^{This is from The Message paraphrase:}

^8-11Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. But now that you know the real God—or rather since God knows you—how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those paper tigers? For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years. I am afraid that all my hard work among you has gone up in a puff of smoke!  Galatians 4.8-11

Hello, my friends. . .

To what do you devote yourself?  If I asked you what you could not live without—what would you say?  Where does your time and money go?  These are all indicators of what you value in life, and possibly even indicate some gods you have in your life.  Paul was teaching men who had believed in false gods like Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; the Egyptians believed in Isis, goddess of fertility.  All of these were pagan gods and the people were in bondage to them.  People looked for things/ideas/belief systems to give them hope, purpose, and even identity; they still do today.  This is a God-given urge assigned to the created by the Creator.  “Our souls are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you,” St. Augustine so aptly said.

We want something to give us meaning, hope, purpose, so we search and search, and it doesn’t stop.