can christians...........?

Question

"go solo" without feeling guilty, i'm trying to become a good christian, but i'm having guilt issues about masturbation, as it's lust, but i haven't got a gf atm, and i'm only 19

Answer 1

The feeling of guilt is the sign of your conscience becoming active and telling you what is right and what is wrong.
Try your best to stay away of what is wrong. Sometimes it's only a thought like "why wouldn't I do this and that right now?" which can be dismissed easily. This already reduces your erotic activity considerably. If it's a physical sensation it's more difficult to fight it, but not impossible, with God's help. You would be surprised.
There's a lot of early Christian literature on fighting the passions, but I wouldn't recommend you to start any ascetical practices without the advice of your father confessor (priest). (Askesis in Greek means exercise or training and in this sense refers to physical practices such as fasting or prostrations which help in curbing bodily passions and, more generally, in spiritual development.)
Don't become despondent if you fail to meet the standards your conscience sets on you. Thoughts of repentance are meant to make you regret your temporary failure (the Greek word for sin means missing the mark or scope) and return to the good fight with God's help. At times of repentance, Psalm 50 is a very good prayer. But by no means think that it's ok to do this and that (such as masturbation), because God will eventually forgive you. You have to resist until resisting gets beyond your power.
Some tips for when you feel you can't resist: go out and/or do some physical exercise; probably running in a park is the best because it combines the both. Pray to God for this temptation to be sent away from you on account of your weakness.
Some general tips: find yourself some passtimes that involve physical activity, spending time with other people and being in the open air (which is usually a public space). As a young man, for your problem it's especially important to do some physically tiring exercise every day. It might help you to reduce alcohol and meat; that depends of course on how much you usually drink and how much meat you usually eat. A priest should also advise you on a minimal daily program of prayer (basically, to begin and end the day with a prayer).
All of the above are meant to help you, so don't feel bad if you can't comply. I still have difficulties with my prayer rule, such as extreme sleepiness hitting me when I want to do my evening prayer.
May God strengthen you (us).

Answer 2

Sorry to burst your bubble mate, but trying to be a good Christian is a no win situation, only Christ is Good.
Your masturbation thing is a human reaction, any Christian that say's other doesn't really undertstand humanity, and doesn't understand the Bible neither.
Stop pulling yourself down Jesus doesn't.
Its proabably a good job you don't have a girlfriend, because you might be tempted to sleep with her. I don't want to offend you so if I have I'm sorry, its just that you like most men will proabaly want to have sex. I know I was one of them and yes I'm a Christain.
Be thankful that your sins have been paid for on the cross. Don't let anyone else tell you different. Rememer 'There is No condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus'.
You are not on your own, heck I struggle too. If you need a chat then please contact me, I'm not saying that I have all the answers but if I can help I will.

Answer 3

Had that brought up in "Men Alive for God " yesterday. Masturbation is not mentioned in the Bible, so is not considered anything like as bad as, say, jealousy or anger. However, if masturbation is very frequent, it may indicate something like low self esteem or anxiety, or just plain loneliness. Best plan of action? Spend more time with your Christian friends. Being surrounded by loving Brothers in Christ does wonders for all kinds of soul and spiritual healing.

Answer 4

Look, it’s normal. Don’t worry about it.
The problem comes if you’re obsessing over it all the time. Obsessing over anything is unhealthy. Or if masturbation is accompanied by unhealthy fantasies, violent fantasies for example.
If you’re worried about lustful fantasies, just try to clear your mind of everything and masturbate.
I don’t know if it’s possible for the human mind to clear itself completely of lustful thoughts but IMO the more important issue is how we actually treat each other.
Do you treat women with respect or simply as sexual objects to fulfill your desires?
I think we would all do well to give more thought to how we treat each other and not worry about something that is a perfectly normal behavior.

Answer 5

What does having a girlfriend have to do with it? Are you saying that if you had a girlfriend you would commit fornication instead of masturbation?? An even worse sin of lust?? Ask God to give you the grace to resist temptation. Avoid places and situations that tempt you to sin, get rid of any pornography you have, and stop visiting pornographic sites online. In that way you will be cooperating with God's grace, and you will find you will make progress in your battle with temptation. I would also recommend a booklet called "Every Man's Battle" which is available at www.familylife.com

Answer 6

the whole point about Christianity is that we're forgiven, and how God sees us isn't as sinful but as with the righteousness of Christ. Masturbation aint that good, but hey- Christians have the Holy Spirit- we have the power to say no and learn a bit of self control...

Answer 7

Brutal_Yet_Beautiful,
You have to realize that you aren't Christian because you don't jack off. You are Christian because you trust God. All of that other stuff is just stuff. The devil will get you all out of focus to the word over this kind of stuff. The real truble you are having is that you are out of focus. Hebrews tells you to keep your eyes on Jesus.

The fact is that you like to masterbate. I'm not saying that it's an obsession with you, it could be, I don't know, but you didn't say that it was. So if you are going to do it, do it the best you can! lol

But when you focus on God, do that the best you can.

Answer 8

Personally I see masturbation as wrong. I just dont see the point in satisfying my own self. Its kind of sad and if i did come in my hand I would feel awful afterwards like wot was that all about

Answer 9

All I can say is it is possible, but you need the grace of God to accomplish this. It all starts with a penitant heart. You also need to make some decisions not to sin again. The best way to do that is to avoid what ever it is that leads you into that sin. This may suggest that there are other sins to repent of too. You may need a strong Christian brother that you can be accountable to and who will be there for you. Not someone who will buckle and say "it's okay", but will call you on to holiness.

Answer 10

NOBODY in the history of the planet has ever been struck dead by "God" for masturbating. Now if your roommates catch you, that's another story.

For $hit's sake, stop wasting neurons worrying about something that won't happen and live the way you want to!