You may be separated from God because of your sin, but because of His great mercy and love, He can’t just leave you there stuck in that state. He loves you so much and does not want to see you perish eternally (or daily) in your sin.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

It is not God’s will that you die in your sins... but your sins do demand a terrible penalty: the death penalty. According to Romans 6:23a...

“For the wages of sin is death...”

You earn or deserve what you work for. If you work for sin - living separated, confused and in a state of disorder outside of God - then death is the wage that you will receive for your sin (see Part 4: Reality Check). But the good news is that God has provided a way out. Even though the wages that you have coming to you are death, God offers you the free gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ:

“but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b)

God sent Jesus to offer you a new Kingdom to live for, and He wants to establish it in your life. To receive it, you must repent of your sins and believe the truth of Jesus’ Gospel:

Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:14-15)

It is God’s will for everyone to turn from their sin to Him. God wants everyone to come to a place that is just beyond being truly sorry for the sins of your life (including, but not limited to pornography)... it is a place where you repent and turn away from that sin. This command is for everyone. In Acts 17:30, we read that it is God Himself that ‘commands all people everywhere to repent.’

The word repentance means ‘to change, to turn around, a reversal of decision, [and] to transform.’ If you are moving along in one direction, ‘to repent’ would mean that you MAKE A DECISION to turn around and head the other way. If you are driving somewhere, and discover that you are not headed where you need to be going, you must turn the car around and go back in the other direction.

It means to change your mind AND change your actions.

How about this:

[Repentance is] resolutely turning from everything that you know to be displeasing to God.

You don’t need to make yourself better before you turn around. Quite the opposite. It is because you cannot forgive or improve yourself that you NEED Him to come to us. But you can’t accept Him and keep your back to Him at the same time.

Understand this... God is really good at rearranging things in peoples lives when He comes in to your life. There can’t be any resistance... you can’t negotiate your own terms. You must be willing to turn around, and turn over your life completely and unconditionally.

Jesus desires to be the Lord of the new life that waits for you.

Questions before we continue:

Do you think that the Creator of the universe can do a better job at living life to its full potential than you have?

Is anything still holding you back from ‘turning away from sin’ and ‘turning toward’ God?