Humans have an amazing ability to get addicted to just about anything—food, shopping, people-pleasing, and self-pleasing. The reason for our addictive appetites is that we were created for worship. Worship has a powerful impact on us in that we draw our identity, worth, and purpose from the object of our worship. Identity tells us who we are. Worth gives us our value. Purpose gives us a reason for waking up every morning. While we were created for worship, it was not intended for the many external things we fixate on. God intended that He would be the target of our worship because He created humanity to draw our identity, worth, and purpose from being loved by Him. God says we are His beloved children and that we are valuable because Jesus died for us. God says we have a purpose—to know Him and make Him known through our lives. This is the essence of worship.
If we don’t discover our identity, worth, and purpose in God through Jesus, we will find and worship a substitute god. Substitute gods promise freedom but only succeed in enslaving us. At the root of every addiction is idolatry—the futile effort of going to a substitute god to meet our needs. Instead of going to Jesus to meet our needs, we turn to shopping, sex, drugs, alcohol, food, or work to meet them.
*From chapter two of Limitless Life: You Are More Than Your Past When God Holds Your Future.
