Have you ever noticed or considered the reality that, in our North American culture, we don’t really have a tangible need for God?

Historically, the church thrives in countries where there is life-threatening persecution. The thought of losing our lives for the sake of Jesus is, foreign if not entirely unthinkable to us here.

The North American dream is to work hard and become rich, the perfect equation for self-sufficiency. Then when things get hard, we ask God why. But when it comes to scripture our lives having hardship is essentially a promise, so why do we get mad or frustrated with God when things aren’t easy in our lives?

I have been more and more convinced and convicted lately that our version of persecution isn’t just about how we are treated by the world around us for our beliefs and lifestyle, but is something entirely different.

Is it possible that our version of persecution is found in our personal need to reject the values of the world? To stand up and choose God’s standards over our carnal desires and what we think we “deserve?”

Persecution essentially causes us to need to take a stand, to choose whom we are going to serve (Matt. 6:24) and to recognize that we can’t do it without Him.

The church in North America is finally coming to the stark awareness of the effect the pornography epidemic is having in our culture and in our churches. As an example, the Set Free Summit event in North Carolina is the first of its kind and an opportunity for Pastors throughout North America to wake up to the reality of the cancer that porn and porn addiction is in the church today.

What if God is using the problem of porn addiction and the impact it has on us personally and spiritually as believers to point out how much we need Him? It’s finally something we cannot take care of ourselves. Its a cancer, a cancer that is deeply embedded in our confidence to lead both the church and others towards Jesus. It erodes our souls and, medically speaking, destroys our ability to have healthy sex while eating away at our moral structure. Our concepts of right and wrong literally change and become unrecognizable through addiction. (See yourbrainonporn.com, fighttherealdrug.org and covenanteyes.com for more.)

This is our opportunity as the church to rise up and offer help to the world that has a problem that they hate and can’t take care of on their own. Unfortunately, this problem permeates deeply within the church. We haven’t addressed it and as a result most of us haven’t found the freedom we so desperately need to offer the world.

Some of you may be asking what the harm is, suggesting that porn is a personal choice and isn’t hurting anyone. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality, but I won’t argue that here because others have done a far better job of illustrating and researching the problem than I ever could. Check out the above listed sites for research and science behind the impact porn has and how it destroys the lives of “performers” as well.

While I could never be thankful for the porn epidemic, or the hell on earth it has become, I am thankful for the tangible opportunity to really need God, for professing followers of Jesus to need Him beyond Sunday morning. I’ve seen it over and over again but this is another example of Science proving God’s word right. God’s standard for sex and avoiding lust has always been right, brain studies from entirely neutral scientific sources are proving this truth daily. God is calling us to our knees in submission and acceptance of the reality that we can’t do life alone and that freedom can only be found with the help of His spirit.

So what if, then, God is using our debauchery in order to bring us back into His arms. To illustrate for us our need for each other in community, to carry each other’s burdens (Gal. 6:2) – something else we do terribly in North America. What if the epidemic of porn and porn addiction is not only a curse but also an invitation and a reminder of the reality that we need to take up our cross for Jesus (Luke 9:23-24) and be crucified with Christ against our own carnal desires and sense of entitlement? (Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 4:22-24, Phil 3:8, Col 3:5, John 12:24, Romans 6:11, Romans 12:1-2, Gal 5:24, 1 Pt. 4:2 and many more.)

So, if you are struggling with porn or a porn addiction, know that God is calling you to Him, to love, to freedom and community, and most importantly a life lived with purpose beyond what you ever dreamt possible. That life can only be found on our knees when we recognize we are helpless without Jesus. He never expected us to live life alone, that’s why He sent His son for us.