Spirtual Side Growing?

[OblivionXx]

Im not sure if this is the right section to post this in so im sorry if it isnt !

When I was little I attended Sunday mass with my family, as for me and i always sang along and prayed like everyone else. At the age of 9 or 10 we suddenly stopped going, i dont know why but im guessing it was just taking up time of our family life so mommabear and papabear decided to stop going. But I still prayed to God before I went to Bed.

So ive been struggling with a Sin since I was 11 and that is lust, and im pretty sure know what lust involves with.. masturbation, impure thoughts and dirtiness. At the time I didnt know it was a sin i thought it was just something normal to do at anyone my age because of Puberty. At the age of 17 finishing my last few months of school my spiritual side came out of me one night when i watched an hour documentry on the coming of Jesus, I also learned that masturbation is a grey area because it isnt discussed in the book but there are some sinful areas. After I learned about it i prayed for Jesus for forgiveness and deliver me away from the wicked ones, it worked amazingly for 2 days till i fell back into temptation. Then ill go clean for one day then fall back in.

During class espiscally Social I would think about what ive done that hurt against God but i told myself that God will always forgive us and his love is beyond any measures. This would make me day dream for roughly for 15 mins and sometimes would put me in a trance. But i know its wrong to keep sinning and telling yourself that " oh well god will forgive me " I know thats wrong because your delibratly hurting your walk with God. I tell God everyday that I love him and I thank him for everything that he offered me in life. and i do pray to him daily. I noticed this helping ALOT because when i wake the sun is brighter and everything is much more crisp, but thats just me.

Last friday I had a event to DJ at for a after grad at the community hall built right inside a church, before everyone arrived i visited the church where mass attended. Please note after the age of 10 I have not stepped inside a church for almost 7 years, and this was re-entering one since my Family and I stopped attending church. What caught my eye the most was the entire room, it was bright from the 2 longated windows with white curtains that hung above it and that it showered the whitest light i have ever seen in my entire life. I was amazed with awe then i sat down on one of the benches and prayed for a few minutes letting God know about my lustful life and that im a sinner asking for forgiveness, I usually do feel better cause I know God understands what everyone is going through, Thats what I love about him he understands and his love for us is unconditional, what matters is that we try to do our best God didnt make us to be perfect or does not expect anyone to be.

But the thing is that is worrying me the most is when my life ends, how will God think of me after spending 1 tenth of my life in lust? I had this questioned repeated in my head over and over like a recording ived lost sleep because of it, i lost valuable class time in school cause i concentrated on this more then anything, I know what goes on in Hell and im scared and i dont want to end up there ive read and watched eyewitness accounts of people going there and telling there stories there. Words cant describe my mind right know the best describtion i can give you is when you go to that one random channel on your TV and its all fuzzy with the white grey and black bots exploding everywhere? thats what my mind is right now. This has been happening ever since of middle of May,

I really dont know what to do, I know praying helps and the power of faith as well, so all im asking for you guys is to pray for me OR if you have any prayers you would like to share i would greatly appriciate them

Thank you for understanding my concern I know im not the only one that is going through this, Hope everyone has a great day

- God Bless, Jeremy

[Indueseason]

Mod Note: Since you are seeking advice and prayer, I have moved this to a more appropriate forum.

[claybevan]

Im not sure if this is the right section to post this in so im sorry if it isnt !

When I was little I attended Sunday mass with my family, as for me and i always sang along and prayed like everyone else. At the age of 9 or 10 we suddenly stopped going, i dont know why but im guessing it was just taking up time of our family life so mommabear and papabear decided to stop going. But I still prayed to God before I went to Bed.

So ive been struggling with a Sin since I was 11 and that is lust, and im pretty sure know what lust involves with.. masturbation, impure thoughts and dirtiness. At the time I didnt know it was a sin i thought it was just something normal to do at anyone my age because of Puberty. At the age of 17 finishing my last few months of school my spiritual side came out of me one night when i watched an hour documentry on the coming of Jesus, I also learned that masturbation is a grey area because it isnt discussed in the book but there are some sinful areas. After I learned about it i prayed for Jesus for forgiveness and deliver me away from the wicked ones, it worked amazingly for 2 days till i fell back into temptation. Then ill go clean for one day then fall back in.

