Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer.

Psalm‬ ‭61‬:‭1

Doesn’t everyone cry out to God at some point?

When things really get rough, when things hit the fan and spray?

Isn’t this where even the unbeliever is willing to call out for some help, for some relief?

And this is exactly the cycle of ongoing addiction. We become tangled in binges or constant use that consumes our lives. Sometimes this is in the background, unknown to anyone but ourselves.

But even in the background, it burrows into us like a parasite. We emerge remorseful from time to time. We examine honestly the progression. When it is painful enough, we pray for relief, for deliverance.

But we don’t step out toward any solution. We continue into the throes of our disease. The eye of the storm is mistaken for salvation after our pleas with God, and we are rattled when it picks us back up.

The missing component has been our complete willingness to walk through the difficult process of sobering up. Our prayers have been centered around the removal of difficulty instead of the addition of spiritual principles that we might start living by.

Until we turn this corner to accept help, we continue to be beaten on the beachhead. We’ve run aground but refuse to let go of the anchor of our disease which now threatens to kill us.

God, deliver me and slap some sense into me while you’re at it.