Never before in the history of the world has pornography been more available to more people with so few restrictions. According to Focus on the Family, The Barna Group, Family Research Council and other reliable groups, almost 60% of pastors say that pornography addiction is a major problem in their congregations. Almost one-third of pornography viewers are children under 18. 30% of pornography viewers are women, and 34% of churchgoing women access porn sites.
Even if we avoid obvious internet problems, we are daily bombarded with sex on billboards and on television. We see revealing clothing on the streets and even in our churches. Only hermits can fully avoid these seductive things.
Any of us male or female can succumb to it. That includes pastors, evangelists, missionaries any man or woman of God. As Paul warns us, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall"
(1 Corinthians 10:12).
Pornography is a form of lust an inward sinful desire that leads to falling away from God. Lust is a form of idolatry, worshipping the creation more than the Creator. We focus upon pornography because it is so obvious. But the issue goes deeper. Why do sexually explicit images attract so many people in the first place?
We can learn from the life of David, whom God described as "a man after my own heart." When David saw Bathsheba bathing, his temptation came when he was actually doing quite well. He had risen from shepherd boy to king. His conquests expanded his borders. His word was law. He felt secure.
But David's success lulled him into complacency. During this time, we have no psalms written by him. Apparently, he was taking his ease with God. Even a man after God's own heart is vulnerable to complacency. There is nothing in the text to indicate that Bathsheba provoked David. It was David's sin and his alone. If it happened to a godly man such as David, it can happen to any of us.
David probably wasn't looking for trouble, but trouble caught him in a moment of spiritual drift. One thing led to another until he impregnated Bathsheba and had her husband murdered to cover up his sin.
David's experience warns us that even becoming busy in the things of God can keep us from getting alone with God. Laziness in prayer, Bible study and fellowship with other believers leads to drift and rationalization. How do we deal with lust and pornography? Above all, get back to God. Return to fellowship with other believers. When confronted with his sin, David responded, "I have sinned against the Lord." Immediately he sought God, and God forgave him. He still had to face serious consequences for his sin that dogged him the rest of his days, but he renewed his relationship with God. He never repeated his sin.
It is his immediate readiness to confess his sin, not his freedom from sin, by which David is known to us as a man after God's own heart.
David wrote Psalm 51 in response to his sin. This psalm teaches us to (1) remember that our sin is against the Lord, (2) confess to God that sin fills our being, (3) come before God with a broken spirit and contrite heart. David's accountability to Nathan saved him from even deeper sin. We all need to be accountabile to one-another.
Lust is the natural tendency of all our hearts, whether sexual lust or something else. Unwatched, it ambushes us like a tiger. Men and women of God are Satan's special targets. Just when God wants to do something special through our lives to accomplish great things for His Kingdom, Satan will be there to divert us from our task.
To lessen the chances that lust controls our lives, let us seek to always know and hear the voice of God, to seek His face, to daily hunger and thirst after Him. When we truly experience Him, the seductive things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Father God, I confess my tendency toward lust. Help me to make you first in my life. In Jesus Name. | 
PORNOGRAPHY - The Deeper Issue