I totally agree with this Besides, I am Catholic, and in my religion when we sin we have to confess our mistakes with a priest so we can have God's friendship again. Anyway, I went to confession shivering and crying and feeling the worst human on earth when I binged, loosing my 98 days streak. My confessor told me it was ok. We're human beings. God is not expecting perfection from us, because He knows we're not capable of that. So as long as you don't sin feeling perfect, omnipotent and over God, it's not a mortal sin. It's just a mistake. And an opportunity to improve and get closer to God too. Blessings!
I don't know how long. It depends how intensively you gonna approach this. Full celibacy mode or will you have sex? Will you allow fantasies? Will you look at females on a street? Also what you will combine it with? Prayer? Meditation? Fasting? Solitude and silence? Will you practice certain morality during your life? Compassion practice? Charity work? Anything else? Nofap is just one part of it. Too many variables. You could go to desert, build a tent there and spend 40 days and 40 nights there water fasting, avoiding chatter of your carnal mind, praying 12 times a day and sitting in silence and solitude with zero distractions listening wind blow and your heart beat. That would probably rise your vibration pretty damn fast haha. Or you could do it more slowly and more moderately. Both are good ways. All that matters is that your are improving over time. Having patience itself will rise your vibration a little bit. You should not feel guilt and shame about this though. These emotions will pull you into lower state of consciousness and lower your vibration, hence further away from God. Instead when you do miss the target try to practice compassion for yourself. Encourage yourself to do better next time. When archer misses the mark they do not feel shame and guilt because it is not about that. It is simply a process of training. With enough practice you will not miss eventually. Hebrew word for "repent" is "shuwb" which means "to turn". So it's not about remorse or asking for forgiveness for our sins. It's about turning your bow slightly so you not miss the mark again. Again, like I said, the Bible is written in figures of speech. So "repent your sin" does not mean "to ask for forgiveness", it simply means "make a point to do better next time".
Same. But whenever you relapse and it happens over and over again, do you ever feel like God is just fed up with forgiving you over and over again. Like even though you say your sorry you do it again and God is just sick of it. Like he's fed up with the apologies and then it happens again. I don't know if you relapse quite a bit but I feel bad and that's why I wan to kick the addiction.
Wow, that was powerful. I'm beginning my first fast tomorrow for 24 hours. And also, I'm only 14 but, so I am obviously fully abstaining haha. But, I never thought about repent as just doing better next time. I guess that why people say you learn more from your mistakes than your wins. Thank you man
Although I am living much in accordance with a Christian ethic/moral myself, my view on it is that most religious scriptures have always overplayed the "sinning"-aspect of it since there has always been a purpose in doing so. By portraying masturbation as a big sin, it has had a more submissive and controlling effect on the people it has been taught to rather than just giving it as a suggestion. The underlying purpose might have just been wanting people to abstain from it because it had many negative effect on their productivity, vitality, manners, and focus, all of which were essential for the family and tribe to survive. If every adult submitted to masturbation and lust instead of abstaining from it, there would have been more of the broken families, shattered relationships, praise of materialism, lack of spirituality, and so many other problems that we see today.
And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also. -Genesis 38:9-10
Was the Lord mad because he spilt his seed unto the ground or was he mad that he did penetrated his own brothers wife.
Gods sent his son Jesus the Christ to take all our sin, shame and guilt on the cross. Jesus is the fulfilment of God's plan to redeem humanity from sin. He was the sacrifice for our sins that they may be forgiven. Past, present, and future sin are forgiven. "In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." Ephesians 7 Inorder to receive God's grace we need only accept Christ in our lives. God made it easy for us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John3:16 When the enemy trys to make things complicated, I keep it simple and remember this passage: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 Simple. I really like the remark someone said about repenting being a turning away from sin. Think about it, when we turn from sin we turn in the opposite direction toward God. God sent His son to die for you, do you think he would ever give up on you?
He definitely penetrated her. I disagree - the more important line here is "lest that he should give seed to his brother." I think most experts agree that the Lord was displeased because Onan didn't perform his Levirate duty to impregnate his late brother's wife. More info here. In my eyes, this passage has nothing to do with masturbation or wasting seed - not that these aren't sins. I think golyadkin quoted the right passage for defining it as a sin. I do also like the way you defined it as a sin, LawOfAttraction.
That is just the motive OF "the thing which he did" THAT displeased the Lord I think. You can study but don't get it twisted, seeking license where there isn't. Your weakness is why Jesus chose to bleed for your life. By God's grace, you can become a growing new creature.
Oh, I'm not religious, but I appreciate the sentiment - thank you! I take a historical approach with my interpretations, so I'll have to disagree about the meaning of the passage. But to each their own! In any case, I think LawOfAttraction has done a fine job in his interpretation. Best wishes to everyone in their journey!