Sexual addiction isn’t something that only lives in the secular world, Christian men and women struggle with the same sinful nature.
Professor and ministry leader Michael Cusick knows the struggle, and also knows the freedom of restoration. He addresses the root cause of sexual addictions in his book Surfing for God.
Michael elaborates on 5 underlying dimensions that can explain sexual addictions.
Wickedness.
Our brokenness begins with our wickedness, or our sins. Michael describes the nature of wickedness and how it leads us astray from God,
“We are created to be face to face with God. Wickedness is the idea that we mistrust him, who He is, and we turn away. We believe the lie of the enemy and we become both self-sufficient and independent.”
Weaknesses.
Often times people, especially men, want to appear strong, confident and put together – anything but weak. But Michael reminds us that our brokenness accentuates our weaknesses.
“That leads us taking matters into our own hands, with our vulnerabilities and weaknesses and limitations of being human, which I call our weaknesses; we then try to manage those on our own.”
Woundedness.
This dimension of sexual addiction encompasses our brokenness. A lack of trusting God can leave us feeling wounded by the forces outside of our control.
“The pains of this world, the trauma and the minor disappointments, as well as the profound wounds that we all bear, cause pain in our heart. Most of our time in this world makes a suspicious of whether we can really trust God.”
“So when our hearts experience disappointment, betrayal, abandonment or rejection or we just don’t get what we need, usually somewhere early in our childhood, we begin to wonder whether God is really trustworthy; whether we can really trust him with the deepest part of who we are.”
Warfare.
Warfare is the underlying thread that pulls our brokenness together.
“It’s less about temptation and it’s more about deception. Deception is always about who God is and where life is found, that we can find life apart from God and that goes right back to the Garden of Eden, of that old lie from the serpent.”
Warfare also attributes to the battle of shame.
“Warfare also has a particularly insidious aspect to it in the battle with shame and the core lies that we believe. I don’t know a man alive who, somewhere deep inside of him, doesn’t wrestle with this idea of, ‘I’m not enough, I’m not good enough,’ or ‘I don’t measure up.’”
“Then you add in a sexual struggle and the shame that comes with that. Most men that are really battling with pornography are battling against shame, which is a lie of the enemy that counters what God says about us; that we’re actually the beloved, that were forgiven, that we have a new heart, that we have a new power operating inside of us.”
Wiring.
“Wiring is the fact that our neurology in our brain chemistry is broken and all of our physical reality is not the way it should be in light of the fall, but that Internet pornography, in particular, really has the capacity to rewire our brain because it over stimulates her brain.
“Regardless of our good intentions or us quoting something like Philippians 4:13, it says ‘I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me, therefore I won’t look at porn,’ we go ahead we do it anyway because our brain is addicted to its own brain chemistry.”
Michael reminds us that all those things; that brokenness and our misdirected desire, lead us into compulsive, sinful patterns that ultimately require restoration and healing in Christ.
