DETOX PLAN

Intro: The struggle with sexual sin is both physical and spiritual. While the roots of the struggle are spiritual and involve your individual heart of worship, the physical dependency that develops is significant. To help you develop a life context that allows you to engage your heart and find some freedom from the power of a physical dependency, we’ve developed this detox plan template for you to take and customize to the specifics of your own struggle.

1. Create a “Radical Amputation” plan. As you begin to restructure your environment the goal is to make sure your Desire, Time, and Opportunity for sin do not come together at any point.
   1. Describe the time(s) and situation(s) when you are most vulnerable to temptation. (e.g. late at night when I’m tired, late at night when my wife is sleeping, when I’m in my girlfriend’s house, early in the morning after I work out)
   2. What other aspects of your life fuel your desire for this sin? How can you reduce/remove these complicating factors? (e.g. if you struggle with pornography, it would be wise to also evaluate the TV shows and other Media that contribute to your lust).
   3. Write out a “radical amputation” plan that carefully examines your desires, time, and opportunities for sin and makes permanent changes to eliminate access to temptation.

Sample Plan: Pornography Radical Amputation Plan

• Computer: I pay $15 a month for covenant eyes accountability software, it tracks everything I look at on my computer (browsers, iTunes) and reports it weekly to my accountability partner. It also shows how long I spend on different sites. So my accountability partner can see if I was on Facebook for an hour (or if I'm wasting time other places) and can help encourage me with stewarding my time.

• Smart Phone: Because of the restrictions that I had my accountability partner activate, I have no browser and no app that has a built in browser. I also don't have anything that has a search feature that could generate a lustful image turned off (e.g. iTunes Store).

• Tablet: Same restrictions as iPhone. I just use it to Facetime, mix music or edit movies.

• TV: I never delete the history on Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, or the Browser app and I encourage my accountability partner to check it occasionally.

• Accountability: John Smith and I will meet occasionally and answer three questions: "How have I loved God? How have I loved others? How have I given into idolatry?"

• Remember. If my heart is bent on sinning all this plan will do is delay the inevitable. The reason I have all this in place is to create more space in my life to enjoy God. It’s radical simplification.

  ... none of this helps me fight sin

Keep a “Temptation Log”

Often the Christian life can feel like an endless cycle of “I sin. I don’t sin. I sin. I don’t sin. I sin.” The cycle of sin can feel perplexing and incredibly disheartening. The hope of this log is to give your counselor a better sense of the overall terrain of your life so that they can understand what fuels the enticement of sin in your environment, relationships, and heart. Please complete this log whenever you feel tempted and send it to your counselor (with the date) before your next session.

1. When did the temptation happen?
2. Where were you?
3. What had just happened before the temptation?
4. What did you do in response to the temptation?
5. What were you feeling in the midst of the temptation?
6. What were you thinking?