The HALT Acronym – Use it to gauge your susceptibility to temptation

By R PikeLeave a Comment

Feb 15 1

Use the HALT Acronym to see how easy a target you are for temptation

The other day at a church breakfast, one of the guys shared something he had learned by listening to a speaker at a recent conference. It is very good and resonated with me so I thought I would share it with you.

There are times in everyone’s lives when we become weak and easily drawn in by temptation. Using the H.A.L.T. acronym we can easily identify and counteract, making temptation a little harder to give into.

Hunger – When you are hungry, you turn into a predator looking for something to consume. Think back to the times when you were so hungry that you stuffed your face with whatever was readily available with no regard to nutritional value or calories. Whether you raided the fridge or pulled into the fast food drive through, consequences went out the window to satisfy your need.

Anger – Reactions to anger often include giving into temptation. Indulging in drugs, alcohol, sex, and pornography to dull these feelings are very common.

Loneliness – When you get lonely watch out. This is my greatest pull of temptation. Instead of seeking company or finding a noble activity, we usually seek to make ourselves feel ‘better’ by indulging in illicit behavior.

Tired – If you work hard and are tired often, the pull of temptation is great. It’s almost as if we ‘reward’ ourselves for the hard work by giving into temptation. We justify our deservedness when our defenses are weak.

Be careful if you are experiencing any of these symptoms because temptation will come knocking. This reminds me of the scripture when Jesus went to the desert for 40 days of fasting and praying. The devil came out to the desert to tempt him when he was hungry, lonely, and tired. The devil took advantage of this time of weakness to put Jesus to the test.

The devil is no dummy. He waited till Jesus got weary then came to offer him the world all in exchange for a little bit of sin. Jesus was very hungry, tired and was all by himself praying to the Father in preparation for his ministry. A weakened Jesus would be much easier to break than a Jesus who was physically and mentally sharp!

The devil turns up the heat on us during times of weakness too! We need to counteract these times of weakness and go pray for the strength of the Lord! Eat, seek reconciliation, connect with a friend and get some sleep to, but don’t forget to ask the Lord for help. He was tested in every way that we are and is familiar with our human frailties. He is our intermediary with the Father. Is that not great?!

Holiday Porn Binge

By R PikeLeave a Comment

Dec 24 1

binge on porn

Holiday Porn Binge

Tips on how not to indulge this holiday

The holiday season is the time of the year when we let out guards down and indulge in many things we might say no to most other times. This time of the year we tend to say ‘why not’ instead of ‘no thanks’. Food and drink are the most common indulgences we allow ourselves, but another unspoken one is pornography.

We tend to indulge in pornography for different reasons, but here are some of the most common:

Opportunity – Most of us take time off around the holidays and this breaks our normal routines of sleeping and waking. The opportunity presents itself for some late night or mid day sessions with the pornography.
Need for escape – The holiday season is fast paced and fun-filled. Sometimes we need to take a break from it all and escape into the fantasy world.
Loneliness – For those who have no significant other or family to be with, the intimacy of pornography is what we turn to, to try and make us feel better.

The worst thing is that it doesn’t make us feel better and alleviate the pain or boredom; pornography only compounds our ill feelings and brings us down. Instead of going on a pornography binge for the holidays, here are a few tips to help you not fall into that trap.

Keep your normal schedule – Go to bed and wake up close to your regular schedule. Don’t be seduced by late night movies or internet surfing, especially when everyone else has gone to bed. Go to bed when the rest of the family does!
Unplug from the holiday madness – Get away with your spouse for a quiet lunch. Don’t go to every holiday party you are invited to, causing holiday burn out. Go for a walk in the park and experience the chilly air, wildlife and solitude. Go to church and connect with the true meaning of Christmas.
Don’t spend the holidays alone – Invite friends or family over. Go volunteer somewhere such as a shelter, ring the Salvation Army bell, or at the local food bank. Get out of the house and go to where people are and you can have human interaction.
Make sure your internet is guarded by a good accountability software package.

May you have a blessed holiday season filled with true joy, peace and love.

Supernatural lifeguard whistles and who is watching

By R PikeLeave a Comment

Apr 2 0

The supernatural lifegaurd of the Holy Spirit

lifeguard whistles

Who is watching You?

Where is a lifeguard when you need one? Lifeguard whistles

If you are searching to buy a lifeguard whistle, please find a nice selection of them here- lifeguard whistles Otherwise, keep reading 🙂

My family and I just came back from one of those indoor water park resorts. We had a great time together and did plenty of swimming.

These types of places are filled with people, pools and lifeguards.
There are lifeguards everywhere you turn whether you go on a water slide or wade in the wave pool. They do an excellent job of whistling people away from unacceptable behavior and unknown dangers. Their job is to make sure you are safe and don’t do anything stupid to hurt yourself.

