Last updated on October 8, 2020
Question:
I have an issue. When I masturbate sometimes random, sinful thoughts come into my mind. I don’t watch pornography, so I don’t really know what’s causing them. I actively try my best to think of something neutral while masturbating, but sometimes these random lustful thoughts pop into my mind out of the blue, without much explanation. How do I prevent this from happening?
Whenever I see someone attractive I try my best to steer clear of lustful thoughts, but they still keep on appearing when I masturbate. Also, when those thoughts do come up while masturbating I immediately stop masturbating and let my penis soften a little, and once I am able to think of something else that is neutral, or I find another idea to pleasure myself in a manner than before, I begin masturbating again, much more quickly to ejaculation, in order to prevent sinful thoughts of coming up again. Is it sinful to do this?
Also, is it sinful to have an unwanted lewd image randomly pop up in your mind while masturbating, even if it doesn’t harden your erection or get you aroused? In a case where the image does arouse you a bit, have you already committed sin, even if you stop physically stimulating yourself?
In order to finish the masturbation session without sinning, what steps must I do to get rid of the tense feeling after an unfinished masturbation session, especially before sleeping? If I leave a session unfinished, it will play on my mind, leaving it in a slightly aroused state for a long time, without the feeling of sleepiness and eventual slowing down of heartbeat, etc. that comes with ejaculation. This prevents me from getting to sleep, which is a problem I struggle with, regardless of whether or not I’m masturbating.
Do you have any advice to help me improve?
Answer:
The difficulty is that when you are heavily aroused, the judgment centers of your brain get suppressed, so it becomes more difficult to control your thoughts.
Random thoughts are really nothing more than temptations. Satan can’t get us to sin without getting ideas into our heads. Being tempted is not a sin, even if that temptation causes a physical response in your body. Temptation turns into lust when you keep dwelling on the ideas and start justifying the sin in your mind — telling yourself excuses that sin would be all right in some situations. What you are doing is correct. When the temptation comes, you reject the thought and then focus on something different. Once you believe you have better control of your thinking you can continue to relieve yourself.
Likely it will be a frequent battle, but it is worth the effort.