Every Young Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn

Author:Stephen Arterburn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781578569700
Publisher: Crown Religion/Business/Forum
Published: 2004-01-20T05:00:00+00:00

STILL FEELING UNWORTHY?

When we masturbate, some of us come to our Father and say, “I’ve masturbated again, and I’m not worthy to be called Your son.” He brushes that aside, saying, “No one but Jesus is worthy to be called my Son, but I love you and forgive you.” He demonstrates that love by presenting us with a ring, robe, and shoes. Then He says, “In case you forgot, Jesus picked these up at Calvary for you. That makes you worthy enough for Me. Now let’s celebrate and enjoy each other!”

When we sin, God doesn’t shout, “Hell and damnation on you!” Since we’re saved, He knows full well that there’s now no more condemnation for us because of Christ. Remember, He personally had the apostles write that into the Bible! Jesus paid it all. Our Father isn’t interested in making us pay further by adding shame after another orgasmic failure in cyberspace.

God, your Father, is for you. He has plans to prosper you, and plans to give you a hope and a future, as promised in Jeremiah 29. Granted, God doesn’t unconditionally approve of your behavior, but He does unconditionally love you. When you masturbate, He wants you to know you missed the mark of His high calling. He wants you to know that this behavior separates you from Him, and that’s why you’re finding it hard to get close to Him.

Take a long, careful look at how masturbation affects your relationship with God. This is what God is most concerned with. You’re already His son. What He wants now is for you to move back closer to Him. And since we’re focusing in this section on how we can fully and authentically love God with all our strength (our bodies), this is our primary interest, as well.

If you’ve ever masturbated, you know that your heart is often gripped with heavy grief and sorrow afterward. At that moment, it is very clear that you don’t deserve all the grace Christ has given you, and you can barely lift your head to look into your Father’s eyes. The distance is very real.

But our mistakes and this distance are never the centerpiece of God’s focus on us. If you would manage to look again into His eyes and run to the foot of the cross, you’ll find that Christ’s outstretched arms and His desire to forgive are always the glorious centerpiece to every Christian’s story. Every one of us can tell our own story of His amazing grace, stories that He Himself has authored and will perfect and complete, regardless of our sin. This is God’s focus. It must also be ours.

Does that mean we shouldn’t fear God? Does that mean we should be slack on sin? Heavens no! Look at the destructive stories we’ve shared with you. The prodigal son ended up in a pigsty, eating pig’s food, and was appalled at the destruction in his own life.

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