so good. What could be wrong with that? Sin offered me pleasure and I wasn’t hurting anyone. Sin made thousands of promises and I believed them all, but I don’t think sin kept a single one.  I really should have grown suspicious (but I didn’t) when I was never satisfied, no matter how good it seemed at the time. I always wanted more. It was never enough.

While I did it all of my own free will, I certainly did not realize what I was getting into. I never dreamed that sin would hound me for years and years to come. But I can’t say I didn’t want to sin. How long could I go without thinking about sin? How many hours would go by before I would want to pull up those lusty thoughts and fondle them in my mind?  I claimed I was enslaved by this entity sometimes called pornography or lust or desire.  But when I face the truth head-on, I’m forced to admit that I sabotaged myself.

I kept telling myself that what I was doing was harmless. It was my private problem.  I would take care of in due time.  Yet I never told anyone. Not my wife. Not my best friend. Not a soul.

I took advantage of every opportunity I had to see just a little more and take another peek. I became an expert at looking over my shoulder, covering my tracks and not getting caught. Why go to so much trouble, if what I was doing was okay?

I was a slave for over 30 years. I don’t know why I waited so long to finally tell someone. But eventually, I realized that I would never escape unless I got help. I was already in a very bad place and I perceived that this could easily get exponentially worse.  That’s when I knew I had to take action. Contrary to what I had told myself for all of those years, I was not a victim. I was a willing participant.

What looked so delightful and promising was actually very deadly and enslaving. It has the power to destroy me, my family and almost everything I value. Thousands and thousands of lives have been destroyed by this trap called lust.  I don’t want to be a slave, and with God’s help, I will not be a slave any longer.

The Bible says in Romans 6:16-23:

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How much better to be a slave to Jesus than to be enslaved by uncontrolled passions and desires.  Living in sin only leads to regret and destruction.  Doing what is right and good and true leaves me smiling, knowing that it was all worthwhile.

I don’t have to be a slave anymore.  Jesus came to give sight to the blind and set the captives free (Luke 4:18).  I’m not doomed to give in to my selfish cravings, following every desire that pops into my head.  God, in his great mercy, offers life to the dead and hope to the hopeless.  His grace not only offers you and me forgiveness for all of our past mistakes; He also provides the means to do good works. This is our mission in life!  Read Ephesians 2:3-10.  We can become the kind of people who normally and naturally produce good fruit.  Now that’s a life worth living!

Learn more about living free in Jesus in the book:  Jesus Is Better Than Porn