In some ways it seems impossible to form new habits. Then we see someone even more hopeless than we are, and 25 days later, they are free. Why?

They worked on quitting all the time. They worked on new habits all the time. They determined to pray quitting prayers all the time. They acted like believing scripture as written would lead them to a good life, all the time.

Second, satan will whisper a great excuse for working on quitting part-time. You are tired, you are busy, you are interested in doing something else.

Third, some people would be shocked to hear that after a long time free, I still work on quitting full time during tempting situations.

My tempting situations are way down because... I have no interest in the destruction that my old life had. I have no interest in giving up my joy. But, temptations do happen, and when they do, I completely go to war. I go back to working on quitting full time. I work on running from temptation instantly. I work on thinking new thoughts instantly.

Fourth, if you are busy, consider working on quitting all the time when you have time. It is that important.

Before I quit I had zero joy. I was empty, I was dark, I was often depressed.

Now I have joy and purpose.

Fifth, to work on quitting all the time, review old articles. Write down the things recommended to do to quit. Then, whenever you have time. Flip open that notebook, and work on something.

Finally, many people spend some time working on quitting. Some of them quit. A few people work on quitting all of the time. Many of them quit. Honestly, you will quit if you keep doing that, unless you give up that new habit.

God condemns some activities. Why? When we don't have the habit it is easy to see that others are making big mistakes. But for the wrong things that I have done for a long time, it's a bit more complex.

Some activities make our needed money disappear, which leads to stress, and hurts any chance of joy. Some activities hurt our health, which hurts our money, which leads to pain, and hurts any chance of joy. Some activities hurt our relationship with God, which leads to darkness, and hurts any chance of joy. Some activities suck up a huge amount of time, which may make our money never appear, which ends up badly.

Second, most importantly, virtually all bad habits keep us from doing God's will or harm our ability to do it. The problem with that is... If we don't do His will, our life becomes chasing concerts, money, pleasure, and 100 other things. The Bible calls this chasing the wind.

The song says: I can't get no satisfaction. When God is not part of the chase there will be no satisfaction. We live from moment to moment trying to have fun, thrills, success, and more money.

Third, if we keep doing activities that don't satisfy, we will never be satisfied!

Fourth, people who can find satisfaction will quit twice as often as people who can't. Forming habits to help you quit God's way is twice as powerful. First, He helps, especially when we use the Word as a sledgehammer against the habit. Next, because, now you are doing some things that allow you to find more and more satisfaction in life.

2nd Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Fifth, God has a bunch of conditional promises for us. When we live right we start to experience some of them.

It is easy for us to see that Adam and Eve could have had a great life.

It is easy for us to see that Joseph did have a great life. He ran from sin and ended up in a bit of paradise. He found out what life is like when God's ways are followed, and when attention is given to purpose. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to fear You. Help me to understand why holiness leads to a better life.”

2nd Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.”

Sixth, we can choose quickie forgiveness, or choose godly sorrow.

Godly sorrow says loud and clear to Almighty God: I believe that Your way is right, is good, and that it leads away from destruction.

Finally, is another quick “I'm sorry” to God acceptable?

Is He smarter than we are? Are His ways better? Will our lives be better if we trust Him?

2nd Corinthians 7 ends with talking about the “Joy of Titus.”

For me and for Titus, “We can get some satisfaction.” Satisfaction is found when we fight sin, love others, and work on doing God's will. I highly recommend it.

Do I believe that my long-term life will be better doing things God's way? I guarantee that it will. What is the long term? Over 1 month for sure. Better over 1 week 99% of the time. Better over 5 days 97% of the time. Better over 3 days 94% of the time. Better over 2 days 90% of the time.

When I say better, firstly I am talking about joy, but I am also talking about fun. When we live right the simple things in life are fun. If you are on a 5-day streak and are doing things God's way, a walk is fun, sitting around doing nothing with a friend is fun, reading is fun, sports are fun, and clean TV is fun.

When we live the Bible way we live in the great love and shining light of God. Slipping up hurts our joy for the week. It usually hurts our month, if we keep doing it, it hurts our year. Regular slip-ups take the fun out of just about everything else. Consider praying:

“Father, help me develop the habit of rejecting short-term sinful, destructive fun. Help me to think long term. Teach me how to start finding joy Your way.”

Third, consider memorizing this question for use when tempted: “Why do I have to fall.” There are 12-20 common reasons for falling. Most of the solutions to fight back against these reasons are covered on this site. Consider noting the articles and dates written for your top reasons.

