Clean Hands, Pure Heart
Overcoming Addiction to Pornography through the Redeeming Power of Jesus Christ
Chapter 11: Step Seven- Part 2
By Philip A. Harrison
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. (A.A. and Heart t’ Heart traditional versions)
Humbly cried unto the Lord Jesus Christ in ourhearts for a remission of sins that through His mercy and His grace we might experience a mighty change of heart, lose all disposition to do evil, and thus be encircled about in the arms of safety because of His great and last sacrifice. (Alma 36:18; Alma 38:8; Moroni 10:32; Mosiah 5:2; Alma 34:15-16) (Heart t’ Heart scriptural version)
Being Reborn
As I searched for further understanding of this concept of being completely changed in our nature and reborn as a child of Christ (Mosiah 5:7), I found the following statement that so beautifully describes the miracle of taking Step Seven:
Sometimes we tend to focus so much upon the fact that Jesus Christ died for us that we do not attend to an equally important facet of his redemptive enterprise – the fact that he also came to live in us. It is marvelous beyond the power of expression to contemplate that the Savior can and does forgive our sins. There is no way in our present state to comprehend how and in what manner this miracle of miracles was and is brought to pass. It simply happens. And thanks be to God that it does happen. But we cannot enjoy the full and complete powers of the atonement of Christ until our redemption from sin entails the re-creation of a nature which is foreign to sin. That is to say, Jesus came to cleanse us from guilt and the taints of transgression; he also came to renovate our nature and empower our souls that we are delivered, in process of time, from the effects and pull of those transgressions. We are not in the ultimate sense, therefore, redeemed from our sins, to use Amulek’s and Helaman’s words, until those sins have no more power over us. The additional wonder and beauty of the Atonement is that we are not expected to resist sin by will power and personal resolve alone, though such things are essential; rather, as we come to gain that life which is in Christ – a life which comes as we seek for and cultivate the Spirit of the Lord – we receive that enabling power which extends to us the strength to forsake and overcome, a power which we could not have generated on our own. (Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds., Helaman through 3 Nephi 8: According to Thy Word [Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1992], 22, emphasis added)
That enabling power which gives us strength to resist temptation and thus releases us from our slavery to addiction is the same power that changes our hearts and gives us a new life in Christ. This is the power that changes the basic character faults that have led us into addiction in the first place. This is the power to find help for the central cause of our problem, of which addiction to certain behaviors is merely a symptom. President Benson spoke of this vital change, echoing the words of President McKay and President Kimball:
When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed. “No man,” said President David O. McKay, “can sincerely resolve to apply to his daily life the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth without sensing a change in his own nature. The phrase ‘born again’ has a deeper significance than many people attach to it. This changed feeling may be indescribable, but it is real.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1962, p. 7; italics original)
Can human hearts be changed? Why, of course! It happens every day in the great missionary work of the Church. It is one of the most widespread of Christ’s modern miracles. If it hasn’t happened to you – it should.
Our Lord told Nicodemus that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3.) Of these words President Spencer W. Kimball said, “This is the simple total answer to the weightiest of all questions .To gain eternal life there must be a rebirth, a transformation.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1958, p. 14.)
President McKay said that Christ called for “an entire revolution” of Nicodemus’s “inner man.” “His manner of thinking, feeling, and acting with reference to spiritual things would have to undergo a fundamental and permanent change.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1960, p. 26.)
In addition to the physical ordinance of baptism and the laying on of hands, one must be spiritually born again to gain exaltation and eternal life. Alma states: And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;
And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God (Mosiah 27:25-26) (Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, July 1989, 2).
This idea of having such a significant change in my nature was almost beyond my ability to believe when I first read about it in He Did Deliver Me from Bondage. I struggled for so many years with aborted attempts to change that I had begun to think change was impossible. What I was not considering was the infinite power the Savior has to change us from the inside out, once we give Him our permission. Continuing the quote from President Benson:
The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.
“Human nature can be changed, here and now,” said President McKay, and then he quoted the following:
You can change human nature. No man who has felt in him the Spirit of Christ even for half a minute can deny this truth . You do change human nature, your own human nature, if you surrender it to Christ. Human nature has been changed in the past. Human nature must be changed on an enormous scale in the future, unless the world is to be drowned in its own blood. And only Christ can change it. (Beverly Nichols, in David O. McKay, Stepping Stones to an Abundant Life, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1971, p. 23.) (Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, July 1989, 4)
I bear my solemn testimony to you that this comprehensive change in our very nature can include our attitude toward sex, even though it has been an area of life that has been filled with turmoil, temptation and maladjustment. This rebirth experience can include having “weak things become strong” (Ether 12:27) in our lives! The ability to feel a powerful degree of sexual desire is not an evil thing, in and of itself. It is a God-given and godly attribute to feel sexual attraction and physical passion. Only when this trait has been enslaved and perverted by Satan’s lies does it become lust. Our ability to feel intense desire is only evil when it is misused and misapplied. This and all other attributes must be cleansed and purified by the influence of the Holy Ghost on our hearts. Elder Parley P. Pratt declared:
The gift of the Holy Ghost . increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them by the gift of wisdom to their lawful use (Key to Theology, 101-2).
