Stay Awake!

Matthew 26:41 KJV

41) Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking...This is Jesus talking to Peter, James and John, while He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But there is a very important lesson here.
 
"Watch..." This word literally means to "keep awake". As Christians in this world, we are too often lulled to sleep by the haunting lullaby of Satan's empty promises. As Christian Men, we are bombarded with sexual images and conversation, until we become insensitive, or "used to it". We need to stay on our guard.
 
My wife and I have made a commitment to honor God with what we watch in movies--we don't even bother with TV. We recently decided to go through our movies again, and found that we had slowly degraded and we had begun to accept things that we had said we would not. Needless to say, we got rid of them and "pruned" our movie collection.
 
 
"...and pray..." Pray to God! Talk to Him. He is our Best Friend, closer than a Brother, He is our Husband and Father. He takes care of us and provides for us and shelters us from evil and hurtful things. Ask for His help: that's the ONLY way anyone will ever overcome an addiction.
 
"...that ye fall not into temptation..." I had to read this a couple of times before I really understood it.  If we Watch--or guard ourselves--and if we pray--talk to God and ask for His help--then we can avoid temptation.
 
Once you're being tempted, it becomes almost impossible to say no. If you can avoid being tempted, then you don't have to have the "battle" that every addict knows when the urge to commit their specific act of addiction comes upon them. It is best if you can avoid it all together. Now, this does not mean to live like an Amish person, with no electricity, or no source of connection to the world. It simply means to think.
 
TV today is aptly named the "boob tube". Almost everything on Television is sexual in nature. My wife and I have agreed that it is foolish to place such a sexual and evil thing in our household, when the amount of good that comes from it is far outweighed by the bad things that come from it.
 
Put up defensive hedges.

Watch.
 
Pray.
 
That is the recipe for success to avoid temptation altogether.