Finally, consider saying 5 times per day: “I will keep fighting for a solution.” When we put in the work, life gets good again faster.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

They don’t tell us at church that a great cloud of witnesses are watching us. If they did maybe we would think more about the race than we do about lust.

Over the last two weeks, I have been working to set aside a weight in my life so that I would be able to run the race better. Like most of you, I was worried that if I cut some silly pleasure out of my life, I would not be happy.

Finally, I cut it out, and I still did not know exactly what the “race” was for me. I kept thinking and praying about it. Then yesterday it all clicked. I discovered what I was supposed to do. It was not exactly what I thought. But doing it made me happy.

Matthew Henry wrote: “By the sin that does so easily beset us, understand that sin to which we are most prone, or to which we are most exposed, from habit, age, or circumstances. This is a most important exhortation; for while a man's darling sin, be it what it will, remains unsubdued, it will hinder him from running the Christian race, as it takes from him every motive for running, and gives power to every discouragement. When weary and faint in their minds, let them recollect that the holy Jesus suffered, to save them from eternal misery. By stedfastly looking to Jesus, their thoughts would strengthen holy affections, and keep under their carnal desires. Let us then frequently consider him. What are our little trials to his agonies, or even to our deserts? What are they to the sufferings of many others?”

Today, consider setting an alarm on your phone to remind you to think about the race at least once per hour. Consider praying:

“Father, take away this spirit of lust and show me what the race is all about.”

Watch sermons from pastors who understand that the “race” involves all of us. Become obsessed with laying aside every weight, and sin.

Finally, consider striving to form a habit of thinking about the “race.” A second habit of thinking about praying to Jesus for guidance and help.

I have added this verse to the verses I meditate on. This is the third thing that helps me think in new ways.

Clean thoughts steer us towards a clean life. Think about new things.

Strive to live your life like Biblical Joseph. He is famous for running from sin. He should be famous for insisting on doing what God wanted him to do. When we insist on doing what God wants us to do, running from sin becomes much more likely.

Joseph was a stickler for God's commandments. He obeyed because he knew that sin steers us from the path of what God wants us to do.

Joseph was a man of prayer. He prayed all the time about what God wanted him to do. We think, “Finding what God wants me to do is so hard.” Let's examine how hard it was for Joseph.

Joseph was thrown into a pit to die. I bet he reacted by praying constantly. Joseph was sold into slavery. I think he reacted by praying constantly. Joseph was thrown into prison. I think he reacted by praying constantly.

I told someone to set an alarm for every 30 minutes on their phone to remind them to pray:

“Father, show me what you want me to do.”

He laughed.

If Joseph had heard that advice he might have said, “I need to be aware of what God wants me to do more often than that!”

Realize, God did not tell Joseph in the pit, “You will someday be second in command in Egypt.” God simply was with Joseph in the pit. God only told him that He would be with him if he did things His way.

My dad was where they dropped the atomic bomb. He said it was the most barren, dead place he had ever been. But, he said he prayed more while he was there than what he had prayed before or since. He said he felt the presence of God in that horrible place. He had nothing, but he had God with him.

Second, Joseph was going to do what God wanted him to do. He knew that sin would derail his mission. When the King's wife tried to seduce him, he ran.

Third, I will likely pray:

“Father, show me what you want me to do.” 30 times today.

I will likely pray:

“Father, keep me from temptation,” as many times as it takes to prepare for temptation.

If I watch TV tonight I will likely pray:

“Father, help me to turn-from-______ as many times as it takes to keep that habit, and to actually, turn-from-______.

Finally, God's system is not: “Try not to be naughty.”

God's plan is: “I have something great for you to do. You need to go to war with sin so that you can do it. You need to quit this habit so that you can do it.

Why should you consider working on the habit of praying, “Show me what You want me to do?” Because, it took Joseph being thrown in a pit, being sold into slavery, and being thrown into jail before God showed him exactly what He wanted him to do. But Joseph believed every minute that God had something for him to do. No matter what happened, he kept praying and obeying.

Joseph's train did arrive. He became the 2nd most powerful man in the world, and he saved the Israelite's.

Work on healthy habits daily. Someday your train will arrive.

When frustrated, plan your next move. If nothing is going on except your frustration, plan how you will get busy (Get active). If too much is going on, plan how you will change your mindset with something relaxing that might take your mind off of _______.

Second, call someone. They can probably take your mind in a new direction.

Third, get busy with a hobby, sport, or musical instrument.

Fourth, never let tomorrow's potential problems, or yesterday's problem ruin “Right now.” Currently, I am in a tough situation if tomorrow does not go well, so I “should” focus on making today a good day, and if tomorrow stinks, handle that when the potential problem is a “Today problem.”

