Being Young & Staying Pure

So we often hear purity associated with being a Christian, but what is purity? Purity is the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc. It can also be defined as cleanness, spotlessness, freedom from foreign or inappropriate elements. Purity in the spiritual sense is a commitment to godliness in every area of your life; purity is being free and cleansed from pollutants that aren't pleasing to God. Purity is the absence of any foreign element, anything that as a Christian doesn't belong inside of you. When I talk about purity, I’m talking about purity of heart, mind, and body. I read something somewhere that basically said you can physically be a virgin, but that doesn't mean you’re pure. Y’all should have seen my face lol, but that statement is so true, purity goes far beyond physicality, it goes to your heart and your mind as well. Now if you aren't physically a virgin, that’s fine. You can still practice a life of abstinence and purity. You have not been ruined. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” (II Corinthians 5:17).

Now, many of us have prayed and asked God to purify us and clean us up because we knew we were a hot mess. I’m sure most of us have prayed Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” And God heard us and did it for us because it’s not something we can do ourselves, but now that He’s done it, how do we stay pure especially when we’re young?!? There are so many things in this world pulling for our attention and trying to pull us away from God. Ungodliness and sin are everywhere! It’s in books, magazines, the internet, television, movies, etc. Satan always paints sin in such a beautiful light. He knows how to attract and draw us in. How are we supposed to resist and remain pure?!? I mean is it even possible in this day and age?!? YES, IT IS! God revealed to me nine points on how to be young and stay pure…

The first thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is to realize you cannot stay pure alone, you need God. Many times we fail at remaining pure because we try to go at it alone. John 15:5 says, “Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” This tells us that if we truly desire to remain pure, we need to remain connected to God, if you don’t you are destined to fail. You need to be praying, talking to God, spending time in the Word, getting into His presence, praising and worshiping Him, just keeping connection going. It’s through that connection that anything can happen, even something deemed impossible by man. Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing is impossible with God.” And Philippians 4:13 tells us, “For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” That connection between you and God will give you strength, the strength to do something that you could never do by yourself. Remain connected to God and He will help you to stay pure.

The next thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is recognize who you belong to. “…You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body,” (I Corinthians 6:19-20). God bought you back from death, hell and the grave when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins. God snatched you back from the death grip that Satan and sin had on you. Because of all of this YOU BELONG TO THE MOST HIGH GOD, YOU ARE NOT FOR SALE! You don’t belong to a man, a woman, Satan, yourself, etc! You belong to God! Refuse to sell yourself back to stuff that God already paid and bought you back from! Refuse to allow yourself to be pimped! And make up in your mind to honor God, with your body realizing that you belong to God and pray and ask that he would help you to achieve this.

Another thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is to renew your mind daily. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect,” (Romans 12:2). Now, I’m just gonna throw this in for free. God showed this to me while I was typing this blog…Stop looking at the world, thinking it will show you how to be pure. It won’t. You better open your bible and look to God. And stop looking up to men and women of this world, celebrities, singers, rappers, actors, and actresses that aren't striving for purity. If they aren't striving to please God why are you striving to emulate them?!? Find yourself some godly men and women of standard that are striving for purity in every area of their life and look up to them. And if you want to emulate someone, there’s no one better to emulate than Christ. Ok tangent over, back to Romans. To remain pure, you need to pray and ask God to renew your mind daily. If we aren't’t careful our thoughts can go a lil cray cray and run away from us. We have to pray and ask God to focus and fix our minds on those things that are pleasing to Him. Pray Philippians 4:8 over yourself. Ask God to fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.

The next thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is to be on guard. I can’t tell you how many times just this year I've heard, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life,” (Proverbs 4:23). Now you may ask, Mariah how can I be on guard? I’m so glad you asked lol. First, you need to know what the gates are to your heart. The gates to your heart are your eyes and your ears. Be careful what you allow yourself to watch and listen to. Early on in my walk with God I thought I could listen to any type of music that I wanted to and it wouldn't affect me. I’m gonna be real honest and say I used to jam out to Trey Songz, I loved that man. I wanted my future husband to look like him. Now anybody that’s ever heard and song by Trey Trey knows that his songs are all about sex. And I used to rock out to Nicki Minaj; I loved me some T.I., if my song, Whatever You Like came on, you best believe I was rappin every word. My best friend, Angel can tell you about that lol. But don’t be deceived like I was, what you let in your gates plant seeds, the music you listen to plant seeds, the shows you watch on TV plant seeds. So what’s growing in your heart as a result of what you’ve allowed into your gates?!? #heartcheck #seedcheck I was sitting around wondering why I had lust in my heart and all these impure thoughts roaming in my head and why I’m desperate for a man and then God’s like maybe it’s because you are sitting around listening to this dude Trey Songz talking about how he invented sex and how the neighbors know his name!!! Don’t be so naïve like I was to think that what you allow in doesn’t affect you. God just showed me this while I was typing…if you let any and everything into your ear and eye gates it can and will eventually desensitize you to sin and impurities. If you’re just letting yourself listen to certain music and watch certain shows it will desensitize you to sin. You’ll be wondering why you can’t be faithful in your walk to Christ, perhaps it’s partially due to the fact that all you watch is shows that encourage and glorify unfaithfulness in relationships. I urge you to guard those gates! Stop listening to everything and allowing yourself to watch anything, whether you realize it or not what you allow in is affecting you it’s either helping you to stay pure or causing you to struggle to stay pure, its either further purifying you or its contaminating you.

