Another Addiction

by David Gibson

Getting Hooked

It’s amazing how many different ways Satan has to enslave us: drugs, alcohol, tobacco, overeating, gambling, etc. Our adversary knows how to get us hooked and keep us hooked.

Satan has been entrapping even more with another highly addictive practice, using Internet pornography.

How many thought when they started where this would lead them? How many dreamed what a grip this would get on their minds? How many would have ever guessed what it would do to their marriages? Or, most important of all, what would it do to their relationship with God?

Realizing What It Does to Us

“It won’t hurt me.”
“I can handle it.”
“I can stop it anytime I want.”

But Paul cautions, “... let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (I Corinthians 10:12 NASB).

The writer of Hebrews warns us that we can be “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

Sin deceives us when we think we can indulge without consequence. But sin, when repeated, has a definite hardening effect on us. Our conscience can become so calloused by repeated indulgence that it becomes less and less sensitive, and we drift farther and farther away from our God who calls us to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:14-16; 2:9-11).

Taking Decisive Action

Jesus said, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And then He said, “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:28-29). While Jesus does not mean for us literally to pluck out our eyes, does He not mean we must take drastic action to save our souls?

Whatever it takes.