One God, One Master

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24

The other day I was reading in the Old Testament where Hilkiah, a priest during the reign of Josiah, was assisting in the cleaning out of the temple and discovered a tome of great wealth. What he found buried under the material wealth of the king was the Book of the Law as given to the Israelite nation by Moses. This sacred book had been lost many years, just as Israel had been lost during that same time.

Stop and think about this scenario for one moment. The king Josiah had commissioned the workmen and the priests to clean out the temple. The wealth of the nation had become so great that it was literally stored in the house of God. As time had passed the people began to forget who it was that blessed them in the first place. As time had passed people began to stop looking to the Lord and began to look toward the riches. As a result the Book of the Law became buried and lost.

In our own lives we often find ourselves in a similar situation. When we are down on our luck and have hardly anything to offer the world, or at least that is what we tell ourselves, we begin to turn to God with a renewed fervency. As we pray, fast, and study harder we begin to see God move. Favor is poured onto us and there begins windfalls of blessings.

As this favor grows and our lives improve we begin this state of contentment. Our prayers become less frequent, our fasting turns into gluttony, and our study becomes short recollections of what we once read. In short we lose our sacred devotion to the riches we gained in the world.

Now honestly look at yourself. Are you currently or have you in the past ever-allowed God to be buried and hidden by the wealth of this world? I am certain that nearly everyone will honestly answer yes. It is just who we are. Admit it! Don’t deny yourself the healing of admitting your weakness.

If we continue on this path of honest reflection we see that it really makes sense. We need to fail at successfully serving God through our own doing, so that we may better understand what it means to serve God throughGod's doing. After all, if we could serve God and not need His intercession to keep us upright then what was the point of Jesus? Jesus is what allows us to continue to find our sacred devotion, our Book of the Law, under the wealth of this world. Without Him we would be eternally lost and buried by the world.

Jesus taught in the Book of Matthew that we couldn’t serve two masters. Many have taught that this was in reference to only money, but it can be for all things. Anything that gets in the way of the service of God can in some ways be your master, whether this is a mound of gold in the temple or an activity that takes time away from devotion.

We must do everything we can to serve God with our entire mind, all of our body, and all of our soul. It cannot be allowed for something to get in the way. Therefore I challenge you today to find that mound of gold in your heart that has buried the God in your life and set Him free. Watch what happens when the windows of Heaven open upon you. Just never lose focus, never lose God.