One of the devil’s most effective weapons is pornography. This is because the ripple effects of porn addiction reach beyond an individual and damage marriages, families, and communities. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can find freedom, because Jesus has not only freed you from the penalty of sin—He has also freed you from its power.

Sorrow can be a powerful source of motivation to seek help. Yet, it’s not enough to just be grieved over your sin—you have to be grieved for the right reasons. In this lesson, John explores the two types of sorrow and how having the right motivation is critical to experiencing lasting freedom.

You can only be tempted with something you desire. This is why many are enticed into sin and bondage—they still enjoy their sin. If you want to be free from the power of sin, you must hate sin the way God hates it. John reveals that when your heart changes toward sin, it’s only natural for your behavior to change too.

Consider this hypothetical scenario. Let’s imagine you’ve been free from porn addiction for many years. Then one day, a friend who is  struggling  with  porn  comes  to  you  for  your  help.  After  hearing them out, you’re convinced they genuinely want to quit. They are tired of hurting God and others and are weighed down by the heavy blanket of shame. You can tell they’re ready to take the necessary steps to be free, but you also sense hesitation—they’re afraid that, despite their intentions, they will give in to the struggle again. Now,  let’s  say  this  friend  asks  you  to  help  them  develop  a  game  plan for the future so that even if they have a moment of weakness and  are  tempted,  they  will  be  protected  from  compromising  and  looking  at  porn.  As  someone  who  has  struggled  with  porn,  you  know  just  how  strong  the  pull  can  be  in  those  moments,  so  you  know your friend will likely need multiple layers of protection to get through them without stumbling.

With all that being said, what safeguards would you put in place to protect your friend in a potential moment of weakness?  It’s  time  to  protect  yourself  at  least  as  much  as  you  would  this  friend. In the past, you’ve probably worked hard to access and find porn. Now it’s time to work even harder at avoiding it. You need to structure  your  life  in  such  a  way  that  even  if  you  have  a  moment  of  weakness,  it  doesn’t  become  a  moment  of  compromise.  To  avoid  falling back into destructive patterns of behavior, you have to cut off all access to porn, get honest about your triggers, and get the struggle out of the darkness and into the light.  To that end, let’s take a look at the variety of methods available to protect yourself against the temptation to look at porn and bring your  struggle  into  the  light  so  you  can  heal.  You’ll  learn  how  to  block pornographic content and cut off temptation on your computer, phone, tablet, and other devices. Note—many of these steps will require the help of an ally—a trust-ed friend who will support you in your recovery journey. Choose an ally who is strong in their walk with God and not struggling in this area themselves. A mature friend, mentor, or even your spouse can all serve as excellent choices for an ally. Don’t  glance  over  this  next  section—and  be  careful  to  do  more  than  just  read  it.  Agreeing  with  these  principles  won’t  help  you  
get  free.  

Putting  them  into  practice  will.  For  most,  this  may  be  the most important aspect in their journey toward getting free—so don’t take these lightly!

