Cease Preventing Temptation! – Pure Need Ministries

Whoa, whoa, whoa—what are you saying? Isn’t combating temptation an excellent factor?

Many people had been taught that after we are confronted with any form of temptation to lust or interact in sexual sin, the perfect tactic is to battle again. Preventing temptation can tackle many varieties: quoting Scripture verses about lust and purity, renouncing sexual sin, praying and asking God to remove the will, or exercising will energy to be able to keep away from giving in to the temptation.

Whereas all of those approaches have some worth—definitely we must always pray, quote Scripture, and train the desire which God has given us—all of them fall brief in the identical means. Every of those methods, and lots of others like them, hold us engaged with the ideas and wishes to behave out. We’re nonetheless enthusiastic about the very factor we try to keep away from! It’s like being instructed to by no means take into consideration a purple cow. The more durable we attempt to actively NOT take into consideration a purple cow, the extra we discover ourselves doing it! (You’re enthusiastic about one proper now, aren’t you?)

Jesuit priest Anthony De Mello made a hanging statement about undesirable ideas, wishes, and sin in our lives. He mentioned, 

If you battle one thing, you’re tied to it endlessly. So long as you’re combating it, you’re giving it energy. You give it as a lot energy as you’re utilizing to battle it!

Anthony De Mello

Because of this the extra vitality we use to battle in opposition to an enemy, the enemy truly turns into greater and the battle turns into tougher. 

As well as, we now know from research in neuroscience that on the inception of want and temptation, our pleasure-seeking mind begins to work in opposition to our ethical convictions. It has lengthy been identified that dopamine creates the sensation or sensation of enjoyment within the mind. In gentle of this, you could have come to an understanding that temptation isn’t nearly sexual climax, however about getting that vast hit of dopamine.

Whereas that is true to a level, science is definitely clarifying that dopamine performs a extra central position, not in pleasure itself, however within the anticipation of enjoyment! Dopamine reminds us of the expertise and will get launched very early within the strategy of want to be able to assist guarantee that we are going to proceed to maneuver towards the supply of previous pleasure.

Research in neuroscience utilizing mind imaging gear present that dopamine, beforehand considered the ‘pleasure chemical’ is definitely the ‘anticipation of enjoyment’ chemical. How Habit Hijacks our Reward System is defined, by Wilkie Wilson and Cynthia Kuhn, of their article by the identical identify within the journal Cerebrum (Vol. 7, #2, Spring 2005). The authors state that, ‘Dopamine exercise will increase not on account of getting the reward, however in anticipation of a reward.’ As well as, ‘The reward system additionally has the power to encode cues that will help you repeat the expertise.’ Environmental cues are ‘mapped’ together with the anticipation response, establishing these recollections as cues to be used as effectively.

After we try and actively battle in opposition to temptation, your mind and mine, is already releasing dopamine as we take into consideration—and bear in mind—appearing out. This makes our possibilities of resisting temptation more and more slim as we transfer deeper and deeper right into a dopamine cycle. 

So if the reply isn’t to battle, what are we to do to beat temptation?

Put in a phrase, the Bible provides us a transparent and constant pathway in coping with sexual temptation: FLEE.

Don’t battle. Flee. 

Going again to De Mello, he continues by saying, “The one technique to get out of that is to see by way of it. Don’t surrender it (battle it), see by way of it.” (Emphasis mine.) How can we get the emotional area and psychological readability to see by way of our temptation and perceive what drives it? By fleeing from the scenario, surroundings, or supply of our temptation.

All through the Bible, we’re given repeated examples of the worth of fleeing sexual temptation. In 2 Timothy 2:22, the apostle Paul tells his younger disciple, “Flee the evil wishes of youth.” To the church in Corinth, Paul exhorts them to “flee from sexual immorality” and guarantees us that after we are tempted, God will all the time present us a means out. Some translations phrase this as a “means of escape.” An exit door so we are able to flee temptation. In Genesis, when the younger Hebrew slave Joseph confronted sexual advances from his boss’s spouse, he fled so rapidly, he left his cloak behind him!

Conversely, King David didn’t flee. Samson didn’t flee. The silly youth of Proverbs 7 didn’t flee—they lingered, they stayed, they turned in her course. Did any of them intend to decide on a life-crippling sin on their journey? Seemingly not, however all of them stayed within the room of temptation and ended up getting badly burned.

For this reason the Bible doesn’t train us to battle temptation, however to FLEE. Sure, we’re in a battle—a non secular battle—however when temptation rears up, we should study to flee, not keep and battle. On this area, operating away could also be one of the vital non secular, mature selections you’ll be able to ever make. 

So what does it appear like as we speak to flee from sexual temptation? 

