Needy? Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Needy? ------------------- Date: 12/8/2002 Keywords: "desire" "love" "need" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 2 Timothy 1:7* For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Questions 1. If you get urges to view porn, why so?   2. How do you know when a need is valid?   Practical help Sometimes we misplace our desires for things we think we love because we think they're meeting our needs. An affinity for a porn fix is a perfect example. We think that we're gratified by the experience, and we conclude that it was a met need. Yet, (usually) in a short amount of time the experience is recalled with guilt, shame, disgust and maybe serious anxiety or depression. Why? Many of our needs are not simple or easy to satisfy. The need for sexual intimacy is one God designed into a much more complex need to love our mate and to do it wholeheartedly. The problem comes in when we opt (it is a choice) to fractionalize our needs and break apart things that were designed to be together. For genuine sexual fulfillment to occur genuine wholehearted love must encompass it. Give yourself a "valid need" test the next time you're struck with the urge to surf to a porn site: 1. If married, will it express a desire to wholeheartedly love and honor your mate? 2. If single or married, will it express a desire to wholeheartedly love and honor God? Any "no" means you don't really need it — so get up and walk away from the computer. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 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." ---