Serving Two Masters

No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or anything in which you trust and on which you rely). Luke 16:13 (Amplified Bible)

Dare to take this verse further than the love of money and it will change your life. Serving two masters is done anytime something or someone is in competition with God for our heart. It could be money and it could also be relationships, job status, financial security, success, bitterness, refusal to forgive, prolonged grief, or any other person or thing we view as necessary for our own survival. Just as our minds can only think of one thing at a time, our hearts can only embrace one thing at a time. It is God or ____________ and each of us would do well to identify what is in the blank. If nothing comes to mind, ask God to reveal it to you. He is an expert at showing us the things to which we are blind.

I have often said, God does not reveal truths to us about ourselves to shame or condemn us but rather to heal, restore, and free us. If I have a master other than God that I am holding to and serving, my freedom will only come as I acknowledge it and release it. Depending on the strength of its hold on me the process of letting go may involve a lot of time. I am learning that the quicker I deal with it the quicker the freedom will come.

It is not easy to release what depicts security and value to us. That which we treasure in our heart and view as necessary for our life will be the hardest to relinquish. But unless we are willing to release our grip, our hold will be on the wrong source. I speak as one who has known the full impact of having my “second” master be a person, an attitude, a passion, a position, an addiction, and a loss. Yet none of those things could or should be to me what God desires to be to me.

None could say, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” None could love me with an everlasting love. None could die for my sins and secure a place in Heaven for me. None could create me with a purpose and move Heaven and Earth to bring about that purpose. None but God. When it is He whom I serve, He whom I love, He whom I am devoted to, and He whom I stand by I am in the right place in my life. That is when there is true peace, joy, and delight in living.

Father, You offer me so much when You offer me Yourself. Help me to choose You above all others every minute of every day. Be my only Master. Amen.

Be Thou My Vision - David Arkenstone: Celtic Hymns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMttnek4868

Getting into God's Word and letting God's Word get into me one truth at a time.