One thing I noticed with my kids is that they would look to the lifeguard every time the whistle blew. A few times it was for them, like when they were doing handstands on the bottom of the pool. Most of the time it was for someone else that was getting to close to the edge or to close to the buoys where the wave machine works.

The lifeguards were watching everyone swim and would not let you get away with breaking a pool rule. My kids would do something and then look up to the lifeguard to see whether it was ok to do it. Once they found out that handstands were not allowed they didn’t try to do them again. They love handstands, but the lifeguards were always watching and they did not want to get busted.

When we are tempted to look at pornography, where is the lifeguard ready to blow the whistle on us? Believe it or not, there are lifeguards to keep us from sinning. One of them is called our conscience. Right before you click on that button to look at pornography, your conscience tells you to stop.

Another very similar lifeguard is the Holy Spirit which will do the same thing and urge you to run. Hopefully you can still hear your conscience or the Holy Spirit as they blow the whistle and tell you to stop. If you cannot hear them anymore, you have crushed these warnings long enough that you can’t hear them! You are ignoring them and need to slow yourself down to recognize them again. Remember that the eyes of The Lord are everywhere and while you think no one else can see you, He can!

Other lifeguards are the ones that we set up for ourselves. Internet filtering programs such as Covenant Eyes or X3 watch will serve as a lifeguard when you get tempted. There is also a program that will text your accountability partner when you start hitting websites that suggest you are ready to fail.

Some other practical lifeguards are locking out certain cable channels, keeping your computer in a public place, not allowing or getting yourself out of perfect storm situations, and calling your accountability partner to share your temptations with them.

Don’t allow yourself to even come close to drowning in pornography. You must heed the natural and supernatural lifeguards in your life. Don’t forget to set up some other practical lifeguards in your life as well. When you do these, it will be much harder to harm yourself and fall prey to the satan and his schemes.

The Perfect Storm to be Bad

By R PikeLeave a Comment

Mar 26 2

perfect storm for sin

The Perfect Storm

I write this tonight from a point of vulnerability. This is a lesson we all can learn from.

The title for this post is the perfect storm to be bad. The perfect storm is that storm where all the conditions are just right to produce a real powerfull, destructive, wickedly dangerous storm. When the perfect conditions come together like this, you better take shelter. On the sea, you may not have a choice but to ride it out, but on dry land you have many options. You can take shelter inland if a hurricane is coming. You may run to the storm shelter if a tornado is on its way.

The perfect storm I am talking about tonight is not of the natural disaster kind. I am talking about the perfect storm to be bad. When I say be bad, I am refering to the temptation of pornography. Indulging in pornography is definately acting badly.

The perfect storm is the right combination of circumstances and opportunities that present themselves to the addict who has to make a decision. That decision is whether to succomb to temptation or to run away and change the circumstances.

Tonight I have the perfect storm here:

A semi private computer
My wife away for the night
My kids in bed
A little beer in my system

I so want to take a peak at some images or videos on yahoo search. You know, just fringy things, no big deal right? Wrong. I need to change my circumstances and quickly. I decided to write this post to express what I am going through and to show you how I am going to run from this.

In a moment when I finish this post I am going to shut down and go to sleep. I don’t need to be on the computer at 10:36 on a Friday night. I will flip on the TV and veg out till I fall asleep. I also will not have any more beer. The beer is good, and I don’t drink a lot of it, but it dulls my inhabitions and conscience causing me to think things that I know I shouldn’t.

So before I sign off and claim a victory over temptation, please tell me what are the conditions for your perfect storm? What do you do about it? Do you forsee the storm and immediately get out of the way? Please share below.

What Triggers Your Urge For Pornography?

By R PikeLeave a Comment

Nov 13 4

Suggestive ads that exploit women

Regular users and/or addicts of pornography generally have a handfull of triggers that set them off on another binge of pornography use. Many of you can identify with an event, a state of mind, or the influences that drive us to using porn. Here are a few items that may trigger your urges:

A fight with the wife
Boredom
Depression
The glimpse of an attractive woman
Lonliness
Anger
Free time

Let me share a really BIG one for all of us – suggestive ads –

What is this ad promoting?

What is this ad promoting?

This ad from netflix that features actress Megan Fox really caught my eye. Here’s why:

She is attractive and the middle of the ad focuses on her breasts. – us men are obviously visually oriented.
She has a look of vulnerability or fear on her face – this triggers the manly need to rescue her.
She is posed in a way that asks you to help her, rescue her, love her.

I have seen this ad off to the side of my Yahoo mail at least 50 times and it has caught my eye everytime. In the past, I would have focused on this ad and it would have revved me up to the point of search for pornography then acting out. How do I respond differently now?

