God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Loving God requires a loving God. We will be passionate for Him only so far as He is passionate for us. To love God as we were made to love Him requires an antecedent love in God for those whom He has made. He must take the initiative. He must reveal the depths and extent of His commitment to us and the delight in His heart for broken people. Only then will our slumbering and self-centered souls be aroused to seek Him with all our hearts and relish the revelation of Himself in the person of His Son, the man Christ Jesus.
Using the perspective of idolatry, addicts are blinded by their own desire. They refuse to see themselves as dependent on God. God’s glory and fame is not their goal. In their self-addiction or selfishness, they worship and bow down before false gods. Addicts have defected from the living God. Instead of worshipping in the temple of the Lord, they perform addictive rituals that give them more perceived power, pleasure, or identity. They see in their addiction a form of magic (Deut. 18:10-14). The promises of the idol, however, are lies. Any identity, power, or peace they bring is false and temporary. There are only two choices: putting your faith in a loving God and thus knowing freedom, or putting your faith in idols (Satan) and being enslaved. Curiously, our selfish pride prefers slavery.