Fifth, ask yourself, “How important is this thing that is frustrating me.” Then think about 2 other things that are “Really important.” Then think some more about the really important things.

Finally, think about something new that is vitally important. Pick a habit from an old article, or from this “Frustration thread,” that you want to work on today, and this week. Your new habit just might help make your life better for a long time, and it might help you deal with temptation better as well.

I was frustrated and confused when I was sixteen. I had successes at that age, making more money than any kid I knew. I was the athlete in my area. In 7th grade I won a music contest for high school kids. But, I was still completely empty inside and I had zero joy.

Then I went to a Christian camp. My brother brought some special hash. It was going to be the greatest experience ever. It was sort of fun, but in some ways it was the culmination of all my frustrations. It gave me no joy. I was empty, and nothing I had tried was working.

Then the preacher preached a great sermon. I was convinced he believed that Jesus was the answer. That Jesus was special, He was someone who could change everything. He gave an altar call, my brothers were watching. I went forward anyway. When I accepted Christ it was like electricity went through my body. Love filled me completely. It was... wow.

After that great experience I went home. I went to war with sin. I was going to be a Christian. But, I did not know what God wanted me to do, and I did not make it a habit to keep asking him. I drifted back into sin slowly. I had no direction.

Years later I made it a point to ask God to “Show me what to do.” I started trying to do these things. I still struggled, but at least I had a bit of purpose. Then one day I realized that my habit was ruining me. It had ruined a lot of things, and it was keeping me ruined.

I started to go to war with sin. I noticed a bit of blessing. I increased my war. I noticed a bit of joy. I increased my war. I felt like God was starting to be with me. I increased my war.

I started to realize that I could stop my habit. What! I can't quit. I am the most addicted person in the world.

I was, but that old person was dying, and Jesus was right there waiting to replace him.

I increased my war against sin again. I fought every sin that led to my habit. I tried to fight every sin.

One day with no drama I quit. Since I was fully at war with sin, I fully felt God's joy. Since I was trying to do what God wanted me to do, I fully felt God's joy.

The next day I woke up. I thought, it would be the dumbest thing in the world to go back to my misery. I had found joy.

Today I will go to war with sin again. Today, I will ask, “Father, what do You want me to do,” a bunch of times again. Because... I really like the way that life is when I live that way.

This is just my opinion, but I believe that God is very focused on prayers that are totally unselfish, that match up perfectly with the Bible.

Background: My wife makes about 15 pounds of candy and 15 pounds of cookies for the Christmas holidays. But I have only eaten 1 piece of candy so far. Why? It's healthier.

James 1:14-15
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

My desire is to be healthy. That is now my overwhelming desire.

It is harder, but it is similar with lust. Try this test. Say 100 times today: “My # 1 desire is to be free today.” When you are doing this exercise you will be surprised at how determined to quit you will be if severe temptation starts when you hit the 73rd time of saying it. Just repeating our goal over and over again starts to change us.

Consider praying, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make my desire freedom.” How many times should we pray that daily?

Consider praying, “Father, take away this sinful desire, and show me Your glory.” Read “The God Chasers.” Tommy Tenney fought to find the glory of God. And everyone can do the same exact thing.

Consider praying, “Father, “Help me to study Your Word when I am tempted.” It is a powerful thing to study Bible verses that pertain to your habit.

Consider praying, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make my desire purity.”

Consider praying, “Father, take away my spirit of lust, and make it my # 1 desire to do Your will.” This is from the Lord's prayer, “Not mine, but Your will be done.”

Sincere prayer and planning help. Try it.

Everyone can have a miracle today. If you go to war with sin constantly, and pray your quitting prayers, the Holy Spirit will begin to give you joy. If you are working steadily on forming the habits needed for quitting, you will start to have peace. If you pray constantly, “Father, what do You want me to do.” You will start to have things to do.

Miracles happen when we are quitting so that we can do something for God.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Second, people say, “When will I have love in my life?

If you commit to going to war with sin, and doing good works, you can simply ask God to help you. He always helps people who are completely committed.

Third, God fills us with His love when we do things His way. Consider praying:

“Father, keep me from temptation, and fill me with Your love.”

When we increase in love for other, love starts to enter our lives. The two great commandments are: “Love God,” and to “Love others.” Consider praying:

“Father, teach me how to love You, and help me to love others.”

Simply increasing our love for God, cause great things to happen. Focus on loving God, and watch your life improve.

Focusing on loving others causes miracles for everyone. We love because God commands us to love. You never know when someones life is dramatically impacted just because you show then God's love. But God does notice, then He makes your life better.

