Prayer needed for a couple of things

I could really use prayers for 2 things in my life...well, a lot of things actually, but 2 that are of utmost importance..

One, I really need prayer for my 19 year old son, David. He left me and moved to Colorado in July to live with his mom, as she needed financial help. She is charging him 350/month (getting ready to raise it to 500) to a share a ROOM in a 2 BR apt with his brother (also my son, but not biologically)..she also charges my other son 350/month. Her, her live in BF, and my older son are all major pot heads...and all 3 work min wage jobs. David is a health nut...not a pot head. Anyway, he loves Colorado, but he is in a bad situation out there. I am afraid he won't go back to school or accomplish anything living with them. He hates Delaware (where we are from, and where I still live), but I have explained to him that school comes first, and that he could come back to live with me if he wanted, rent free, go to school, and once he gets a degree THEN he can move wherever he wants. So last week he told me he wanted to move home with me because she was too unstable, so we started planning his move. The last time I talked to him was the 19th. So for a week now he has not responded to texts or calls. I don't want her manipulating him and forcing him to stay there, and I am afraid that is what is happening.  I need prayers for his safety, for him to use wisdom, and for the right path he should travel be made known to him. I am ok with wherever God leads him, even if it isn't back to Delaware. I just want him safe, and to not waste his life. He does pray and is a Christian.

Secondly, my entire life has been up and down with the Lord. I became Born Again at 12, but I have walked astray (VERY astray) so many times that I actually am tired of the whole thing. I need stability. So that is my request...for me to finally stick with it and grow in the Lord and become stable..instead of the hot and cold, up and down, sin and repent lifestyle I have lived for decades. To help with this, I also need to be free from the bondage of lust (sexual and material) and covetousness...and I am sure probably a dozen other things too..lol..but this will do for a start. When I look back at my life, I see soooo many bad decisions where lust was the driving force. I need to be free.

Your prayers are very much appreciated.

I will pray for all things concerned here, but your last paragraph is my life as well, and I am deeply troubled, to the point of not being able to eat well or get good sleep. So let's hold each other up in prayer and walk through this together as much as possible.

I will pray too and the second thing I can so relate to as well

Sabbatharian wrote:I will pray for all things concerned here, but your last paragraph is my life as well, and I am deeply troubled, to the point of not being able to eat well or get good sleep. So let's hold each other up in prayer and walk through this together as much as possible.

Thank you very much. And yes, I will definitely be praying for you, and it would be great to have interaction with someone who is going through the same thing. 

Warzawa wrote:I will pray too and the second thing I can so relate to as well

Thank you. I will keep you in prayer as well

I signed up for this, Matt Fradd is a good man and I think this could be of tremendous help. I got clean back in 2014 for like a year and a half, then gave in one night two years ago and have not been able to sustain any real freedom since.

https://stream.org/strive-chastity-matt-fradd-launches-21-day-porn-detox-program/

This resonated w/me deeply, just recently viewed it over the weekend...

Sabbatharian wrote:I signed up for this, Matt Fradd is a good man and I think this could be of tremendous help. I got clean back in 2014 for like a year and a half, then gave in one night two years ago and have not been able to sustain any real freedom since.

https://stream.org/strive-chastity-matt-fradd-launches-21-day-porn-detox-program/

Sabbatharian wrote:This resonated w/me deeply, just recently viewed it over the weekend...

Looks good, I will check them out when I get home

Thanks

I'm praying for you, my friend.  I pray that your son would be filled with wisdom and strength to resist getting pulled into something he knows is no good for him.  In the meantime, may God use him to witness to and encourage his mom and brother and may God be softening their hearts all the while.

Be encouraged by the fact that you're convicted by your sin.  The Holy Spirit is working within you and doing something in your life.  I hope this small community can be an encouragement to you and be used by God in whatever He's got planned!

If I may do a little preaching here...  Two things:  1)  Remember your identity.  Though you (and I and everyone else) sin, you are not a sinner.  That is not your identity.  Rather, you're a child of God: adopted and an inheritor of His kingdom.

1 John 3:1-2 wrote:See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Ephesians 1:3-6 wrote:Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

There are a ton of other verses about where our identity is and where it isn't.  Galatians 5, Romans 6...  I'm not sure if it's been attempted here, but a Bible study could be kinda cool to do together on the forum for whoever wants to join on one of those chapters.  Just a thought.

Anyways, onto 2)  That identity was given to us completely freely and not of anything we did or ever could do.

Romans 5:6-8 wrote:You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While freedom from sin isn't freedom to sin (Romans 6:1-2), it still takes a heavy burden off.  We don't have the power in ourselves to conquer sin - only by Christ's power can sin be destroyed in our lives.  Look to Him. 

Well, I hope my ramblings were at least somewhat helpful.  

Kerrick wrote:I'm praying for you, my friend.  I pray that your son would be filled with wisdom and strength to resist getting pulled into something he knows is no good for him.  In the meantime, may God use him to witness to and encourage his mom and brother and may God be softening their hearts all the while.

Be encouraged by the fact that you're convicted by your sin.  The Holy Spirit is working within you and doing something in your life.  I hope this small community can be an encouragement to you and be used by God in whatever He's got planned!

If I may do a little preaching here...  Two things:  1)  Remember your identity.  Though you (and I and everyone else) sin, you are not a sinner.  That is not your identity.  Rather, you're a child of God: adopted and an inheritor of His kingdom.

