WHICH MASTER DO YOU SERVE?

Straddling a fence must be uncomfortable after a time. Yet many of us tend to do just that, without thought of the consequence. Will we fall? Become injured? Lose our balance? God tells us not to be fence-straddlers, but to decide whether He will be our Master, or someone/something else. Let’s make up our minds!

ETERNAL PERSPECTIVES        by Sally Bair

A divided mind

Should I water the garden or wait for the predicted rain to do the job? Read my book or write that letter of apology? Clean the house or go shopping? Every day, we’re faced with conflicting choices—this or that, now or then, less or more.

One choice we should always make is to follow Christ as Savior and Lord of our life. Too many of us can’t seem to decide how closely to follow Him. When we allow other things to take first place, we find ourselves straddling the fence of faith.

 Jesus would have us focus on Him only. Surrounded as we are with so many temptations, our focus can easily slip into doubts, especially about His truth. Is He really able to solve our problems? Can we count on His promise to never forsake us? To forgive all our sins? To love us through every situation?

Doubt comes quickly when we’re focused on our problems rather than on Him. God would rather have us embrace our trials. As James says: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:2-8)

The word double-minded means “two souls.” When one part of us is set on God and the other set on worldly pursuits, the result will be constant conflict and loss of joy and peace.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

We do well to ask ourselves daily which master we serve: God, who is faithful and loving, or “man,” who is finite and undependable and without eternal substance.

Lord, thank You for Your faithfulness. Help us focus on You alone so we won’t be double-minded, unstable in faith, and tossed by life’s winds and waves. In Jesus’ name, amen.