Taking Away Disgrace Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Taking Away Disgrace------------------------- Date: 11/12/2002 Keywords: "disgrace" "shame" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Psalm 119:33-40* 33. Teach me, O LORD , to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. 34. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. 35. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. 36. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. 38. Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared. 39. Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good. 40. How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness. Question What do you dread the most about your porn experiences?   Practical help Many porn strugglers fear the day they'll get caught viewing smut. Still others, having already been caught, live in never-ending shame. In either situation, the strugglers wish for the day that disgrace will no longer be something they dread or experience. Not that porn will suddenly become shame-free, but that it will cease to grip them, to expose them to its disgrace. Whether porn was part of his personal experience or not, the psalmist above also longs for deliverance from shame (verse 39). He models to us porn strugglers a twofold strategy: boldly asking God for help and seeking solace and strength from Scripture ("your laws"). This approach still works today. If you're struggling not only with porn but also with the bitter disgrace that comes from viewing it or being caught, go to God, and go to his Holy Word. This plan will result in two things: Being released in due time from porn's grip, and renewed ability to stand strong in your relationship with other people and in your self-esteem. So let's go to God and to his Scriptures today, right now. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 by eXXit *Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version, © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved. --