June 23 Thought for the day....whom do you serve?

Our culture is all about my rights, what I want, and who is going to take care of me? It is hard for us to fully understand the commitment God requires. God expects us to know Him as the one who loves us the most and our best friend but He is also Lord. Sometimes we take that friendship for granted or take advantage and find ourselves in trouble not really knowing why. James explains what happens (this is another tough one, but we must live in the truth)

You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.  James 4:4

We need to understand what friendship with the world is, which we will get to in a moment. What do James and the Holy Spirit mean by being God's enemy? What is being referenced here is a person who once was on fire for God but has been caught up by the world. In that context, the Holy Spirit is telling us that this person is finding themselves now at war with God. It literally means that God will be a hostile force against you, as an enemy on the opposite side of war.

What is this friendship referring to? Well, let's look at another scripture to understand better. Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to mammon." Mammon is the stuff of this world, money, pleasure, sports, leisure, pride, all of the things this world has to offer. Jesus is saying we serve these things. We think they serve us, but we end up exchanging our lives for them. Given over to them without God being our main priority, they rob us of our destiny and purpose and the potential lives we can impact for the Kingdom. The ironic thing is, if we serve God first we can gain all of these things plus fulfill our destiny and purpose. Friendship with the world is serving the world not making time for God, church, His Word or the things He has planned for us.

Sadly many will find themselves at war with God because they serve Him with lip service only and not whole-hearted. They rob themselves of an amazing future because they have willingly chosen to serve their flesh or mammon rather than God. How do I know this is happening in churches across America prayer time is few, people come to church when it is not an inconvenience rather than out of love. Statistics still show that the average person opens their Bible once per week and prays less than 2 minutes per day. The service goes to Mammon!

If this is you fall in love with the Lord again. Ask Him to show you how much He loves you and ask Him to help you love Him more. If you see it in others, gently awaken them to where they are and help them to get there by prayers, encouraging them in the Word, and simply helping them walk the walk!