1.  Install  a  web  filter  and  accountability  software  on  your computer and phone. The best tool to monitor your internet use on your computer is a software program called Covenant Eyes. Once installed, it will track the websites you browse and report any suspicious or inappropriate activity to an ally (or allies) of your choosing, who will then have the necessary conversations with you to call you to a higher standard. It also has a web filtering option which blocks most inappropriate content. Finally, they have a new screen monitoring feature, which takes frequent screenshots of your computer (and/or phone), analyzes them using  artificial  intelligence,  and  sends  any  suspicious  images  in  a  highly blurred format to your ally for them to review. This keeps you accountable at all times. If you have an iPhone, please refer to this  link  for  step-by-step  installation  instructions.  If  you  have  an  Android, please refer to this link. Another  great  accountability  tool  to  monitor  your  computer  browsing is a service called X3 Watch. The features aren’t as robust as those offered by Covenant Eyes for monitoring phone use, but the service is comparable for desktop accountability. If you choose this  route,  make  sure  to  get  the  upgraded  pro  version.  The  extra  features, such as web filtering, are more than worth it.   Another  great  program,  specifically  for  monitoring  phone  use,  is  the Boomerang  parental  control  app.  This  app  has  tons  of  similar  features to Covenant Eyes. It blocks inappropriate content, reports search and browsing history, and allows you to give someone you’ve selected  as  an  ally  control  over  which  apps  are  allowed  on  your  phone through their built-in approval process.
2. Delete any apps on your phone that have been stumbling blocks or are sources of temptation.  Be honest with yourself and include any seemingly innocent apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and any others that have been gateways to compromise.  Bottom line: If it’s caused you to stumble  and  has  been  an  open  door  to  temptation,  don’t  tell  yourself  that you’ll just use it more responsibly. Remove it. Take it off your phone and leave it off until you are walking in freedom and it’s no longer a source of temptation for you.
3. Make installing apps a passcode-protected action and have  an  accountability  partner  set  the  password  so  you can’t bypass it. If you struggle with porn on your phone, eliminating the ability to install apps on your own can keep you from creating an open door to temptation where you could stumble in a moment of weakness. Once  you  restrict  this  properly,  if  you  want  to  install  an  app  on  your phone, you’ll need to first meet up with your ally who holds the password and get their approval. Your ally should then review the  app  in  question  and  have  an  open  and  honest  conversation  about it with you before installing it. If you have an iPhone, go to Settings and open Screen Time. Then select Use Screen Time Passcode and have a trusted ally set the code so you don’t have it. Then, under Screen Time, select Content & Privacy Restrictions, and then navigate to iTunes & App Store Purchases. Once  inside,  change  the  Installing  Apps  setting  from  the  default  “allow” to “don’t allow” and you’ll be all set. Again, after setting this up, any changes to apps must be reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis with your ally. If you opt to use the Boomerang app, as previously mentioned, it makes this process a bit easier. With this service, your ally can approve the installation of an app remotely from their phone, rather than being present to enter their passcode and temporarily lift the restrictions. Please note, if you have an Android device, you’ll need to use a third-party application like Covenant Eyes or Boomerang to block installing apps and restrict this action with a passcode held by your ally. 
4. Utilize  the  DNS  cloak  app  (iOS)  or  the  DNS  Changer  app (Android). This  may  seem  technical,  but  with  the  help  of  modern  apps  de-signed specifically for this purpose, it’s a pretty simple process—and highly  effective.  Essentially,  this  will  add  another  layer  of  protection, automatically blocking a vast majority of inappropriate sites. You’ll want to use the app called DNS Cloak for iOS and the app called  DNS  Changer  for  Android,  which  take  the  technical  leg-work  out  of  it.  Once  you  get  this  set  up  properly  (please  refer  to  this link for a detailed explanation and step-by-step instructions), you can  determine  a  sensitivity  level,  and  it  will  block  all  content  at  or  above  that  level.  (As  an  added  bonus,  the  above  link  includes  instructions to help you configure the DNS settings for your home Wi-Fi  router,  which  will  block  inappropriate  content  from  being  accessed on your entire home network!)
5. Create  a  blacklist  of  sites  that  are  never  allowed  on  your phone. No filter is perfect, and only you know your specific triggers—so it’s important to create a list of sites that are never allowed on your phone based on your own history. If any site, no matter how benign it seems, has been a source of temptation in the past, block it until you know you are in a good place.  As a general rule, while getting free, it’s best to avoid unregulated or very poorly regulated mixed content sites. Chris McKenna from Covenant Eyes recommends blocking the following at a minimum: Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, AOL, Dogpile, Excite, and Reddit. Pinterest, Blogspot, and Imgur should also be blocked. Although  there  are  legitimate  uses  of  each  of  these  sites,  it’s  not  difficult to find highly inappropriate and even explicit content on them.  If you know of any other “backdoor” sites that have caused you to stumble, be sure to add them to the blocked list. To block sites on an iPhone, you’ll first want to have a trusted ally set  the  Screen  Time  passcode.  Then,  navigate  to  the  Screen  Time option under Settings, and click Content & Privacy Restrictions.  At this  point,  your  ally  will  need  to  type  in  their  passcode  to  allow  access.  From  there,  click  Content  Settings  and  then  Web  Content. Under Web Content, select Always Block and then enter URLs for the sites you wish to blacklist. This will block them at all times on your iPhone, whether accessed through a browser or the backend of another app.  On  Android,  you’ll  have  to  use  a  third-party  app  like  Covenant  Eyes or Boomerang to set up your blacklisted sites. This step is very helpful for eliminating triggers that lead you into further compromise, so for your own sake, take it seriously.  
6. If  you  are  still  finding  ways  to  struggle  after  imple-menting  the  above  steps,  take  the  internet  off  your  phone or get a flip phone. The bottom line is this:  Make up your mind that you will do what-ever is necessary to get free. If you find that you’re still struggling and looking for loopholes to get to porn after completing all the steps  already  outlined,  it’s  time  to  take  some  more  extreme  measures.

