Hooked
Theme of the week: Sin: Yes, We Have a Problem
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
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Key Bible Verse: Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don't let them control me. (Psalm 19:13) Dig Deeper: Psalm 19:7-14
Sin is addictive. It's like catching a whiff of Cinnabon at the mall. You think, I'm just going to walk by and see if they're as fresh as they smell. But as you get close, you're sucked right in like a fly to honey. I'll just get a couple of mini-bons … for the kids, you reason. I need to do it for the kids. But the sales staff smell your weakness; they up-sell you. Now you're loaded down with a dozen big ones … with extra frosting on the side.
You think about keeping a couple for the kids, but you've DVRed three episodes of America's Got Talent … so you just bury the empty box in the neighbor's trash can.
Addiction is crafty, confusing, compelling, powerful, and greedy. It reproduces and spreads like a cancer. You give it an inch; it wants a mile.
Satan is the lord of addictions. He relishes addiction because he knows it puts him in control. The writers of the Bible knew this, so they warn us with words like, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6:12, NIV).
—Palmer Chinchen in God Can't Sleep
My Response: What makes sin so addictive? How has the addictive nature of sin impacted my own life?
Thought to Apply: Consider that the Devil doesn't sleep, but seeks our ruin in a thousand ways.—St. Angela Merici (Italian religious leader)
Adapted from God Can't Sleep (David C. Cook, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2012 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Father, I know I'm a sinner saved and sustained by grace; when I'm tempted, remind me of sin's destructive power; give me an obedient heart that seeks what is right, good, and holy.
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