Porn and lentil stew

No one really believes in the popular rationalization that porn is a victim-less crime. But few understand the full cost of it in their own lives and the lives of those they love the most. At least until it's too late.

I'd like to address especially the single men today, for two reasons. First of all they need it the most. A man is never as vulnerable to this temptation as when he is young, inexperienced, burning with passion and yet without any legitimate outlet for it. Secondly, because they have the least resources available. Most men who write about this are married men, writing to other married men. And their solution, of directing their passions toward their wives seems very unhelpful to someone who doesn't have one.

What I'd like to get across to you is this: Watching porn is like selling your birthright for a mouthful of lentil stew. You're trading in one of Gods most valuable gifts to you for something essentially worthless. Read this passage with me, from Genesis:

When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” And Jacob said, “First swear to me”; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Gen 25:29-34)

Esau was a game hunter. A man with a taste for red meat. But he was hungry. So hungry that even lentil stew looked good to him. I believe many of you reading this would be able to identify with this. you're the kind of man who has an appetite for what God originally created sex to be. Yet somewhere along the way you became so famished that even the pathetic pictures that perverted pornographers throw after you start to entice you.

Your hunger is as real as Esau's. I understand your temptation. Now I want you to understand this: That the satisfaction porn offers lasts no longer than it would take Esau to get hungry again, and the price you pay for it is as high as the one he paid.

What is the price exactly? First of all, porn is as addictive as any narcotic. You'll want it more, and find less satisfaction in it for every time. You essentially sell yourself into a lifetime of slavery. Secondly, it will warp your view of sex, and leave you unable to find satisfaction in the real thing as well. As a single man hoping to get married, you need to be aware that the future pleasures God has reserved for you to enjoy together with your wife are what you give in exchange for that mouthful of stew.

If you lend Satan your eyes, and let him train you to find pleasure in perversions, it won't take long before sex the way God intended it seems boring to you. When you do get married you'll quickly find yourself dissatisfied with your wife, because somewhere along the way your appetites switched. And you're no longer longing for sex and trying to substitute it with porn. You're longing for porn and trying to substitute it with sex.

Not only have you traded in your satisfaction in marriage, but also your future wife's satisfaction. You will deprive her of the deep intimacy she needs and desires, seeking to play out your own pornographic fantasies. And it still won't satisfy, because sex really isn't very much like porn at all. Porn actors are just that. Actors. They act as if what they do is pleasurable, while in real life most of it it's usually uncomfortable or straight-out painful.

Easu's choice had repercussions for his children and his children's children until this very day. Had he not given up his birthright, they - instead of Israel - would have been the nation through whom God manifested his power in the old covenant. With the click of a mouse you can deprive your future children of a happy, harmonious home, and lead them on a path of destruction. Because, make no mistake about it, apart from divine intervention they will follow.

Don't go down that path! When Jesus said it's better to gauge out your eyes, he wasn't kidding. Yes, the hunger to love and be loved in that special way is real. But like all the best things in life, you have to wait for it. And you can. Do not believe the devil when he says it's impossible, and tells you you can't take it any longer. Believe that "no temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." (1.Cor 10:13)

Hold on to that, until God again grants you a moment of sanity and clarity of mind,and renews your strength before the next battle.