Addicted to...

O LORD, hear my prayer…come to my relief (Psalm 143:1).

A few years ago, a scientist did an experiment in which he made cocaine available to monkeys. They would pull a lever and the feeding tray would give them a hit of cocaine. Soon the monkeys got addicted to the coke. But then the scientist began to withhold the next fix. How many times do you think the average monkey would keep on pulling that lever, desperately looking for another dose of the drug? About 12,800 times! The monkeys would keep pulling that lever over and over—Gotta have it…gotta have it!

You and I are addicts too. We are addicts to sin. Some people are addicted to gossip—they spend hours on the phone trading stories about other people’s problems. Some are addicted to worry—they constantly obsess over every little detail and clutter their lives with lists. Some are addicted to drama—they cannot let a day go by without injecting unnecessary conflict into at least one relationship. Some are addicted to laziness—their days are little more than a string of excuses for putting things off. Some are addicted to shopping—their homes are either a show place where everything is always new, or else a bewildering museum of collectibles.

The life of a sinner is lived to the beat of Gotta have it…gotta have it…gotta have it! When we don’t get our fix of sin, we can’t concentrate on what we should be doing. Sin makes us little different from those monkeys addicted to cocaine, desperately pulling a lever to get another hit.

How can you break the habit? You can’t. An alcoholic is an alcoholic for life. But we can learn to live with our addiction and to find success wrestling with it. That possibility for a better life comes by giving our lives over to Jesus. He lived here on earth. He faced the same types of temptations that we do. Although He never succumbed to the enticement of evil, He understands how it gets its claws into us and He sympathizes with our addiction. Jesus lived the sin-free life that we cannot, and died in our place to end sin’s domination over our behavior. When we welcome Jesus into our lives, He shows us how to stay focused on behavior that is good and healthy, and strengthens us when our need for another fix of sin makes us weak in the knees. Jesus is with us 24/7, holding us accountable to stay clean and forgiving us when we cave in. No one is better a friend.