A Bright Outlook Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: A Bright Outlook ------------------------------------- Date: 4/9/2003 Keywords: “bright” “dark” “light” “overwhelm” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Psalm 139:1-12* 1. O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me. 2. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. 3. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all. 5. Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me. 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. 7. Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence? 8. If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there. 9. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10. Even there Thy hand will lead me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me. 11. If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night," 12. Even the darkness is not dark to Thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee. Questions 1. What kinds of feelings does total darkness evoke in you?   2. How can trusting God's dominion over darkness help us beat a porn habit?   Practical help Have you ever been deep in a cave and then extinguished your light source? Now that is darkness. I don't know about you, but when I experience that kind of darkness it impacts me both physiologically and spiritually. Physiologically I start to feel a little dizzy because I loose my sense of bearing — all my reference points have vanished. It's interesting that the spiritual impact is strikingly similar — I feel a stark sense of isolation, like I just lost contact with God. Almost a feeling of abandonment. We porn strugglers can probably identify with David's thoughts in verse 11 above. When traveling down the dark path of Web porn it's easy to feel like we've just stumbled into a black hole. Any semblance of what's pure and honorable seems to spiral away into the dark domain of lust quenching. We feel we'll be overwhelmed by it. The good news is that God displaces the darkness. When you make a decision to trust His redeeming work He turns on an eternal light, so to speak, and it will always illuminate a path away from the clutches of besetting sins — like a porn habit. Trust Him, and you'll soon be making "brighter" decisions about where to surf the Web. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2003 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." ---