During class espiscally Social I would think about what ive done that hurt against God but i told myself that God will always forgive us and his love is beyond any measures. This would make me day dream for roughly for 15 mins and sometimes would put me in a trance. But i know its wrong to keep sinning and telling yourself that " oh well god will forgive me " I know thats wrong because your delibratly hurting your walk with God. I tell God everyday that I love him and I thank him for everything that he offered me in life. and i do pray to him daily. I noticed this helping ALOT because when i wake the sun is brighter and everything is much more crisp, but thats just me.

Last friday I had a event to DJ at for a after grad at the community hall built right inside a church, before everyone arrived i visited the church where mass attended. Please note after the age of 10 I have not stepped inside a church for almost 7 years, and this was re-entering one since my Family and I stopped attending church. What caught my eye the most was the entire room, it was bright from the 2 longated windows with white curtains that hung above it and that it showered the whitest light i have ever seen in my entire life. I was amazed with awe then i sat down on one of the benches and prayed for a few minutes letting God know about my lustful life and that im a sinner asking for forgiveness, I usually do feel better cause I know God understands what everyone is going through, Thats what I love about him he understands and his love for us is unconditional, what matters is that we try to do our best God didnt make us to be perfect or does not expect anyone to be.

But the thing is that is worrying me the most is when my life ends, how will God think of me after spending 1 tenth of my life in lust? I had this questioned repeated in my head over and over like a recording ived lost sleep because of it, i lost valuable class time in school cause i concentrated on this more then anything, I know what goes on in Hell and im scared and i dont want to end up there ive read and watched eyewitness accounts of people going there and telling there stories there. Words cant describe my mind right know the best describtion i can give you is when you go to that one random channel on your TV and its all fuzzy with the white grey and black bots exploding everywhere? thats what my mind is right now. This has been happening ever since of middle of May,

I really dont know what to do, I know praying helps and the power of faith as well, so all im asking for you guys is to pray for me OR if you have any prayers you would like to share i would greatly appriciate them

Thank you for understanding my concern I know im not the only one that is going through this, Hope everyone has a great day

- God Bless, Jeremy

Hi there jeremy,
I'm a mother of 3 grown up boys, I hope you don't mind that it's a female replying to your post.
Jesus gave his life up for you, the one perfect sacrifice, that would redeem you for all time from all the shameful, sinful stuff that you have committed and will commit.
THE JOBS DONE Your side of the covenant is to repent, get on your knees and say sorry, do a 180% as they say and try not to make the same mistakes again, if you do then just get back down on your knees again, he's knows we are all weak, he is the perfect father and never turns us away if we come in repentance.
Get reading about King David and you will know that even the greatest men and women fall so easily to lust but we don't have to stay there or drag that sin behind us, lay it all at the foot of the cross, write it down if you like but just get to understand that to keep that sin with us is saying the Jesus hasn't done his job properly.
Jesus has dealt with Sin once and for all, now you are under Grace and that means as long as you stay with God, following his commands and doing the best you can 'In His Name' your name will NOT be in the 'Book of the lost'
Find a good church soon and get support from Christian brothers there, we all need support and sound teaching not just as new christians but continuously through our time on this earth.
I will be praying for you as I do for my sons.
May God bless you and continue to reveal his Glorious Self to you. I think you have some wonderful times ahead of you, if I know anything about God, he doesn't do things by halves, he will make his change in you wonderfully complete if you let him.


1 John 1:9
New International Version (NIV)
⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

[OblivionXx]

Thank you for your heart warming answer it made me think for a bit and calmed me down
God bless your family (:

[jayne]

Dear little brother, I have two things that I would like for you to think about. I'm 50 years old and I've been born again for 41 years. I don't know everything, but I do know some things. Please meditate on these two things. I apologize in advance for the length.

[1] Masturbation does not send you to hell.

No individual sin is what causes a person to go to hell. What sends someone to hell is the fact that they are an unrepentant sinner. It's our nature to sin - all KINDS of sins. You and I and everyone else on this board was born a sinner. It's our nature - just like being born right-handed or left-handed. Unfortunately, people get caught up in a legalistic trap and want to place the blame for our eternal damnation on our behaviors when it's our natures and hearts and minds that need to be re-born and re-newed. The Bible is very clear on that. You cannot stop a certain sin or start a righteous act and consider yourself saved. That's not where salvation comes from. You could honestly never masturbate another day in your life and still go to hell.

