The Christian’s Battle Against a Culture of Addiction
Beginning to feel trapped in an addiction can be painful, but it can also serve as powerful motivation to find deep healing.
Beginning to feel trapped in an addiction can be painful, but it can also serve as powerful motivation to find deep healing.
Nate Larkin joins Gary Wilkerson to share his story of redemption, recovery and healing from sexual addiction.
Often our worst shame comes from what grows out of the wounds in our past. We try to cut down every bad habit or embarrassing addiction that sprouts, but until we dig up the root, the damage will never completely heal. Today’s guest, Brittany Rust, talks about how God helped her uproot and heal from a history of abuse, sexual sin and depression.
Shame and feeling incomplete or insignificant often leads us to seek out worldly solutions. As we spiral into isolation and harmful patterns of living, we can quickly find ourselves with addictions that we’d never imagined having. No one sets out to become a pornography addict, but many have found themselves caught. Unable to pull away from explicit material, they feel forced to watch as it consumes their thoughts and lives. This week, Gary Wilkerson and Bob Ditmer discuss the deeper injuries to our hearts and souls that can lead to addictions like pornography. They want believers to know that we can find healing that leads to freedom.
At dinner with some friends and friends-of-friends, I turned to the woman beside me and asked what I felt was a fairly innocuous, get-to-know-you question. “So, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m an erotic romance author.”
Last week, Nate Larkin shared his personal testimony about struggling with a pornography addiction and how he eventually found freedom. This week, he and Gary discuss the types of sexual addiction and where they can spring from in our pasts. God wants to heal these deep heart wounds. As we heal and shed addictions, we will find it easier to forge deep and meaningful relationships with others. Gathering healthy community around us will make staying on the road to recovery easier. While the path may not be any smoother or less steep, faithful friends can walk beside us and remind us of our heavenly Father’s promises.
A pornography addiction can feel like a hopeless trap. When we pray and pray for it to go away, we can get stuck in a cycle of despair when the addiction remains. This week, visiting speaker Nate Larkin talks about his own sexual addictions and how he eventually found freedom.
Spencer B. Olmstead and his colleagues conducted a survey of young college students, asking them what they thought about pornography.
Many of us deal with bad habits. Some are easy to talk about. We joke about how we need to cut out those “comfort foods” or watch less television. Other obsessions feel deeply private and difficult to discuss, especially in church. Every addiction is planted in a deeper heart problem. Too often, the church has addressed sexual addictions by simply telling us to “stop” without digging deeper to the root of the issue. Today, Gary explores some of the fears and heart wounds that can lead to pornography addiction.