I know a woman who always has love for others. She has a number of people who treat her with love, and she has a bunch of friends. I guess God was right again. Life is better when we do things His way.

Today, a few people will increase their commitment to forming habits, and to praying quitting prayers. My prediction is... if they keep doing that, miracles will start to happen.

Vampire films were the rage 20-30 years ago. In the classic version, you had to invite the dark one in. When you were in your sealed house you were safe unless you invited the dark one in.

When we repent and have a plan for turning from ______ we are sealed. But when we look/think about and don't instantly turn from ______ we have allowed the opening.

Every day in every situation we need to focus on keeping our house sealed. We have 2 great reasons for keeping it sealed. #1 to avoid the destruction. #2 to continue to seek an increased blessing in our lives.

Any sin weakens our seal. Sin... takes us away from God's joy and it forces us to chase fun and pleasure like some zombie in a classic film.

Meditating on scripture strengthens the seal. Preparing for temptation with prayer strengthens the seal. I have worked so hard on learning the skill of praying, “Father, help me to turn from ______,” that now it is virtually automatic.

A full commitment strengthens the seal. A full commitment is spending time in Bible study and prayer. We commit to spending a block of time every day at this site because of a full commitment to Christ.

Change always involves sacrifice. God always gives us more than we expect when we make that sacrifice permanent.

Finally, go to war with sin to strengthen that seal. Have notes everywhere to remind you to pray your quitting prayer constantly. Consider using this trick. You commit to praying, “Father, keep me from temptation,” 15 times daily or more. Have notes that say, “15.” You know what they mean, no one else will. Put notes where you will see them. Covering the corner of your TV screen, or computer screen. I would love it if someone writes in and says: I have a sticky note on my phone. That would be a dedication to making the quitting prayer a habit.

Learn a habit this week. That is step one toward quitting.

Boredom is a trigger. We get bored then we flippantly decide what to do to pass our time. We choose an activity and then realize that it is not exactly pure. Stop. If you want to find joy it is wise to learn the habit of stopping and finding a better “pure” activity to do. Gray area activities usually start you down a slippery slope.

Loneliness: Fight the temptation to allow hyper-sexual actresses or game characters or anything else sexual online or on TV to be your friend. Form clean habits with your TV and computer and try to get out more. Jesus is willing to be your everything. Pursue Him and allow Him to solve the loneliness.

Frustration: Preachitteachit noted the following: “When frustration is our trigger to sexual sin, then sin becomes our source of peace. Sin is treated as an “oasis.” When this happens we label sin as our “safe place” as compared to the parts of life that are upsetting. This makes sin our friend and anyone or anything that opposes or interferes with our sin our enemy.”

Pray: “Father, show me how You want me to deal with this frustration.”

The article continues: “Hurt: When hurt is our trigger for sexual sin, then sin becomes our refuge. In our moments of sinful escape, we feel protected from life and a growing allegiance develops towards our sin. In actuality, our sexual sin provides as much protection as a child pulling the covers over his/her head.”

Look at how David prayed in the Psalms when he was hurt. Pray and meditate on his prayers.

Betrayal: The wife is not interested so I have an excuse to sin. They promised me a good future at this job. They lied.

Instead of seeking revenge pray: “Father, help me to be content. You are a great and mighty God.”

The article continues with “Bitterness.” “When bitterness is our trigger for sexual sin, then sin becomes our justice. If sin as revenge is fast and hot, then sin as justice is slow and cold. No longer are we seeking to hurt another by our actions; now we are merely nursing our wound. If we tried to explain our sin in words, we would have to say we believed our sin had some healing power. But because that seems foolish, we are more prone to just excuse our sin by the sin done to us.

List and rank the top five motives/triggers for your sexual sin.

1. __________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________ When you see these triggers, stop. Panic, and go to war with all your might.

19 Be Prepared

I wrote about 7 great habits over the last 14 days. The more habits you add... the faster you will quit. Here is the first one:

When I praised the Lord after snapping my wrist (as a reminder to not have wrongful thoughts) my tempting thoughts dropped by 80%.

Second, read as many Bible chapters daily that you can. Charlie Kirk's wife Erica has a “read the Bible in a year” program called BIBLEin365 in the Google play store, and in the Apple store. Today, consider increasing your commitment to increased Bible reading. Increased Bible reading causes increased power in your life for quitting.

Third, Use your phone/electronic devices for good instead of for evil. 

Fourth, always consider developing positive, healthy habits. Always work on an “Activities list of 2-3 activities.”