Now, does that mean that we can sin all we want to because it's just our hearts and minds that we need to worry about? Of course not. However, there were and still are people who believe that. They believe that God will just forgive them anyway and that as long that they "believe" in their hearts and mind that there is a God out there and that we should try not offend Him that they have their ticket into Heaven. Paul said in Romans 6:1-2, "What should we say? Should we keep on sinning, so that God’s grace will show up even better? No, we should not! If we are dead to sin, how can we go on sinning?" Yes, I believe that masturbation is a problem for you as it is a problem for the overwhelming majority of humanity. It's destructive because of the types of fantasy involved that have to get increasing explicit as years pass in order to achieve the same results and sometimes the immoral reading/viewing material involved. It's a sin more of the mind and heart than of the body. Yes, you feel guilty. You acknowledge that there is God and that you don't want to go to hell. But that's all I'm reading from your posts. Nothing more than a guilty conscience.

It's like this: Let's say that a person has to get to a very important meeting with his corporate boss at 9:00 AM and that meeting is 50 miles away. So, at 7:00 AM, that person puts on his roller skates and starts roller skating down the highway. His skates have needed new wheels for a long time. He knows that. And he hasn't bothered to replace them. He wants to change the wheels and feels guilty so many times for not changing them - knowing that disaster is inevitable. After about 1/2 a mile, they finally break. He sits on the shoulder of the road and cries his eyes out. He feels stupid, ashamed, mad at himself, and feels like he has disappointed his corporate boss to the point where he will probably get fired. So ..... what does he do? He sees his local boss pull over on the side of road and the man opens the door and says, "Hey, get in my car. I can get you to meeting on time. And you can rest your feet and we'll throw those silly skates away." But the young man acts as if he doesn't even see or hear his local boss. He just gets up, thinking about how he is disappointing his corporate boss and crying all the more, and tries to keep skating on broken wheels, thinking that if he just tries hard enough to do the right thing, that he will make it.

He never will.


[2] Nothing in your life will change until you are born again.

Why? Because Jesus said so in John 3:1-21.

Whom did He say it to? To a Pharisee names Nicodemus. Nicodemus was very sincere and earnestly seeking the truth. He risked his own life by coming to Jesus and asking Him about these things. That’s why he came to Jesus under the darkness of night. He confessed that God existed and confessed that He knew that God had sent Jesus. He was earnestly seeking the truth, but at that moment Nicodemus was earnestly lost and bound for hell.

Jesus told him so. He told Nicodemus that a person must be “born again.” Nicodemus doesn’t exactly understand. Jesus goes on to tell him that He, Himself, is going to have to be “lifted up” (crucified) and that God sent Him (Jesus) for that very purpose and that those who believe on Him will have eternal life.

Salvation from hell and eternal life in heaven come from a spiritual change, not the ceasing of sin. In fact, the ceasing of sins that plague us cannot come until the spiritual renewal or new birth.

How does one accomplish this?

Look at Romans 10:9-10 = “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile —the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Have you confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord? Have you called on Jesus to save you? Do you believe that God raised Him from the dead?

You aren’t going to find any comfort on those youtube videos that you are watching that you talked about on your other thread. I urge you to read your Bible. And start with the book of John.

And consider Ephesians 2:4-10 = “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Only you can answer this next question. I can’t and have no right to and not trying to.

Are you struggling with the crying (as per your other thread) and the masturbation/guilt/fear of hell because you are still “dead in your transgressions”? The above passage says that we cannot save ourselves by our works – good, bad, or otherwise. I believe that you are sincerely seeking the truth, just like Nicodemus.

Only the grace of God via the shed blood of Jesus Christ can save and tranform us. And His blood can and will cleanse us from unrighteousness.

If I have misjudged you, I am sorry. Profoundly.

But both of your threads sound as if you are a “Nicodemus”. Sincere in your seeking God and yet, trying to work your way to God. Nicodemus was born again eventually. And he and Joseph of Arimathea were the two men who pulled those awful nails out of Jesus’ hands and feet and took His abused and bloodied body down from that cursed cross and prepared His body for burial.

The Ephesians passage I cited above says that were created, in Jesus Christ, to do good works. Those good works – including giving up certain sins that plague us and getting involved in righteous living come AFTER salvation and the new birth.

[Dani H]

im pretty sure know what lust involves with.. masturbation, impure thoughts and dirtiness.

No sweetie. That's a very narrow definition of lust.

What lust involves is a person seeking to GET instead of GIVE. Lust shows up in every area of life if that is what a person lives by and is motivated by. Greed is simply just lust for money and material things, for example.

Lust is the opposite of love. Lust is a bottomless pit that is never satisfied, once given into and allow to control a person's life.

Love seeks to give to others, lust takes from them.

