Jesus, help me understand that there are things that create regular, normal pleasure; and, there are things that create incredible pleasure. Help me see that normal pleasure doesn’t addict me; but, extreme pleasure takes control over my life. Heal me from the memory of the extreme pleasure; set me free from it dominating my thinking during my day. Give me the victory over the drives I experience to do it again; help me not be caused to think about how I am going to recreate the situation. Help me enjoy my normal day with its normal rewards; keep them from seeming insignificant to the extreme pleasure of addicting activities.

Jesus, teach me that there are things that help me succeed in life; and, there are things that dominate my life. There are things that reward me for being involved in life’s activities; and, there are things that reward me without me having to do anything to get the reward. Teach me that working to earn a living takes a lot of effort; but, knowing I did a good job gives me a mild type of pleasure. Getting drunk doesn’t take much work at all; but, it can give me a lot of pleasure. However, show me that it interferes with the normal activities of my life. It encourages me to not enjoy life and draws my attention to the moment when I can get drunk again.

Jesus, help me see that marriage takes a lot of work; but, when a couple really puts the right efforts into it, it can bring them a lifetime of reasonable, normal pleasure. Show me the problem in having sex previous to marriage (fornication) or outside of my marriage (adultery); help me see that they can give me extreme pleasure, but, without much commitment. Addictive pleasures don’t require much work and they don’t involve much relationship. Teach me that they allow me to get the pleasure I seek without building much of a relationship with a person. Help me see that it is through relationships that real happiness comes my way.

Jesus, show that married couples go through struggles, difficulties, and have to work on their relationship. They never get addicted to the marriage; instead, they grow in their love for each other. People who are just involved in sex get addicted to sex. They can leave one another, if they don’t meet their needs for sex and other aspects of pleasure. Help me see that they aren’t in love with the person; they are just using them to fulfill their addiction. It becomes a mechanical relationship where the person isn’t all that important; the experience is.

Jesus, show me the characteristics of getting drunk, having sinful sex, doing drugs, gambling, stealing, cheating people, lying to people, and all of those activities that help me get what I want at someone else’s expense. Show me that these activities never involve love or love relationships. Teach me that the people who are involved in these addictions will never know the pleasure that relationships provide. Help me see that these kinds of pleasure are pleasures that create loneliness, depression, emptiness, and dissatisfaction.

Jesus, help me see that my body enjoys experiencing pleasure; the more intense the pleasure, the more it likes it. Show me that my body will gravitate toward pleasure; it will think about it, remember the experiences that brought it, crave experiencing it again, and can become so addicted to it that it will even cause me pain if it doesn’t get it. Empower me to control my body’s desire for extreme pleasure so it can’t gravitate toward pleasure rather than relationships. Protect me from allowing my body to turn me into a selfish, self-centered, and ego-centric person. Teach me that people like that are like cancer; cancer grows at a rapid pace, spends all its time reproducing, but contributes nothing to me.

Jesus, help me see that whether cancer starts growing in the cells of my brain, my heart, or my kidneys, it never helps these organs function. It just takes what it needs to reproduce itself and destroys the human body in the process. Help me join God’s better plan for humans; rather than being selfish and just trying to meet my own needs without much regard for others, let me love them. Help me get involved in win/win situations. Help me not just care for my own wellbeing; help me see things from other people’s perspectives. Help me be willing to learn how to help those around me get similar benefits. Let God’s wisdom and love operate in my life. Let Your wisdom and love change me into a person who can come up with incredible ways for meeting my and other people’s needs.