Killing the Addiction

The following quote comes from Counterfeit Gods:  The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters, by Tim Keller (p.93-4):

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The idol of success (or any other idol) cannot be just expelled (by will-power or determination), it must be replaced.  The human heart’s desire for a particular valuable object may be conquered, but its need to have some such object is unconquerable.  How can we break our heart’s fixation on doing “some great thing” in order to heal ourselves of our sense of inadequacy, in order to give our lives meaning?  Only when we see what Jesus, our great Suffering Servant, has done for us will we finally understand why God’s salvation does not require us to do “some great thing.”  We don’t have to do it, because Jesus has.  That’s why we can “just wash.”  Jesus did it all for us, and he loves us-that is how we know our existence is justified.  When we believe in what he accomplished for us with our minds, and when we are moved by what he did for us in our hearts, it begins to kill off the addiction, the need for success at all costs.