No More Secrets
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: No More Secrets-------------------------------- Date: 3/26/01
Keywords:
"blood" "cry" "curse" "listen" "restless"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: Genesis 4:13-16*
13. Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear.
14. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your
presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me
will kill me."
15. But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer
vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no
one who found him would kill him.
16. So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod,
east of Eden.
Questions
1. Can you relate to Cain's response to the consequences of his sin?
2. Do you hold back confession of your struggle with porn because you fear
the consequences -- rejection, embarrassment, loss?
3. Why did the Lord protect Cain?
Practical help
I have known some men who confessed to their families their addiction to
pornography. Sometimes their confessions didn't happen until they were
discovered. In the cases I have known, I have not met one who would, in
retrospect, say that they wish they had never confessed. The cleansing, the
relief, the ending of secrecy and hiding, were all worth the pain to which
they subjected themselves and their loved ones by revealing their secret.
This is no guarantee that, in your situation, you can confess your sin to
those you love and everyone will feel all better quickly. There is no way
to predict the response of loved ones who have been deceived and
disrespected in so profound a way. As in Cain's case, the consequences are
very difficult and painful.
One thing we can count on, though, is that God cares for those he loves.
While you may predict the worst in the way of consequences, he has
something better in mind, in the long run. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Mt
11:28-30) He didn't say the burdens would be lifted, only that they would
be bearable, and that your tortured soul would find rest.
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*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
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