Sex isn't dirty, because God created sex. Our sexual drive isn't dirty because God created it.

What's bad is when we take our sexual drive out of context and use it to suck the life out of other people instead of using it as a gift to our spouse the way it's meant to be.

Hope that helps.

Having said that ... how are you and Jesus doing??

[OblivionXx]

This actually made me feel alot more better, I feel no more erges or temptation but i know i must focus on the bible and read it to understand. Even though i learn with my hands then reading and writing something that i have struggled with all my life i will try my best to understand the Bible.

And for how me and Jesus are, he knows im doing my best and he is proud of me. i know hes with me and understands what im going through better then anyone else.

But i must say thank you for your concerns and answers, they gave me something to think about and intrigued me to read the Bible.

God bless you all '
'
-Jeremy

[Saved7]

Jeremy, you've gotten a lot of excellent words here that should be very encouraging to you. Though I don't want you to be of the mistaken opinion that "born again" believers don't mess up. We all mess up, but as the title of your thread suggests, born agains USUALLY mature and grow spiritually.
With that said, you asked for advice or suggested prayers.
So I will give you both, as a woman who in the past struggled with this same sin in a big way, (I was probably as bad as a man at one point) I can attest to the power of these things that I advise you on.

First, the Bible tells us this about lustful thoughts and any other thought that is against the knowledge of a Holy God.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

I bet you're wondering how to "cast down imaginations" and what it means for "high things to exalt themselves AGAINST the KNOWLEDGE of God."
Well, simply put, sinful thoughts are against the KNOWLEDGE of God, meaning you know that God is holy and you know that lust is...not, therefore, you know it's a sin, so it stands to reason that it's in this category along with so many other things.

As far as HOW to cast down those thoughts....
First remember this...
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, (physical)but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds

Secondly, it's the HOW I bet you'd like to get to. Remember, this is not to SAVE you, but to be a pleasing living sacrifice, holy unto God, so that He can use you for honorable works that glorify HIM and not yourself. (I do not suggest that you are seeking to glorify yourself, but I just wanted to put that in there as a reminder for later in life )

How do we do this...
obedience.
Obedience to what you ask?
4 simple things:

Love God
Prayer
Fasting
Obedience


Love God
Love God with all that you are, or you won't be willing to make the sacrifices you need to make in order to honor His holy Name.

Deuteronomy 11:3 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

Prayer,
The kind of prayer that says, (in a nutshell) "change me, make me what you want me to be, help me to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, put your will and your desire into my heart, make it my desire, I want to glorify you." When you pray this way, you are making yourself open to being totally His to use however He chooses. That's just a basic type of prayer, you'll develope a more clear understanding on how to pray and make that a bit different as the years go on. Eventually you'll see in the scriptures how you should be praying. Remember, His ultimate will is to make us into His image, to make us like Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Fasting
And don't forget fasting to bring your body/fleshly desires under subjection. I realize this says nothing about fasting here, but it's easy enough to draw that conclusion, since I doubt he was talking about exercise, or literally beating his body like those monks do.
1 Corinthians 9:27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.


Obedience
And finally, OBEDIENCE to DO what the scriptures tell you to DO.
And if you are born again, and according your post, it sounds like you've recently been born again, then I would say that you have the power to become like Christ and OBEY the scriptures, as do the rest of us who are born again. So with that in mind, know this, that if you fight off those thoughts with sheer will power, then you are leaving a vacuum for them (lustful thoughts) to come rushing back and they will bring a tidal wave of lust with them. When those thoughts come, don't just push out those thoughts with rejection, but reject them and make your flesh submit to the will of the spirit by replacing those thoughts with thoughts of God, and His Word, prayer and creation, and praise! I'm telling you, it's the hardest thing in the world to think about impure things when you are thinking about God. Soon, you will find this gets easier and easier and eventually it becomes even difficult to fantasize. And remember, when the fight gets really difficult, you can fast and think about this...God made woman in man's image, and He made man in HIS IMAGE. Are lustful thoughts how you want to think about women who were made to be the glory of man who is made to be the glory of God????
Just a little something to think about.

Philippians 4:
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

And if you forget all that I said here, just make a point of remembering all those verses, even if you have to write them down several times and place them on 3X5 cards around your house and in your Bible.

God bless you as you seek to glorify Him, little brother.

[OblivionXx]

Thank you everyone for your inputs and they gave me sometime to think on my actions and i should think before i submitt back into sin. I hope everyone has beautoful day God bless

- Jeremy