In a bid to talk about consecration, let us first talk about one silent pandemic that is eating up destinies.
Experts speculate up to 10 per cent of the total Christian population in the United States have a sexual addiction. If true, this means that in a congregation of 500 members, 50 are sex addicts. And this percentage may be increasing. In one study, two-thirds of all Christian men admitted to “struggling” with pornography. In another study, 40 per cent of pastors surveyed confessed to looking at pornography. Christians who struggle pray ceaselessly, read the Bible constantly and consult countless pastors, but still can’t stop.
You may think you don’t know a sex addict. Sex addicts, however, do not fit the popular stereotypes. They are otherwise gentle and kind. They care deeply for others. To fellow church members, they appear to be ideal Christians. But a secret side of them does evil and harmful things, sexual things, some of them too horrible to fully describe. Their sexual activity is uncontrollable and they can’t stop. It is an addiction.
Sexual sin is not news to the church. Voices among us have consistently protested this immorality and called for repentance. Yet sexual sin remains a difficult topic to talk about. When “one of us” commits sexual sin, the rest of us are shocked and embarrassed by the apparent hypocrisy and massive failure of faith. In response, we turn inward to our own shame, fears, and confusion, and try to keep the situation as quiet as possible.
Those who come out to say they suffer from sexual addiction have been ostracized, scorned and persecuted. Too consumed by shame to ask for help, they have been confined to lives of loneliness and isolation. Addiction thrives in isolation, darkness and shame. The cycle is not only spiritual; it is psychological, mental, physical, emotional etc. It consumes your entire being and your entire life until you are reduced to a piece of bread.
Sexual addiction is about trying to control behaviours…and failing. Just like alcoholics, sex addicts tell themselves they can quit tomorrow if they want to. They like to think they are in control, but they are not. Until they want to finally stop and realize they can’t. Addiction distracts addicts long enough to take your entire will from their control. Indeed, their inability to give up the illusion of control is precisely what prevents sex addicts from healing. It is the same with any sin. Our attempts to control our lives prevent us from trusting God to care for us. The sad reality is, anyone who has tasted any sex addiction can suffer from a love addiction unbeknownst to them.
The Root Cause
Sin is the lack of a relationship with God and the destructive behaviours committed as a result. Unmanageable and causes people to distrust God, to control their own lives, and to commit behaviours destructive to themselves and others, sin causes shame and leads to death. Unmanageability, escape, shame, and addiction make up the very fabric of sin.
Addiction is living a lie because, although you think you think you’re enjoying yourself because your body feels so good, you are sad deep within. Being pierced in the soul by many sorrows is a reality that is now distracted by further additive activities. Addiction provides an escape from feelings; feelings of discomfort, disdain, shame, abandonment, neglect, rejection, low self-esteem, and what have you. After you commit the sexual act, you have to come to the real world and face your problems.
Every single tool man invents will be used to perpetuate evil to the next level. From the Internet to social media to AI, every new level of accomplishment of man is used to orchestrate evil to a level never seen hitherto. That’s because the problem of man is in his heart. When sin rules a man’s heart, every tool is a weapon for evil, be it a knife, car, platform or even the mouth. Thus, God transforms a person from within. We live from within. A good tree produces good fruit. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good fruit.
The advancement of the Internet age has propagated a lie that has censured many Christians today from living the reality of the truth common to all Christians in past generations. If there is one thing that united all Christians at any point in history, it was the dedication to live a holy life. The rampage of lust alone – as it is being shoved in our faces everywhere we turn our head via media – has, at least, caused the average believer to think living a holy life is theoretically right but practically unrealistic. However, the Eternal God has unchanging standards.
Since it’s the same race the great cloud of witnesses ran, God is not going to lower the standard to accommodate the culturalized and “technologized” perversions that defines our era. Take courage! You are the best person in your bloodline to be alive in this point in time. You were predestined for such a time as this. If we think God is not being fair when He doesn’t adjust the standard to accommodate our beguiled reality, then it shows we don’t understand the potency of God’s redeeming power. Christ’s redemption is eternal. That means it is the same power that will continue to make us the redeemed of the Lord in the age to come when this present world is long gone.
There’s hope ❤
If you want to read more on this silent pandemic, kindly read Theologian Mark Laaser’s book on Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction
