How Meditating On God Changes Your Identity
How does meditating on God help me quit porn?
Meditation calms the limbic system, the emotional part of the brain where sexual bondage lives. Under stress or anger the limbic system overpowers the prefrontal cortex, where your reasoning and impulse control sit. Dr. Ted Roberts teaches deep breathing from the stomach, not the chest, because more oxygen to the prefrontal cortex quiets the emotional brain. God taught Abraham the same thing when He sent him out to count the stars.
Most of us can remember at least one time when we were so upset or angry about something and somebody told us, “Take a deep breath and relax for a minute.”
That is actually great advice. For 68% of men in the church who view pornography, meditating on God is crucial for helping them find freedom.
Related Article: Why 68% of Christian Men Watch Porn
Dr. Ted Roberts is the former senior pastor of East Hill Foursquare Church in Gresham, Oregon and the founder of Pure Desire Ministries. He is also the host of the Conquer Series, an interactive study that helps men understand their porn addiction and offers proven strategies for victory.
According to Dr. Roberts, deep breathing is an integral part of the process. “You have to be able to control your breathing. Now, unfortunately, Buddhism has stolen meditation from Christianity. We think they’re the only ones who do it. But Abraham was meditating way before Buddha ever existed.”
Dr. Roberts explains that God told Abraham to go outside and count the number of stars in the heavens. God was teaching him to meditate on the heavens so that he would calm his limbic system down. Then Abraham could start believing what God said to him. Likewise, we need to learn how to breathe when we are uptight.
The Limbic System of the Brain
As explained in the Conquer Series, the limbic system is the ‘emotional brain’ where emotional memories are stored. It is also the part of the brain where sexual bondage occurs. The prefrontal cortex is where higher reasoning takes place and is our brain’s chief commander and impulse control center. This is where our moral and ethical decisions are made.
So when a sex addict’s brain experiences times of stress or anger, the limbic system overpowers the prefrontal cortex.
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The limbic system is our survival system and operates on impulse and on a subconscious level. It overpowers the prefrontal cortex during times of fight or flight.
When you learn to breathe deeply, you get more oxygen to your prefrontal cortex and you automatically calm your limbic system. That’s why it is important to learn how to use deep breathing to calm down the limbic system.
Related Article: How to Renew Your Mind After Porn and Find Lasting Freedom
How To Breathe Deeper
Dr. Roberts explains the proper technique for deep breathing.
- Put your feet on the floor.
- Close your eyes and relax for a moment.
- Put one hand on your chest, one on your stomach.
- Now take three deep breaths. Count them out: one-two-three.
Which hand moved the most? The one on your chest or the one on your stomach? For most guys it’s the chest.
“The problem is you breathe with your chest. You don’t breathe from your belly. When you have deep diaphragmatic breathing, what it does is calm down your dorsal vagal nerve. It’s a nerve that runs down the back of your brain to your stomach. It’s connected with your limbic system.”
“When you learn to breathe you get more oxygen to your prefrontal cortex and you calm your limbic system down. So what?”
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“You won’t do stupid near as much when you’re breathing correctly. Trust me it works.”
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“What I do is spend 5 minutes at least three times a day where I just sit down and I meditate in Christ and his presence and his grace for me and I breathe deeply. I calm my brain down, get present, and enable the Holy Spirit to start speaking to my soul.”
Understanding Your Destiny
Dr. Roberts adds that there is another important part of calming your brain and meditating on God – thinking positive thoughts and understanding the destiny God has for you. “ You need to discover your prophetic promises, “ he says. “Sit down and think about four times when God has encountered you. Not when you heard a good sermon or read a good book or you heard some good song, but when the presence of God encountered you. Think about it and you’ll discover God’s been faithful to you all the days of your life.”
“God is not interested in your performance he’s interested in who you are. When you understand who you are, your performance will fall in line with who you are.
Those moments when you encounter God, he’s defining your character, he’s defining your destiny. God was telling you and defining who you are. He’s defining your destiny.”
Related Article: Who Am I? Knowing Your Identity Brings Freedom From Porn
Meditate On God’s Word And His Promises
Dr. Roberts suggests, “Take those prophetic promises and attach them to an eternal part of God’s word. Attach them to a passage of scripture. Get an eternal anchor on it. It’s taking the word of God, which is eternal, and as you begin to study and you begin to meditate on it, God says,
‘That word’s for you, son, that is specifically for you. I’m going to bring it to pass in your life.’”
“Then you speak God’s word into the situation. I literally cut through the enemy’s attack on me and took back what had been stolen from me. There has to be positive self-talk because the primary enemy we have is the voices in our heads. The voice in our head saying ‘you’re not going to make it’, ‘you don’t have what it takes’, ‘you’re going to screw up’ – that voice is from hell. Therefore you need to take that prophetic promise and ram it down its throat.”
Fighting Back
Dr. Roberts continues, “When the enemy starts telling you you’re not going to make it, and you have to be present with your feelings, and you understand when you’re getting that feeling, that tightness in the gut, the tightness of the breathing, when you feel like you’re going to choke, that’s when you turn around and take that prophetic promise and shove it down the enemy’s throat."
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“When you start doing that on an ongoing basis you will renew the structure of your mind. It carves new neurological pathways.”
“I’m tired of living under what my step-father said my destiny was. I want to live under what my heavenly father says my destiny is.”
Continue Your Journey to Freedom From Porn
Deep breathing and meditation are just two techniques to help you defeat your pornography addiction. To give you more information and resources, Dr. Roberts hosts the Conquer Series, an exciting study program that has helped millions of men around the world experience freedom from pornography.
A study guide and journal are also available to help you dig deeper into understanding your sexual addiction by providing helpful insights and thought-stimulating exercises to keep you focused.
Writing at the intersection of faith and neuroscience to help men and women break destructive cycles and walk in lasting freedom.
More articles by Jeremy Wiles →Frequently Asked Questions
Is meditation a Christian practice or a Buddhist one?
It is thoroughly biblical. Buddhism effectively stole meditation from Christianity, and many believers now assume it belongs to someone else. Abraham was meditating long before Buddha ever existed. When God sent him outside to count the stars, He was teaching him to meditate on the heavens so his limbic system would settle and he could actually believe what God had just promised him.
How do I know if I am breathing correctly?
Try this. Put your feet flat on the floor, close your eyes, and relax. Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach, then take three slow breaths and count them out. Notice which hand moved more. For most men it is the chest, and that is the problem. Deep diaphragmatic breathing from the belly calms the dorsal vagal nerve, which is connected to your limbic system.
How long should I meditate each day?
A workable rhythm is five minutes at least three times a day. You sit down, meditate on Christ and on His presence and grace toward you, and breathe deeply. That calms your brain, gets you present, and makes room for the Holy Spirit to speak to your soul. It is short enough to actually do and frequent enough to matter, which is exactly why it works.
What are prophetic promises?
They are the moments when the presence of God genuinely encountered you, not the times you heard a good sermon, read a good book or liked a song. Sit down and think of four of them. Looking back, you will see God has been faithful all your life. In those moments He was defining your character and your destiny, telling you who you actually are.
How do I fight the negative voice in my head?
Take your prophetic promises and anchor them to Scripture, so an eternal word carries them. Then speak that word straight into the situation. The primary enemy most men face is the voice in their own head saying you will not make it, you do not have what it takes, you are going to fail. That voice is from hell. Answer it with God's promise, and over time you carve new neurological pathways.
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