The Heat of the Battle Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: The Heat of the Battle ----------------------- Date: 9/27/1999 Keyword: "heart" "purity" "resistance" "submission" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: James 4:4-6* 4. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6. But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Questions 1. Does pornography hurt only the person involved in it? Who else is immediately and intensely involved with your struggle?   2. Why does James use the metaphor of adultery for the general sin of worldliness?   3. Do you sense in your own heart a fierce competition between things of the world and things of God?   Practical help There is an intense battle raging in your soul. You may not even be aware of it at times. But as long as we are still in this world, Satan will be trying to entice us. If pornography is your struggle right now, then be assured that God is not looking the other way. He knows where the battle is hottest, and he intently wants to be the victor in your heart. He cannot stand the thought of having a rival, and he has already declared the victory through Jesus. How can that victory be real for you? Only by God's grace. Verse 6 above resolves the struggle with the message that God's grace is more powerful than the world and its attractions. And the pathway to God's grace is paved with humble submissiveness. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 1999 by eXXit *Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.