Can I be devoted to God and other things, too? Is that addiction?

Exodus 34:14“You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.”

Matthew 6:24“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

2 Timothy 2:3-4Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them.

2 Peter 2:19They [false teachers] promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.

Devotion and addiction are different, but devotion can lead to addiction. We can be devoted to family and friends and to helping other people. We can be devoted to any worthy cause. This shows we care. But devotion becomes addiction when it so completely absorbs us that God is no longer first in our lives. Spending time with God begins feeling like a chore because it feels like a distraction from our addiction.