Let’s be real—we all struggle with idolatry. Money, power, pleasure—even love and family can take the throne of our lives. As Tim Keller clearly (and painfully) shows in his book Counterfeit Gods, our idols are often not inherently evil. They are good things that we’ve made God things. We can detect idols by analyzing what we fear and what we dream about.

One big idol many soldiers wrestle with is alcohol. And this often masks even deeper idols. Alcohol is not treated in Scripture as an evil in itself, but, like everything else, it can be put to evil use. Whether it’s alcohol or another idol, we must ask ourselves, “Am I treating this as a gift and giving glory to God? Or am I treating this as the giver and robbing glory from God?”

“Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17), meant to be enjoyed, not worshipped. Repent of your false worship and shallow joys. There is one gift worthy of worship—Jesus, the One who has saved us from our sins. The Giver became the gift. May we give Him all glory and praise!