When you make up your mind that it’s just not worth struggling even  one  more  time,  you  will  do  the  work  to  cut  it  out  of  your  life—whatever that entails! That may mean getting a flip phone for a season or blocking all internet access on your smartphone. To do this on an iPhone, first access the Screen Time controls under Settings,  and  then  click  Use  Screen  Time  Passcode  (have  your  ally  set  the  code  so  you  don’t  know  it—this  is  key).  Then,  under  the Screen Time section, navigate to Content & Privacy Restrictions. Once you click that, click Content Restrictions, where you’ll find the Web Content section. Set this to the Allowed Websites Only option. By  default,  this  section  only  allows  a  few  children’s  educational  sites, but you could even remove those if you wanted to. Any site not  on  the  “allowed”  list  will  be  blocked,  whether  you  are  trying  to access it from a browser or through the backend of another app. As an added note, while you are under Content Restrictions, you can also adjust the ratings settings for apps, TV shows, movies, and more—so take a look at those as well and make sure the settings are appropriate. If you have an Android phone, there isn’t a built-in way to turn off your internet, but you should be able to have a trusted ally utilize the  app  control  features  in  either  the  Covenant  Eyes  app  or  the  Boomerang app to shut your browser off entirely. Leave all internet turned  off  on  your  phone  until  you  are  walking  in  a  significant  degree of freedom—something both you and a trusted ally should determine together through open and honest conversation.

That’s it for the steps to porn proof your life. As a final note, if you have any other devices perhaps a Kindle, Apple TV, iPod Touch, or anything else that has caused you to stumble either find a way to get control over your use of it using the principles above, or get rid of it. Again, it’s not worth having any gateways to temptation and compromise. You just can’t renew your mind if you keep stumbling back into old, broken habits. Sin, secrets, and shame grow in the dark. If you keep hiding, you will  not  find  the  help  and  healing  you  so  deeply  long  for.  But  if  you  implement  the  above  steps  to  cut  off  temptation  and  bring  your struggles out of the darkness and into the light, you will begin walking out of bondage and into a glorious freedom. Beyond that, as your mind is renewed and you learn to live from your  new  nature,  an  amazing  thing  will  happen you  will  desire  porn  less  and  less.  As  you  learn  to  love  what  God  loves  and  hate  what He hates, porn will not only lose its luster, it will begin to be repulsive to you even to the point where you no longer desire it! But until you are firmly in that place‚ and even once you are walk-ing in freedom, it’s wise to have the proper safeguards in place so you can close the door to temptation. Hopefully  this  guide  has  been  helpful  to  you!  As  you  clean  your  slate, get totally honest with yourself, and take the necessary steps to close the doors to temptation, you’ll be well on your way to liv-ing a porn-proof life.  When you are living your life in the light, you’ll have nothing to hide.  Imagine  your  life  with  no  secrets  or  areas  of  darkness  and  shame. Imagine never feeling like you have to cover up your tracks or lie to hide your behavior again. Imagine  not  even  wanting  to  look  at  porn  anymore,  but  instead,  living  out  your  deep  desire  to  please  God  and  walk  in  His  ways!  Isn’t that what you truly want more than anything else? That’s the life your loving Heavenly Father wants for you, His child.