Initially I was caught off gaurd with this ad and quickly looked away. (fleeing) As I saw it more often I started to analyze what it was about that ad that was so appealing and those details are above. I did not take the ad into my head and run with it! This is where we get tripped up. You have to train yourself to stop the runaway thoughts that lead into acting out. You need to stop yourself, calm yourself down and move on to another subject. Don’t even entertain thoughts of sex for a few moments thinking you are just skirting the edge. You need to estinguish these lustful thoughts right away! Walk away for 10 minutes, change the channel, call a friend or your accountability partner – Don’t linger.

Many of the triggers that lead us down the road into acting out and using pornography can be counteracted by doing something to oppose that trigger. If boredom leads you into pornography sessions, you need to keep yourself busy – do something to occupy the time. If free time is your downfall, don’t allow yourself to have free time while you are alone. Leave the house and go into a public setting. Invite a friend over. Do you see where I am going? We have to set up a plan (in advance) of what will are going to do when we face a situation that could lead to our downfall. That action plan is a part of your overall Battle Plan to stop using pornography. You will then know what to do and excute the action plan to counteract these attacks before they start.

What are your triggers? What do you find helpfull to counteract everyday situations that could bring your down? Please comment.

Overcoming Sexual Temptations

By R PikeLeave a Comment

Apr 20 3

overcoming sexual temptations

Overcoming Sexual Temptations – How to overcome and win.

Sexual temptations are common to all people whether man or woman. We all run into situations where we are tempted in a sexual nature. These temptations can come in the form of a flirtatious coworker, a tantalizing ad or maybe a photo on the internet. Sexual temptations appeal to our inner desire to have sex and be close to someone.

Is temptation a sin? No. Temptations if they are allowed to capture us will lead us into sin, but they are not sin themselves. A temptation is that hook that can draw us into sin. A temptation appeals to our lusts and waits for us to take the bait. A man can see an attractive woman in a revealing top – the temptation. What does he think after seeing the woman, is what determines whether he takes that temptation that appeals to his lust and turns it into sin. It would turn into sin if he mentally undresses her. It would not be sin for him to look another direction and focus his mind on something else.

Temptations appeal to our lusts, or those things we desire which are morally or ethically wrong. Most all of us are sexually tempted because we have a desire for sex. That desire is both physical and emotional. We have desires for things which are wrong. We can lust after another woman or desire to watch a porno. Temptations appeal to these desires and lure us into satisfying the desire.

Not all desires are wrong. We all desire to eat because we get hungry. When we are hungry and see an ad for a cheeseburger, is that cheeseburger temptation? No. It is morally alright to eat and the cheeseburger ad may sway you to heading down to your fast food place, but not wrong.

Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires as James 1:14 says. These desires lead to actions. Sinful actions. These evil desires are inside of us. We have the desire to do evil inside of us and temptation wakes us that desire for us to act on.

The key to battling temptation starts with the inside. We have to defeat those evil desires within us. Those desires are written onto our ‘hard drive’ and we have to overwrite them. We can overwrite them with prayer & God’s word. This is not a one-time deal. We have to continually overwrite them because they keep coming back. You need a battle plan.

Pray to God to help you change your evil desires and replace them with desires for pure things. You need help to counteract all those sinful lusts that have found their way to your heart. God can help you if you ask.

You also need to overwrite those lusts with the word of God. Crack your Bible open and find some verses to memorize that counteract your lusts. If you lust with your eyes, memorize Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman”. Read your Bible daily to get God’s word written on your heart. God’s word is more powerful than a two edged sword (Heb 4:12) and has tremendous power to not only save, but destroy the evil desires within you.

Now that you are working on your heart, you need to be aware of where you are tempted and set up a battle plan. If you lust after women with your eyes, you need to set up a plan for numerous scenarios you may encounter that will be temptations. For example: If you are speaking to a woman at work who has a low cut blouse, you decide ahead of time to make eye contact with her or look away when not. You will decide ahead of time what your action will be and then do it when facing the situation.

In other circumstances you will need to heed the Bible’s recommendation and flee temptation. If you are on the internet and see tantalizing ad for free porn, log out and get away from the computer! Flee and don’t let temptation get the best of you. Take the exit God will provide for you.

These are only a few examples of overcoming sexual temptation. You can find more help by in my book.

Prayer to overcome sexual temptation: Dear God, I am under tremendous temptation at the moment to sin against you. Please give me the strength to walk away from this temptation and focus on what is pure, what is true, what is right and anything that is excellent or praiseworthy. I do not want to fall into sin to please my flesh. Allow your Spirit to fill me and work in me right now. In Jesus’ name Amen.

FREE report to overcome temptation