I absolutely hate to admit it, but I’m obsessed with the number of likes I get on Instagram.

Instagram offers virtual likes that I can use to assess my worth. Likewise, Twitter offers favorites and retweets that let me know just how clever or influential I really am, and Facebook now allows you to "react" to others' posts leading me to think, "If someone just 'liked' my picture rather than 'loved' it, was it really even that cute?" Every social media outlet provides stats on myself that I can view instantaneously—similar to the stats I view constantly on my Fitbit except much, much more detrimental and damaging.

Call it an obsession, call it a disease, call it the norm— whatever it is, it certainly isn’t a good thing nor is something that we should let control our lives. We let something as trivial as the click of a button, a virtual thumbs up or heart define us and our worth. The results of this curse are damaging, no matter if the results of our posts receive mostly positive or negative feedback.

For me, it was a habit that gave me worldly and temporary comfort or pain. When I should’ve been running to Jesus and His word in prayer and meditation to truly fill me up, I ran to Instagram to post a quick selfie.

This ugly routine of mine got me thinking about why I actually write in the first place. Why do I write for The Odyssey and for my blog? Originally, I convinced myself that it was to use social media as an outlet to spread His love, message, and grace to the world as well as to use my own talents and abilities to be a vessel and way to spread it. However, recently, I wasn’t so sure that that was my main focus and purpose anymore.

When deciding whether or not I should keep up with my writing, I went to the very passage that convinced me to start in the first place.

Romans 12:3-8 tells us, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a]faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

When I turned to this passage, I did so because I wanted to know what my gift actually was. Because I had no idea. I’d always been a follower, following the trends of my friends at the time and never truly having my own, “thing.”

Reading this passage and praying for God to show me the true desires of my heart and asking Him to, “take my life and let it be” is what led me to commit to writing. Since then, it’s been an incredible blessing, but I’m ashamed to admit that many times, I’ve turned it into being more about me than it is about Him.

As humans, it’s a natural inclination to desire “likes,” virtual and actual, from people in this world.

We desire for people to tell us our bodies look good when we’ve committed to a healthy lifestyle, we hunger for people to appreciate the quality lighting and angle of the photograph we had our friend take 23 times, and we have an overall hankering for the people we encounter to think we’re so happy, joyful, enjoying ourselves constantly, and are endlessly talented and successful.

Well, I have news for you.

This world and the people in it will never gratify our desires to feel, “worth it.” They will only leave us feeling emptier.

God is the only one who can truly fill our hearts and our minds with peace and true, lasting happiness. Everything else in this world will only leave us empty while God and His love is the only thing that can keep our tanks full.

This world and the people in it don’t define or decide your worth. Jesus does and did for you on the cross already.

As sinful and naive human beings, we will always desire affirmation from this world rather than turning to our Heavenly Father whose affirmation is the only type we will ever truly need. We continue to find that the affirmation we receive from others is fleeting and often times insincere.

Next time you find yourself craving assurance of your worth, rather than turning to social media outlets or the people of this world, think of how worth it you must be for God to send His one and only Son into this world to die for all your sins, and mine, forever and for all time. No worldly affirmation or compliment could ever even come close to comparing that absolute truth.

So, friends, whatever your gift is, use it. And be sure that you’re using it to His glory. When I begin to focus more on my article’s views than I care about its content, that’s when I need to take a step back and reevaluate what I’m doing.

Will I still be tempted by likes and face disappointment and unworthiness? You bet I will. But when I take those feelings of unworthiness and dejection and lay them at the foot of the cross, I realize that they were already taken care of and died for, once and for all. I am worthy in His sight and I want to live this life to please and honor Him.

Each day my prayer will be for Him to, “take my life and let it be” and to strengthen me against my own evil and selfish flesh and blood. Because only Jesus can heal and fix our broken lives and yes, even our abilities, and use them for His glory and His amazing plan.

When we use our gifts wholly, and make it less about Instagram likes, less about retweets and views, less about reactions on Facebook, and less about us, we use our utmost for His Highest, which is the very reason we are using our gifts anyway, to bring glory to His holy, magnificent name.