1 John 3:1-2 wrote:See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Ephesians 1:3-6 wrote:Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

There are a ton of other verses about where our identity is and where it isn't.  Galatians 5, Romans 6...  I'm not sure if it's been attempted here, but a Bible study could be kinda cool to do together on the forum for whoever wants to join on one of those chapters.  Just a thought.

Anyways, onto 2)  That identity was given to us completely freely and not of anything we did or ever could do.

Romans 5:6-8 wrote:You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While freedom from sin isn't freedom to sin (Romans 6:1-2), it still takes a heavy burden off.  We don't have the power in ourselves to conquer sin - only by Christ's power can sin be destroyed in our lives.  Look to Him. 

Well, I hope my ramblings were at least somewhat helpful.  

Kerrick,

Thank you so very much. I greatly appreciate your words and wisdom, and the verses you quoted are spot on.

As you know, I came back to CMR for the PEOPLE more than the music. This place has always felt like home.

The spiritual aspect is only one, as big as it is, but this goes deep into the emotional and physical as well. We are a spirit/body union, and what we consume has the capacity to nurture or poison both...

Sabbatharian wrote:The spiritual aspect is only one, as big as it is, but this goes deep into the emotional and physical as well. We are a spirit/body union, and what we consume has the capacity to nurture or poison both...

Interesting podcast..thanks for sharing

I heard a minister state anyone who has use porn has entered into a covenant with the person in the image...

And that we should pray and renounce the covenant and for the images to be erased from our memory...

I don't know how I feel about that....but that is what she said

Not sure about all that, but I suppose it's always good to renounce/repent of the evil w/have aligned ourselves with.

Still praying for all here, installed Covenant Eyes and staying clear of all that, have also disabled facebook for lent.

Been clean for about a month now, Lenten practices and God's grace!

Pro-Zak wrote:Been clean for about a month now, Lenten practices and God's grace!

That is awesome, brother

Sounds like a tough situation, so I will keep you in my prayers, man.

I can SO relate with the second part. A few years ago my lust came to the point where I, to be honest, turned my back to my Lord and started to move away from Him. And I also build very strong  walls around my heart. But what's more important is that He NEVER left my side. In the darkest moments of my life, He sent in my best friends to shine His real and unconditional love.  

When I read about the Prodigal Son today, I can truly relate to that. Like someone said: "been there, done that". Sometimes you may feel very much alone, but remember...  He is always with you.

Yes, praying. Let him know school will flash by quickly. Get that degree, get finished and then he can move anywhere he wants. He needs to stay away from all of them, they will pull hiim down. Even if and when he finishes school he should stay away from them. Any updates? Have you heard from him?

Markus1987 wrote:Sounds like a tough situation, so I will keep you in my prayers, man.

I can SO relate with the second part. A few years ago my lust came to the point where I, to be honest, turned my back to my Lord and started to move away from Him. And I also build very strong  walls around my heart. But what's more important is that He NEVER left my side. In the darkest moments of my life, He sent in my best friends to shine His real and unconditional love.  

When I read about the Prodigal Son today, I can truly relate to that. Like someone said: "been there, done that". Sometimes you may feel very much alone, but remember...  He is always with you.

Thank you very much, it does help a lot getting to know others struggle with the same things in life.

MikeInFla wrote:Yes, praying. Let him know school will flash by quickly. Get that degree, get finished and then he can move anywhere he wants. He needs to stay away from all of them, they will pull hiim down. Even if and when he finishes school he should stay away from them. Any updates? Have you heard from him?

Thank you, sir

As for updates.....

He has admitted that he has (once again) changed his mind and is staying out there.

I am flying him back here in May for an extended visit....during which time I am taking him to see Stryper and do a m&g with them. This was something he wanted to do, and I made him understand that once he told me to go ahead and get the tix that he can't back out. So we will see. 

Maybe something will happen while he is here.

A little more background on my son (I have 2, one is her son that I gave my last name to, the other is my biological son. The one I have been talking about is my biological son).

When my ex wife and the boys still lived in Delaware (where I live, and we lived close to each other), she let his girlfriend move in with them when he was about 17. They slept in the same bed. She was a year younger. No lie. She lived with them until the ex moved to Colorado...and then my son moved in with his g/f and his g/f's mom up until he came to live with me for a month before he moved to Colorado also.

I was against the living arrangements, obviously. Whether I was/am a Christian or not, didn't matter. I thought it was wrong.

Just wondering how everyone is doing here, at least in regards to lust/porn. I have been clean for over two months now, but still struggle w/"looking" at times, and in my dreams. I want to be clean of heart and mind as well, for that's really where the battle is waged.

Pro-Zak wrote:Just wondering how everyone is doing here, at least in regards to lust/porn. I have been clean for over two months now, but still struggle w/"looking" at times, and in my dreams. I want to be clean of heart and mind as well, for that's really where the battle is waged.

Good to hear you are doing so well!

I'm not not doing too bad. Still room for improvement.

On the other front, my son comes out for vacation from 5/15 until 6/9....

He SAYS he is going to wind up going back out to finish up some stuff and then will be coming back for good...we will see

So things are going well with my son...

We pushed back his departure date from 6/9 to 6/21, which basically was me buying a new ticket because the change fee was more costly than a new ticket. When I went to book the new return flight, he said, "dad, just make it a round trip. I have a couple of things to do there and then I will be back for good."

So he will be returning 2 weeks after he leaves, coming back for good on 7/9.

He said he feels God wants him here...

He plans on going to a Christian college.

Thank you all for your prayer.


My next thing is to get prayer going that he doesn't face retaliation from her when he goes back.