Full House Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Full House Keywords: “empty” “pride” “Self-sufficiency” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Matthew 12:43-45* 43. "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44. "Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45. "Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation." Questions 1. Have you had lots of short-term successes when fighting a porn habit?   2. How do you feel just before one of those short-term successes turns to failure?   Practical help Hey, nobody's saying you have (or had) an unclean spirit (or demon). That's not really the point of what Jesus is saying in today's passage. He's talking about self-sufficiency and how very dangerous it is. Let's consider this scenario: You've been struggling with porn and decided that you, all by yourself, can beat it. You focus all your will and determination and you achieve apparent near-term success. It was a lot of work, so you're mentally fatigued and emotionally drained. You're sitting at your computer, surfing for a great deal on that wireless setup you've been wanting to get. A fat-fingered URL reference and you type "broad and" instead of "broadband," and some search hits aren't about wireless at all. To click or not to click. Could you still resist? Maybe we're not talking about demons, but we are talking about what Satan likes to leverage in the human condition. Self-sufficiency brings only one thing to fruition — pride. And as we read in Proverbs 16:18 — Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. Instead of fighting porn with a clean but empty house, fight it with a clean and full house. Fill your house with the guiding power of the Holy Spirit and the rich wisdom of God's word. To learn more about house filling, click here. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2004 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission." ---