Why some people can not be released from the bondage of masturbation sin?

Question:

I am a 14 years old girl and am addicted to masturbation. It all started when I was the 2nd grade when I had a friend two years older than me who taught me this thing that I can not stand now. I no longer stand to live like that. I do not want … I can not … I do not know what to do? I am a very faithful child, I believe with all my being in God and I always feel Him close to me, for better or for worse. And it hurts me that I make Him upset by practicing this … I go to church almost every week and I have recently been and confessed my sins and I said that I lied a few times and I tried a cigarette and that’s it, I do not have serious sins.  I was close to confess about masturbation but I was ashamed to say it and that’s why I have not received relief. I said to myself that I would stop, but the temptation is too great and today it happened again. Last week I confessed and I felt that God forgave me and today, I have sinned again … Always, over the years, when I prayed to God I asked Him to forgive me and I promised Him not to do that again, but I continued. It’ is like the evil pushes me to do it. And I always said that I would change, start a new life … but in vain. Today I could stop, but something was stronger than me … as if fate wanted … I beg you, I do not want to lose God because without Him my life can not continue. I want to feel His hand again because I think He is already tired that I keep promising and all is in vain. I beg you to help me and tell me if I can bring God back into my life? What will happen from now on? I beg you to answer me.

You must be born again

From your message I realize that you are not born again and you do not have the Holy Spirit, the only one that can give you the strength to free yourself from the bondage of sin and that each person receives only when he is born again. 

Apostle Paul’s experience

In Paul’s Epistle to Romans he writes about himself something similar to your problems, even if he did not directly relate to the sin of masturbation that you practice, but to other sins. He writes about his way of living when he was not in covenant with Jesus Christ and didn’t have the Holy Spirit:

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from  the body of this death? (Romans 7:18-24)(NASB)

Read the last sentence of this passage again and you will see the same desperate cry for help that I saw in your message.

Apostle Paul found the full release

In the following verses, the Apostle Paul says this:

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 7:25-8:9)(NASB)

Do you see what he says? People who have Christ’s Spirit do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Holy Spirit and they are no longer slaves to sin as you are now. And it also says that if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him. The fact is that you are enslaved to masturbation and that you can not get out of this bondage is a proof that you do not have the Holy Spirit and you have to receive Him. As long as you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to to Christ, that means you are not a true Christian, but in name only.

About serious and less serious sin

You write that you do not have serious sins, but it is not so.The Scripture says:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)(NASB)

and it also writes …

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)(NASB)

The bondage of the masturbation sin that you are captive to highlights the nature of your sinful flesh that all people have in fact, just because they are captive of sin and different passions. Therefore, all people have a desperate need to repent from the heart, to enter into covenant with the Lord Jesus to be born again and receive the Holy Spirit. Do not forget that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ are not His.

Not the fate but the nature of sin

You say that you could stop today, but something was so strong as if the fate wanted this… Fate does not have anything to do with it, but it was your personal choice to stop or to commit sin. God says in Scripture:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)(NASB)

Something that was stronger than you is your sinful nature working death in you, keeping you in bondage of sin now and it will keep you until the day when you receive the Holy Spirit and you choose to live in complete obedience to the Spirit.

About bad friendships

You say you have an older friend who taught you to masturbate. Children do not have discernment and do not know to choose friends and avoid bad company and parents must teach them what it is written in Scripture:

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)(NASB)

And the book of Psalms says:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1-6)(NASB)

Henceforth, be attentive and watch out for any company and people who can influence and draw you on the path of sin.

Practical advice

In the end I want to give you some practical tips such as:

  1. Search for true Christians who are born again, study and live according to the Sacred Scriptures. If you do not know such people, I recommend you to meet young people from “Pure Generation” Movement.
  2. Talk to some of these Christians and ask them to guide you and lead you in prayer to enter the New Covenant with Jesus Christ, to be born again and receive the Holy Spirit.
  3. Begin to seriously study the Scriptures and I recommend you get the Bible study courses after inductive method. I will teach the course “Marriage without regret” at the camp from July 15 to 24, 2010. I invite you to this camp.
  4. Read the article “How to be released from the sin of masturbation?” and follow the advice given there.

God help you to be born again as soon as possible to become a true Christian and live a life of victory over sin by following the advice of the Holy Spirit.

Translated by Felicia Rotaru