Take Up and Read
I Augustine believe I can help those who seek reprieve from sexual sin and pornography. Who better to help than that of someone who has walked through it themselves. In my full addiction it was a chain, it bound me with a perverse will. One day I cried out to God in anguish, and I asked God to remove from my heart all my lustful habits. One day “I threw myself down under a certain fig tree,” I cried out to the Lord and asked the Lord to take this from me. What I heard in my spirit was this. “Take up and read, take up and read.” I read Romans 13:13-14 “let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.” It was at this moment that all the gloom and doubt vanished away before me. On the strength of the word of God.
It was certainly a monumental moment for me, and I never stopped reaching for the Bible Day after day after day for by the grace of God I was able to overcome my sexual sin and embrace a life of chastity. Freedom is always possible through the wonderful Grace of God, which is a gift freely given to all who seek it. (How Reading the Bible Helped St. Augustine Overcome Lust, 2020)