Connection Defeats Porn: How Deep Connection With God and Others Defeats LustSample

Yesterday, we saw how disconnection makes people more vulnerable to the fake intimacy of pornography. But our deepest disconnection isn’t with people. It’s the separation from God that every person experiences because of sin.

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."

– Isaiah 59:2 (NIV)

Sin isolates us from the very One we were created to know and enjoy. This is why, before Christ, we lived in the most devastating form of isolation: spiritual separation from God.

Yet in His boundless love, God pursued us:

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

– Romans 5:8 (NIV)

Still, it is not enough to merely know that Christ died for our sins. Salvation requires a response. As Paul writes:

“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

– Romans 10:9 (ESV)

When we receive this gift—salvation by grace through faith in Christ—everything changes:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

– 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

To be a ‘new creation’ means receiving a completely new identity. We are no longer defined by our failures, sins, or the isolation that once separated us from God and others. No longer do we chase significance or worth through our performance or the opinions of others.

Our identity isn’t achieved but it's received in Christ’s perfect performance and God’s unwavering opinion of us. Scripture calls believers “chosen people, holy and dearly loved” (Colossians 3:12, NIV).

But if we’re honest, receiving the amazing love of God and a new identity can sometimes remain just head knowledge. We may know the right answers, yet still find that it doesn’t really impact our day-to-day lives. At times, we can even feel isolated from God.

This is one reason Paul paused to pray for the Ephesians as he was teaching them about God’s love. He prayed, “so that you may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17, NIV). The more we know God, the more we understand and experience His love for us.

And the more we know Him, the more we learn to trust Him and His Word. As our trust grows, we become more willing to surrender our lives to Him, embrace His ways, and step into His plan for our lives.

We were made to know and love God. Like any relationship, our relationship with Him deepens as we spend time together. He speaks to us through His Word and His Spirit, and we speak to Him through prayer. It’s amazing what happens when daily time with God becomes part of our rhythm. After all, we were created for relationships—first and foremost, a relationship with God.

Reflection Questions:

1. Have you received Christ and experienced new life in Him? How so?
2. How can you deepen your relationship with God in practical ways?