The next thing you need to do so you can be young and stay pure is get full of the Word and not only that but keep the Word. The one thing you need to be continuously letting inside of you is the Word of God. Hide His Word in your heart that you might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). Make God’s Word a part of you. Read the Word, study it, meditate on it, and live by the Word by obeying it (Psalm 119:9, “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word”). When the Word is inside of you, when it’s a part of you, it’s hard for you to go against it, you get convicted when you go against it or think about going against it and that’s a good thing. When you're full of the Word you will reject those things that are contrary to the Word.When you get full of the Word, you plant seeds, good seeds that help in keeping you pure. If you desire to remain pure and please the Lord, get full of the Word, let it permeate every part of you and obey His commands.

Another thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is to make sure you’re rockin with iron. I Corinthians 15:33 says, “…bad company corrupts good character.” So who are you rockin with?!? It’s time to do a friend check. I’m not telling you to drop your friends that ain’t rockin with Jesus because you may be the only light in their life, but the closest people to you, your best friends need to have a relationship with God. The individuals you spend the most time with have the greatest influence on you and you take on their characteristics. You need people in your circle that are also striving for purity, people that spur you on in this race and push you to Christ, not people that cause you to backtrack and backslide! You need friends that are iron to your iron, friends that sharpen you (Proverbs 27:17). Friends that encourage you so say no to randoms, not to give away your cookies, but to wait on God’s best. You need friends that hold you accountable and desire to see you grow and mature and continue on in your relationship with God. Realize that if your friends aren’t sharpening you, they are causing you to dull…Make sure you got some iron in your friend circle.

The next thing you need to do in order to be young and stay pure is die to yourself daily. You’ve got to kill your flesh daily. You’ve got to shut it down! Your flesh is inclined to sin, you’ve got to starve it and feed your spirit man. Indulge your flesh and you will find that uncleanness begins to creep in. Die to yourself.

Another thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is wise up. Many of us have wondered why should I wait to have sex?!? We feel like we’re missing out on something, sometimes if we’re honest we’ve felt like God is trying to deny us something good in instructing us to wait until we’re married to have sex. It’s time to wise up and stop being deceived. Satan wants us to believe that God is denying us something good, he wants us to be deceived that’s how he got Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:1-6). Don’t be deceived. God is not denying you something good, He’s protecting you and providing you with something better. God knows what sex outside of marriage brings. He’s trying to protect you from the emotional, spiritual, and physical ramifications of having sex with men/women that aren’t your husband or wife. He’s trying to protect you from the heartache, the rejection, the soul ties, the unwanted pregnancies, the STDs, etc. God knows that sex doesn’t work outside of what He created for, He created it for married couples. Don’t awaken love before its time. God is not denying you, He’s providing you with something better. It will be so much more beautiful, if you wait. If you didn’t wait, that’s ok, you can begin a life of abstinence right now if you haven’t already. Wait on God’s best for you and know that it will be so beautiful.

The last thing you need to do so that you can remain pure while being young is to resist temptation…sometimes you gotta run from it. You can’t live on this earth and not be tempted, even Jesus was tempted. Satan wants to trip you up so you fall. Resist the temptation the devil throws your way. In order to resist you need the Word on the inside of you. Also be smart enough to realize there are some things you can’t resist, you simply have to run from them like Joseph did from Potiphar’s wife. Also realize that the devil ain’t no dummy, he knows exactly what to send your way to tempt you. Don’t you know the devil knows your type, he knows exactly the guy or girl that will catch your attention and tempt you ditch purity. You better believe the devil will send Michael Ealy/Beyonce’s twin to tempt you into sexual impurity. But resist that temptation and run if necessary, God always provides a means of escape.

With God it’s possible to be young and stay pure. There might be times when you slip up, but get back up and keep striving for purity. Nobody is perfect, I’m not perfect. If you mess up don’t be so hard on yourself, don’t beat yourself up, forgive yourself, God forgives you and He just wants you to come back to Him. Striving for purity isn’t just not having sex until you’re married, its ultimately desiring to please God more than yourself, it’s a commitment to godliness in every area in your life your heart, your mind, and your body. Know that I’m praying for you as you strive to stay pure. I love you all so much!!!

Mariah