Just watched pornography.

You’re back there, that place you promised yourself you’ll never go back to, and now you’re here. Just when things looked like they were getting better, they get worse and you fall for the temptation. This was likely your best streak so far and Now you don’t even feel like starting this journey to freedom again. This old feeling feels sweet. And as much as you don’t like how you feel, you can’t deny that you like how it feels, for now. It feels familiar.

But you know you can’t stay here right? I was here countless times and one thing to know about the sin of pornography and masturbation is that even if you decide to stop fighting the urge to give in and indulge yourself, you’ll still be miserable. So the only way you’ll ever get out is to ‘get out’.

So how does one ever move on from here? How does one kill this sins.

I’m going to share with you 5 things to do immediately after you watch pornography.

1. Repent.

This was pretty much an expected point. Yes, repent. You likely are already familiar with this process and have likely done it countless times, the only question is that are you repenting rightly?

Repentance is more than saying lord I’m sorry, or I promise not to do this again. Repentance actually means turning ones back on this way of life, changing ones mind about this sin.

So repentance in this case can be said to be true and genuine when you come to a conclusion that pornography and masturbation will never satisfy you. Coming to see that Christ is better, sweeter, more lasting than any orgasm. And doing all you can relying on God’s grace to never go back again.

You have to remind yourself that sex was created by God. And we should never love the creation more than the creator. Never love the gift more than the giver.

Trust that God is who he says he is. Trust that he is the water that we drink and thirst no more. Declare that at his side are pleasures forever more.

This is not going to be a one time thing you do only after slipping, repentance should be done regularly. Every time you are even tempted to lust, repent. Because you have to be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.

But above all, to repent genuinely is to speak Matthew 22:37 to yourself. And say, I love God with all my heart all my soul and with all my mind.

And really begin to learn how you can love him with those areas of your body.

2. Resist Self Hatred.

Pornography is a twisted manipulation of innocence for the raw crave of erotic appetite. If you feel guilty or you have a grieved conscience about this sin, that is a good thing. But when you dwell on it and twist this guilt towards yourself saying “I’m not good enough, I’ll never be good enough, I’m detestable, I will never love God more than this sin”; You put yourself on a dangerous path. A sucidal one at times. That was the path Judas iscariot followed and he hung himself to death. The difference between Judas iscariot betraying Jesus and Peter’s denial is not in the degree of betrayal, but in the response to the betrayal. Judas felt like he needed to pay for his crime, but Peter knew that even though he failed Jesus, Jesus knew he would before time and still loves him.

We turn the knife back to self hatred when we receive God’s love, knowing that nothing we do can ever pay for the cost of sin. We can never ever love God as much as he loves us

3. Rejoice in your salvation

In Luke 10:20, Jesus sent his disciples out, and when they came back, they were so excited that demons fled at their command. So he told “But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.

Many times a lot of us find security and comfort when we do good works, even good works for God(which is not a bad thing)

But Jesus makes it clear that remembering that our names are registered in heaven, is more worthy of rejoicing than any good work one can ever do. The truth is, there will be times we slip and fall. We may have a good streak today, and a terrible one next week. In these times, remembering that nothing can separate us from the love of God is very paramount. So we are in turn meant to respond to this unfailing love with Delight in him.

Remind yourself that you are saved by grace and not by works.

4. Do better tomorrow. 

You know the feeling, the routine after a session of watching porn and masturbating — browser history cleared, slogging and dragging your feet through the rest of the day, lumbering from task to task — meaningless, personless, passionless. This experience is integrated into the fabric of pornography indulgence.

By now your body is filled with so much dopamine and opioids that your mind is still fuzzy with all the pornography you just lusted over. You are not even sure if you have repented rightly cos you feel lethargic and all you want to do now is go in for another session of Indulgence in porn. Don’t do it please. There’s hope!

Come out of the scene of the crime, talk to your accountability partner, go out of the house, keep praying(Ephesians 6:18), keep putting down the thoughts of the clips you just watched, keep gasping, but most importantly keep breathing.

Look forward to the morrow. As living beings the morning is a new opportunity we get each day to do things better. And as believers we experience new mercies every morning(lamentations 3:22-24). Receive Gods mercies, bask in his great faithfulness . For in your weakness is his strength perfected.

5. Use your clarity to set boundaries

One good thing about failing is that you know how not to go about doing a particular thing. So anytime you fall you know where you were and which way not to go. And just like the story of Hansel and gretel, you don’t stop dropping breadcrumbs as you move, so that you will always find your way back home.

So even though you might have experienced a haze after indulgence, there can also be a flood of clarity.

As Piper might say, “Don’t waste your regret.” Use it for God’s glory and your joy.

Set up boundaries. Use the clarity that will surely fade before the next moment of temptation to build structures that will prevent this again. Go back and forth all you’d like on what structures are dumb and ineffective, and which are sustainable preventative measures — the basic truth is this: If you don’t have any formal structures/ guard rails set up to prevent you from looking at pornography in the future, it will absolutely, with 100% certainty, happen again.

Here are some steps you can take.

•Get the Flust app on all your Android devices. So that as you surf the Internet, you know full well that random screenshots of your phone will be taken and sent to your accountability partner. You’ll be watchful. This is one of the healthiest ways to do accountability.

•Do some research and find some other strong accountability software for your iOS devices and Laptops.

• Don’t let a single unaccountable browser app remain on your iPhone.

•Delete in-browser apps that allow backdoor access to unaccountable internet use.

•Get a friend to setup some good screen time content restriction that’ll prevent you from stumbling across explicit websites and apps.

•Delete pictures you have saved that can lead you to lust.

•Unfollow profiles on social media that constantly cause you to lust. These can be friends who expose their body, or even photographers to take sexy model pictures. Gouge out all of it.

•Tell a friend about the backdoors and cheat-codes you have in your back pocket. If you don’t plan at all, you’re planning to fail. Nowhere is this truer than in the practical fight against pornography indulgence.

*Bonus Tip*

Don’t stop praying

Matthew 26:41 – “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus gives his disciples a final advice to keep on praying. The reason why we need to keep on praying is so that we constantly submit our weaknesses to God so that he may fill it up with His strength.

By praying, we channel strength from the Holy Spirit into our physical bodies. Because the more the Holy Spirit has a hold on our hearts, he’ll constantly have a hold on our hands.

Keep Fighting, Keep Trusting, Keep Winning.