#DailyDevotion As Thorogood Ask, “Who Do You Love?”

Matt. 6:24 ²⁴“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or be loyal to the one and despise the other. You can’t serve God and money.”

You ever wonder why the LORD has the Israelites perform all those sacrifices? Not necessarily the ones to atone for sins, but the thanksgiving sacrifices, the peace offerings, the tithes He orders them to give? And even with the sin offerings, why do they have to be the best of the flocks and the first fruits of the fields? I believe besides recognizing to whom you are giving them to, i.e. you’d want to give your best to God, He is wanting them to practice this principle Jesus is giving us here (yes, Jesus is also God).

That principle is you cannot serve two masters. The two masters Jesus is talking about is God and money (mammon, wealth). You may think at times you are just doing to earn what you need to live on or preparing for a rainy day or preparing for retirement, but are you? What priority does earning a living stand in your life? Does it require you to miss Church where God wants to give you His gifts? Did you even ask to have that time off (not all Sunday but the time it takes to go to Church)? Do you work avoiding Church when you could get off? Something you may want to ask yourself.

What about your offerings you give when you go to Church? How much do you give and why? Do you give to God first from your paycheck or what’s left over after you pay your bills and buy what you want to buy? Do you figure in you need to save up for retirement first and then give to the LORD? Do you worry about if you are going to have enough to live on during retirement? Do you cheerfully give to the LORD or begrudgingly? One set of answers says you love wealth/mammon/money and hate God and the one set of answers says the opposite.

When you see the poor, the widow, orphan or the stranger in need do you come up with excuses for not giving to them what you have knowing you have more than enough for the day? Does you wallet and purse become guarded when you see a beggar? Do you make sure your pastor lives as well as you do? Do you only ever give to your pastor and his family your hand-me-downs (which he always appreciates) and the frozen food you in your freezer which you are replacing with fresh food or do you ever buy him and his family new clothes and fresh meat to put in his freezer? The poor, widow, orphan, foreigner, beggar and pastor are the LORD’s designees to receive you sacrifices and offerings. The are the image and likeness to God to whom we worship the LORD. Again, one set of answers says we love God and hate money and one set says we love wealth and hate God.

Remember this, the Father sent His only-begotten Son into the world to be the perfect sacrifice for sin so you may be clean, washed and made pure and holy before him. Through Jesus’s perfect sacrifice you gain eternal life and the kingdom of God. The Father offers up Jesus because He loves you and places you first in His heart and mind. He does this freely because he wants you and does it cheerfully. If the Father so loves you should you not return His love in similar fashion? Who do you love and serve God or money?

Heavenly Father, grant us faith in the sacrifice of your Son Jesus Christ so we may offer everything we have cheerfully, from the heart to those whom you have designated as the receivers of your gifts and demonstrate our great love for you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.