That second ‘master’ might not be money!

1 Chronicles 24–25; Micah 3; Luke 12; 1 Peter 5

I am pondering the future, comparing it to the past, to interests and opportunities, to choices that I could make. I’ve an art history that once put food on the table. I’ve written hundreds of articles with some published. Now I make quilts, mostly to give to those who need them. I’m still drawn to all three activities yet trying to focus rather than bounce all over.

Today’s devotional readings did not give me an answer to the question of focus, of what I do with what is left with my life. I want to obey God, but by doing what? The computer Bible program I use includes many devotional books. I checked them out. The one that startled me began with this truth:

No servant 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. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13)

“No one can serve two masters, Jesus says. And yet this is the very thing that everybody is trying to do.”

For the past three weeks, our Bible study group has discussed idolatry. The above verse reminds me that not all idols are related to money and wealth. They can be anything that keeps me from trusting God or becomes more important than Him in my daily life.

During our study time, I shared how I’d earned money from art and used it to support missions, but eventually it consumed me — becoming an idol. When God spoke to my heart about this, I dropped it and never went back. Yet each time I walk the aisles of stores that sell art supplies, my heart feels a strong tugging. I’ve even shed tears. I don’t know if this is an idol calling me back or God telling me to pick up my brushes again.

I’m not writing as much anymore, but not for the same reasons. The writing part is great, but the business part of writing is so filled with worldly attitudes that it puts me off. All I hear is that authors are supposed to ‘self-promote’ and do a host of other things to get their work out there and in demand. God tells me:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

All that said, the devotional reading I found this morning comments on how people try to serve two masters. On one hand, they want a God who will “save them when the hour of need comes” which he calls a “minimum of religion which they seldom reveal to others, but which is the haven of refuge to which they always (go to) when the storms of life are let loose upon them or the earnest warnings of conscience threaten their poise of mind.”

He’s talking about unsaved folks, but Christians do it too. We might reserve God for all the things we cannot handle by ourselves but run to Him when trouble comes. Fallen humanity can have that temporary faith, yet I can be like that too. My selfish old nature can think of this world as “a great, varied place of amusement where we can go from one form of diversion to another as we become bored in turn of the various types of entertainment” and yet “at the same time want a return ticket.”

He goes on, hitting me where I am at an age where I sense I must choose what I should do with myself for the rest of my life. He writes: “For the day will come when we will have passed by all the amusement centers. And, worst of all, when the capacity to enjoy pleasure is gone, when body and soul are a burden to ourselves and other . . . this is when we want to have a God in reserve.”

APPLY: This is a warning to me. The will of God is not about what I want to do either to amuse myself, pass the time, or even be faithful to the skills He has given me. Don’t make an idol of anything. Instead, refuse the world’s ideas of how to live out my years. Let God renew my mind so I can discern what He desires for me and from me. And it might not be anything I think of doing. I’m to delight in Him and He will control my I-wants. As His Word says: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4)