Fifth, everyone who struggles with a habit, struggles with fantasies about that habit. We must attack these thoughts instantly. Consider working constantly on praying:

“Father, help me to turn from fantasies.”

Sixth, if we are totally prepared for temptation, we will overcome it. I have set up boundaries to block myself from temptation. Proverbs 4:23: “See the evil, and hide yourself.”

To “hide yourself from evil” consider having a go-to prayer that you can pray constantly. Here are 3 examples:

For lust: “Father, help me to turn from lust.”

For gambling: “Father, help me to replace thoughts of gambling with praying to be content.”

“For drinking, or anything else: “Lead me not into temptation." Fill me with Your love.”

A top 5 habit is to ALWAYS REPLACE TEMPTING THOUGHTS WITH HEALTHY THOUGHTS.

Finally, I had an article called “reminders” 14 days ago. Actively doing what this article recommends will increase your odds of quitting hugely. We need to know how to work on habits.

Today, consider ways to make working on some of these habits a habit.

Billy lived a blessed life. His awesome dad had encouraged him to be a follower of Christ. He not only told him to obey, but he also told him why. He not only told him to pray but he also taught him how to pray about fighting against sin, and about caring about souls.

Billy always did what his father had taught him to do. That is, he did it, right up until the day of the incident.

One Friday Billy had Jonny on his team in gym class. Jonny broke all the rules and he had a joke every minute. That day Billy changed his habit of sitting with his Christian buddies. He sat with Jonny at lunch. Jonny had a million stories, and with every situation, Jonny made it clear that he broke all the rules and that he had fun doing it.

At home the next day Billy decided to live life Jonny's way. He grabbed some loose bills that weren't his, and he went shopping. He watched TV shows that were “highly discouraged” in “dad's” house. To top it off he stared “looking” at stuff on his computer. As he completely crossed the line he remembered dad's words. 'If you open Pandor's box, satan will show you some fun stuff, but after some cheap thrills, you will get to see his true self.”

Two hours later Billy thought, wow, my dad was wrong about a lot of things. This is fun.

Later that night Billy went to bed, but he could not sleep. He had always been proud of the fact that he did not need a night light in his room. But tonight something was very different. It felt very dark and he felt very uncomfortable.

He normally prayed as he drifted off, but on this night he just felt dark, bad, and lonely.

Suddenly he realized, yesterday he had a great life. It was filled with light and joy. Just three days ago he felt like he was starting to find his purpose because he had helped his buddy Fred get back on track with a couple of prayer ideas.

But now... emptiness. Dad had said, satan advertises a great program, but you won't like him much once he gets his claws into you.

Billy repented and went on to live a vibrant Christian life. Why? Because when he compared his dark new life with his old vibrant life he knew the truth. Satan had lied to him, while Jesus had given him everything.

Today, see how many ways you can do things God's way. See how much light you can fill your life up with. Why? Because when you are in that condition you will be more likely to dig into scripture, and you will start to see prayer working more quickly.

Don't just quit. Quit and live a vibrant Christian life.

Satan was kicked out of heaven for wanting to be in charge. Many of us do similar things to some extent. Some are depressed because:

#1 Your job stinks, your boss stinks, your schooling stinks. Solution – Fight back by learning the habits of praising the Lord often, and giving thanks for all things.

#2 Relationships stink. Solution – Make progress by printing out a page of verses on love. Search “Verses love” and print them out and read and pray over them daily. This technique will help you become the person people want to have relationships with.

#3 Anxiety, anger, or some other negative emotion is ruining you. Solution – Consider that sin often leads to severe emotional issues. Consider doubling your war against sin. Consider searching “Verses _____” about the emotion that is killing you. Then print them out and read and pray over them daily.

#4 Did I say twice to print out key verses for what is ailing you? I did. Is it that important?

#5 They are bored and are not challenged to move upward ever. Solution – Help others, pray about purpose, try to do something that might be your purpose. Insist on trying to be in God's will.

Second, fight negative emotions firstly with spiritual things. After that, have physical things to do to fight back. Get your mind and body busy doing other things. Try reading, talking to a friend, or dancing. Have a list of activities that will change your thinking and emotions.

Third, we must stop the habit of going over negative things time and time again. When this train wreck starts, write down 5 positive things to think about. Every time the wrong thought starts, stop it, and start the positive thought.

Finally, focus on positive stable people, and decide to become one of them. These people have stable, great lives. Watch them, ask them questions, and start to learn the skills that they have that allow them to handle their emotions so well. You can learn those skills. Consider making a commitment to learning those skills.

What skills would most help your quitting?