YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH, WHICH ONE DO YOU CHOOSE?

SCRIPTURE:
“No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and
love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 
You cannot serve both God and money. 
(Matthew 6:24)

MEDITATION:
Have you ever heard the phrase,
“When you try to please everyone, you please nobody”?
It makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
Since we have varied likes and dislikes, whenever you please one person,
there is a good chance that you will offend someone else.

This is probably the reason there are two major political parties.
One party is extremely liberal
and wants to give people enough to make them slaves to the government.
The other party is conservative with a desire to control spending
and keep the country from going into debt.
Obviously these two are diametrically opposed to each other.

The scriptures tell us we experience the same type of problem
whenever we try to serve two different masters.
Serving one is an action that does not align with the other.
If our focus is on money, then we have less time for God.

We see it all the time in our society, don’t we?
People who used to look forward to enjoying worship time with other believers,
suddenly attend sporadically, or drop out altogether. 
For some, it’s as if they hate going to church
after buying a new ski rig, a cabin, etc.

The time that was once dedicated to the Lord
is now being dominated by what their money provides for them.
A heart that was once close to God, has moved closer to his or her wallet.
People spend much more on luxuries and non-essentials
than they do on supporting charitable and religious institutions.

Money has caused some to discontinue their service to the Lord.
Today’s adage seems to be: “Get all you can, spend all you can,
borrow all you can, and give meagerly to God.”
This change in attitude doesn’t happen suddenly; it is a subtle transition.

A little less time or money for God, means a little more for me,
so I can buy what I want and spend time enjoying it.
Before we know it that ‘little less’ becomes a ‘big less’
and we wonder what happened to our relationship with the Lord.

When the scriptures tell us that we cannot serve God AND money,
we can be sure that one will steal our attention from the other.
It also means we have to decide where we will cast our allegiance.
According to God, we can have one or the other, but we can’t have both.
Making money is not the problem, the issue is how we allow the money
to control us, and steal the time and money that belongs to God.

ACTION:
Are you trying to serve two masters?
Have you lost the joy of spending time with the Lord?
Is anything taking the place of the time you used to spend with the Him?
Have you reduced the amount of money you contribute to His service?

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I don’t want anything to stand between You and me.
I don’t want to lose the relationship I had with You when You first saved
me. Make me aware of anything that has caused me to diminish my
dedication to You, so I can eliminate it and once again enjoy fellowshipping
with You and other believers (and contributing to Your ministry).”