1. Change Your Surroundings

As quickly as we discover we’re starting to really feel tempted to sexually act out, we should bodily take away ourselves from that surroundings. Are you struggling at your desk throughout a workday? Rise up and go for a stroll. Is the health club or athletic membership stirring up that outdated thought sample once more? Lower the exercise brief and head house. Is sitting in your favourite lounge chair watching TV reminding you of “these channels?” Head into a distinct room, or exterior, and pursue a favourite exercise or passion. Wherever you’re when temptation strikes, don’t keep there! The longer we keep, the extra alternative we’re giving dopamine to be launched and remind us of the subsequent step.

We’ve a device on the Pure Need web site referred to as the Escape Plan that may aid you stroll by way of some specifics of what this would possibly appear like for you.

2. Flip Off Your System

I do know this sounds simplistic, however I’m stunned by how many individuals in restoration get tripped up by it. Entry to pornography or different graphic content material on their telephone, pill, TV, or gaming machine is simply too fast and simple. If this has been our previous behavior of discovering arousing content material, we have to guard our use of those gadgets with a heightened consciousness. In gentle of dopamine being launched as an “anticipation” chemical, we merely can’t swap to a distinct webpage or present and hope to achieve success. Flip off the machine, put it away utterly, and transfer entry to it at the very least past an arm’s size away. Typically we give into temptation just because the entry was all too simple. 

3. Deliberately Deal with One thing Else

This takes us again to the purple cow phenomenon. (See, you’re enthusiastic about it once more, aren’t you?) It’s not sufficient for us to show off our gadgets and depart the room. If the dopamine cycle has begun, we’re seemingly taking a component of that temptation sample with us wherever we go subsequent. For this reason we will need to have a plan or technique to put our thoughts on one thing else wholesome and productive. We’d have a favourite playlist cued up on our music app (offered our telephone isn’t the supply of our triggers!) Perhaps we’ve got an excellent e book we might decide up for 15-minutes. Some would possibly discover {that a} crossword puzzle or a house undertaking is a wholesome outlet. No matter works finest for you, the purpose is identical—you gained’t be victorious by attempting not to consider one thing. You need to actively fill your ideas and thoughts with one thing else so your mind can transfer by way of the temptation.

4. Transfer Towards Wholesome Group

To be fairly trustworthy, we might take all three of the earlier steps and never achieve success if we keep in isolation. Our patterns of sexually appearing out are virtually all the time secretive and executed alone. If we additionally try to seek out victory in isolation, we’re vulnerable to errors, distorted considering, or rationalizing unhealthy selections. For this reason reaching out to somebody who is aware of our story, like a gaggle member, is so important. 

In Pure Need restoration teams, we suggest group members make a minimal of three calls every week to the touch base with others within the group. These check-in calls develop into the muse for the telephone calls we have to make when we face temptation. If we don’t study to interact in an trustworthy group as an everyday rhythm, we’re unlikely to achieve out to that group throughout temptation. So interact deeply together with your group now, after which attain out to them each time you face temptation.

A FINAL WORD: Do all of this sooner somewhat than later!

The human predicament after we wrestle with undesirable behaviors is to rationalize, reduce, or deny the severity of our downside. This can hold us from taking motion as quickly as we have to. We’ll inform ourselves that we are able to deal with it proper up till the second we understand we are able to’t, and by then it’s usually too late. So I implore you—as quickly as you discover your coronary heart circling again to a tempting thought—take motion! Change the surroundings. Flip off the machine. Deal with one thing else. Make a telephone name. Right here’s the reality—you’ll by no means remorse doing any of those steps too quickly. You’ll all the time remorse placing them off till it’s too late.

We’ve been promised by God that we will be victorious over temptation. His Spirit and His Phrase provides us all the pieces we should be profitable. However that victory and success could lie in our willingness to cease combating and to start out fleeing. Your mind, and your soul, will thanks. And over time, the dopamine sample can and might be rewired to these wholesome selections that create good and godly pleasure. For you had been made for pleasure, and God will lead you faithfully into wishes that fulfill you deeply and glorify Him supremely.

• Anthony De Mello, Consciousness: A de Mello Spirituality Convention in His Personal Phrases (Nice Britain: Fount Paperbacks, 1990), 15-16.
• Rita Milios, False Guarantees: Don’t Be Fooled by the Attract of Anticipation, American Habit Facilities, June 6, 2023, https://restoration.org/professional/articles/dont-be-fooled-by-the-allure-of-anticipation/.
• Anthony De Mello, Consciousness: A de Mello Spirituality Convention in His Personal Phrases (Nice Britain: Fount Paperbacks, 1990), 16. 
• 1 Corinthians 6:18
• 1 Corinthians 10:13
• Genesis 39