The Mighty Change
There are many names in the scriptures for the kind of change we are seeking in Step Seven. It may be referred to as being “born again” (John 3:3-8; Mosiah 27:25), undergoing “a mighty change” (Mosiah 5:2; Alma 5:11-14), or coming “unto Christ” (Omni 1:26; Moroni 10:30-33). I keep coming back to the story of Alma the Younger because he is such a great example to me of someone who came to this mighty change “later” in life, after a period of turning away from the righteous teachings of his upbringing. We can be sure Alma was taught well by his prophet-father, and still he strayed.
While my own father was not a prophet, I was definitely taught from the time I was small what I should and should not do. I cannot claim that any of my mistakes were born of ignorance of the commandments, but I made them nonetheless. And, like Alma, I came to a place where I was “racked with eternal torment . harrowed up to the greatest degree . tormented with the pains of hell” (Alma 36:12-13).
As I learned to apply Step Seven, I once again felt that intense desire for change. However, this time it was not about my “sins” only, but about all the character traits that continued to keep me from being like my Savior. Again, I found myself turning to Him for the power to change:
Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me. (Alma 36:17-19)
And the Lord has indeed had mercy on me. As I have attempted the degree of surrender represented in taking Step Seven, I have watched my heart soften and my inspiration brighten. Although I am far from perfect, today I often see myself responding to life in ways that humble me – with faith, hope, peace, and charity far greater than my own. I know the Lord has accepted me and forgiven me, not only of my grosser sins, but is strengthening me “in the inner man” as well (Ephesians 3:16). He is doing for me, once again, what I could not do for myself.
His act of Atonement for me was not an event that merely took place 2,000 years ago, but is an ongoing relationship He is pleased to have with me every day of my life. It is as if His continued walk with me is like a treasure box that is constantly replenished. Of course, the treasure I receive from Him is far greater than any earthly possession, and this miracle has engendered a feeling of deepest gratitude in my heart. What the Lord did for the people who were taught by Alma the Elder at the waters of Mormon has now happened to me.
Behold, he changed [my heart]; yea, he awakened [me] out of a deep sleep, and [I] awoke unto God. Behold, [I was] in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, [my soul was] illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, [I was] encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await [me]. And now I ask of you, my brethren, [was I] destroyed? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, [I was] not. And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled [me] about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and [my soul] did expand, and [I] did sing redeeming love. (Alma 5:7-9)
I feel such joy and happiness and love and gratitude; “singing redeeming love” is a perfect description of my feelings. I don’t know how to even begin to pay the Lord back for this marvelous gift. All I know is that I must bear witness of the good He has done in my life – in other words, share the message of redemption with those who are still suffering as I suffered. This is my message – to share the love God has shared with me, and to tell all who will hear that this amazing gift can be theirs as well.
I pray we may each surrender our weaknesses to the Lord and do what is in our power to prepare the way for this rebirth experience, this mighty change, that thereby we may all come unto Christ.
Making the Most of this Chapter
Please take time to answer the following questions in your recovery journal.
1. Write about your readiness to ask the Lord to change your character. Copy 1 Nephi 3:7 into your journal and capture from it. In what ways has the Lord prepared a way for you to take this step? What obstacles do you need to ask Him to remove so that you may surrender to Him?
2. In Hebrews we read, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:10). Write about your feelings about letting God write His law in your mind and heart. What hesitancy do you still feel about having the Lord be “a God” to you, and you being part of His “people?”
3. The Lord said through Ezekiel, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Write about your willingness to have the Lord give you a totally new heart, disposition, attitude and personality. Copy this verse into your journal and capture from it.
4. After Alma the Younger was struck dumb by the angel of the Lord, he endured three days of “repenting nigh unto death.” When he was restored to speech, he bore his testimony in these words, “Nevertheless, after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God. My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more” (Mosiah 27:28-29). Write about your feelings about being “snatched” from eternal torment through the process of rebirth. If you have not yet had this experience, write about your hopes and desires for it. If you have experienced this marvelous change, write your testimony, as Alma did.
5. Look up the entire talk by President Ezra Taft Benson, “Born of God,” (Ensign, Nov. 1985, 5 or July 1989, 2) and read it, capturing from any passages that impress you. Identify passages that relate to Step Seven and write about their significance in your life. (Articles published in Church magazines, including talks given in General Conference, can be accessed through this Church website: https://library.lds.org).
Next Week-Chapter 12: Step Eight
Clean Hands, Pure Heart by Philip A. Harrison, and its companion LDS 12 Step book, He Did Deliver Me from Bondage by Colleen C. Harrison, are available at most LDS bookstores and can be ordered online at www.ldscloseouts.com or www.rosehavenpublishing.com
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