By David Theobald

The enemy frequently uses a deceptive strategy of minimizing the impact of sin.

What if you see a box of donuts on a table with a “free” sign behind them? If you’re anything like me, I would take 1 or 10, and love on those little sugar-grease-puffs until they were gone! Now if you were to ask me two hours later if those donuts were really “free” and I would say “No”. They cost me a sugar headache, and sluggish productivity.

And if those “free” donuts were offered to me every day of my life, and you asked me ten years from now if those donuts were “free”. You would get your answer by glancing at the inner tube of “extra” chub around my waist, or my second chin.

Yet, they sing such a seductive song as they sit there inside the plexi-glass showcase. Celery has nowhere near the attraction. How do I take the donut temptation thought captive?

One way to permanently take a thought captive is to think frequently and deeply about the long-term impact of the tempting thought. Meditate on it. Run it through to its natural long term end. So when I see the donuts, I think “Mmmm donuts”, but the thought is interrupted with “yeah, but the sugar low following the sugar high sucks”, but then I see the “free” sign and think “who can pass up a deal like this?” So I reach for the wax paper and just then a short video starts in my head. It opens with me nervously sitting in the doctor’s office, ten years from now, 50 lbs heavier, prepping for a triple bypass surgery…and as the video fades, I quickly think “Celery sounds good to me today”.

The initial attractiveness of a thought, looses its power when we meditate on its inevitable malicious impact. The short term pull for gratification is weakened under the desire for long-term satisfaction. Taking a thought captive is not simply handcuffing it and kicking it out of your brain, but putting it on trial. When we have a thought like “Hmmm, free donuts”, and don’t meditate on the real cost of them, we will go for treat every time.

Porn is like sugar. It has a quick rush, but long term let down.

The dark results of weakened dreams and passions, loss of strength to leave an impact on others, loss of job and family, and the support of a cavernous dark oppressive industry, are a few of the malicious side effects of porn. Porn is not free. Porn is expensive!

By taking tempting thoughts captive, by seeing them for what they really are, I am motivated to avoid the porn-sugar, that daily entices me.  I choose to run thoughts to their logical end.  The more I fill my thinking with the “costs” of sugar, the less my desire for it is.  Excess sugar has painful results.  This tactic will help us win against lustful temptations in our lives as well!