Idols, Addiction, & God

You could be a middle class white man addicted to alcohol and food. You could be a black man addicted to drugs and women. You could be a rich Asian woman addicted to prescription pills and ‘likes’ on social media. You could be a teenage kid addicted to perfect grades and perfect hair. You could be a newlywed wife who longs only for her husband and nothing else. You could be a dad who’s cell phone might as well be glued to his hands and eyes. Addictions are idols. And often addictions are disguised as good things. We see the homeless druggie so differently than the rich Wall Street banker who’s nearly abandoned everything and everyone for money, career success, and notoriety. But they are exactly the same. They’ve created an idol where God should be. God’s first commandment is, “You must have no other gods before Me.” ...and that’s exactly what idols are, they’re gods.

I had countless gods. Of course I’d never call them that because I’d always believed in Jesus, aways trusted Him as savior for my sins, but I never gave Him Lordship over my life... And if I had died I’d hear the same thing Jesus said in Matthew 7:23. That many people will expect to get into heaven but He will say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” It’s true that I felt guilty for bad things I did but it was usually because it hurt me or people I loved (which really, ultimately, came back to hurting me). I wasn’t grieving over the pain I caused Christ when I sinned. I’d turn to Him for help and escape as relief. But I wasn’t submitting my life to Him, I was asking him to add on to mine. The Lord wasn’t my God, He was one of my gods. It wasn’t until my salvation that I layed down my love of this world and began to really love the sacrifice of self in exchange for the gain of Christ. Now, He who began this work in me at salvation has continued it and will complete it. He is alive in me and will not bring false witness to His name. So, I can surly trust I am in good hands, the hands of my redeemer.
​I pray for you: Turn from your sins. Throw away your idols. Christ is sufficient and all together worthy.

Idols fail.
God overcomes.


-Vanessa