Alrighty, this is going to sick for some of you reading this, but this is the ACTUAL meaning of the song. I know this from experience.

The writer of this song (don't know if ella is the writer or just the singer) is constantly haunted by demons. Not cute little Casper ghosts, but ghosts that touch her and torment her during the night. She goes to the river to pray, thinking that she'll be able to get rid of her past sins (the ones that opened her for demon possession or haunting in the first place, like sex or drinking or drugs just like the bars or dim motel rooms that video seems to put her) but it doesnt work because she's not getting rid of them the right way. We'll get to that.

Her friends had tried to help her, telling her not to become involved with the man, the drugs, knowing that within them is hiding the devil who's operating it all.

This isn't about the sad fate of two lovers. It's talking about an actual "evil" that "was coming through" the eyes of the man she was with, who was also possessed.

"These eyes sitting on the wall
They watch every move I make
Bright light living in the shade
Your cold heart makes my spirit shake"

Her home is full of demons who constantly watch her. They tell her to do horrible things, aka cold hearted, and they threaten to hurt her or ACTUALLY do hurt her if she doesn't obey. She is the "bright light" that is "living in the shade", because her potencial is so much more than what she's become. She's a daughter of god, but her light is dimming. She's in pain, emotionally, physivally, and spiritually.

"Each time that I think you're gone, I turn around and you're creeping in. And I let you under my skin. Guess I love living in the sin"

That's pretty self explanatory, but I'll break it down. Another one of the reasons her prayers aren't working is because she doesn't completely want to be free. She's in pain from her past and wants to be free but she enjoys, in small part, the feeling of demons inside her. She wants them gone, but at the same time she loves "living in the sin". She needs to "give up the ghosts" and become clean again. Truth is though, that if she only knew what happiness and true love was, she would "give up the ghost" in an instant and never look back.

"Oh you never told me True love was gonna hurt
True pain I don't deserve Truth is that I never learn" Satan has a very deceptive way of making us believe that good is bad and bad is good. The writer or ella was told, perhaps, that these demons love her, that they want to be with her, or that they'll make her more powerful. But it's a lie. True love doesn't act that way. She knows that inside, but she doesn't apply it to her life. She doesn't learn.

The commandments of God act as a shield against the power of the adversary. Many people look at them as barriers from "having fun" or "living life" when really EVERY.SINGLE.ONE is for YOUR happiness and progression. And if you choose the contrary; you are in his power.