Video coming soon. The video teaching for Day 15 is still in production. Read the full lesson below, it will be added here as soon as it is ready.
When you think about your struggle with pornography and lust, what's your excuse? The thing you come back to that explains why this has been so hard, why you haven't been able to get free, why this is different for you than it might be for other men?
There are real circumstances men point to: the internet, the culture, a high sex drive you didn't choose, being exposed to this young before you had any say, a difficult marriage, a wife who's checked out emotionally or physically, stress, a brutal job, a past that did real damage.
I want to say this carefully, and I need you to hear both halves of it: some of those things are real. Some of what happened to you was genuinely done to you, and it matters, and God cares about it.
But the sixth sacrifice is giving up your excuses, and that means giving up the identity that goes with them: the identity of a man who cannot win because of forces outside himself.
What excuses actually do to you
They make you passive. If the problem is out there (her clothes, the algorithm, your marriage), you become a man waiting for his circumstances to change before he can change. You stop being a fighter and start being a victim. And victims don't conquer difficult hills.
Let me say this as plainly as I know how: women and the way they dress are not your problem. I'll say it again, because I know it pushes back against something you've told yourself. Sin is your problem.
"Out of the heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery."
Out of the heart. Not out of the culture. Not out of the algorithm. Not out of what she was wearing.
Why that's actually good news
Your heart is something God can change. The culture is not something you control. If the problem is out there, you're helpless. If the problem is in here, there's a God who specializes in changing hearts, and you have access to Him right now.
When you own the problem (when you say this is my sin, my responsibility, my battle), you stop being a passive victim and become a man who can actually do something. That shift in identity is enormous. It changes everything about how you fight.
Own it. Then fight it, with backup.
The six levels give you a real, structured path, not just information: a way to actually own this and win.
David's example
After everything, after Bathsheba, after Uriah, after the catastrophic wreckage of that whole season, here's what David said to God:
"Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight."
He didn't mention that she was bathing in a bad spot. He didn't mention a king's needs, or a long campaign, or that Uriah was difficult anyway. He took full ownership before God. That is the posture of a man who is ready to fight.
One important distinction
Recognizing your emotional triggers is not the same thing as making excuses for them. There's a real difference between saying "I know I'm more vulnerable when I'm exhausted and lonely" and saying "I fell because I was exhausted and lonely." The first is self-knowledge. The second is an excuse wearing self-knowledge's clothes.
A prayer of ownership
Today, I choose victory over comfort. I surrender my self-pleasure. I surrender my self-trust. I surrender my anonymity. I surrender my comfort and convenience. I surrender my need to escape. I surrender my excuses. I refuse to protect the very things that are destroying me. Jesus Christ is a better Master than my desires. By His grace, I choose obedience over comfort, holiness over secrecy, and freedom over temporary pleasure. Today I climb. Today I fight. Today I follow Christ. Amen.
This is Day 15 of Victory Over Pornography. Continue to Day 16 →