January 5: Have You Put the gods Away?
“Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.” Joshua 24:14 (KJV). Putting the gods in our lives away is a daily affair. The background from which we were saved by Jesus Christ keeps fighting against us. Again, the foundation of our father’s and mother’s houses have provided the mold with which our lives should be shaped. It is a strategy of the devil to use our past, our background, and family foundations against us with the hope of entangling us with sin and breaching our intimate relationship with God.
It is not surprising that some of the Israelites, after Egypt, went back into idolatry and that Joshua, their leader, gave a call for sanctification. Consequently, some of them managed to put away their gods and made a covenant with Joshua to stay away from other gods before departing into their inheritance, the land of Canan, their promised land (Joshua 24:25–28).
A god is an idol. Anything that stands between you and the true God, the Father of Jesus Christ and the maker of everything visible and invisible. His name; Jehovah (The I Am that I Am). An idol, a false god will certainly prevent you from serving God in sincerity and in truth. It will pollute your spirit and corrupt your soul and make you worthless before God. You must do away with it because, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Mammon refers to money, greed for wealth, power, position, connections political, social or business. It may also include a “common” thing like cell phone, social media, television, videos, movies, a habit, a job, the Internet, certain people including friends, family or family member(s). Anything that robs you of your love for God is worthless. (Matthew 10:37KJV): “ He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Let your devotion to God be paramount in prayer, meditating on the Word of God, worshiping, fellowshipping, and the like. Matthew 10:38 (KJV) states, “ And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” Denying yourself of these, so called luxury and “living large” is the cross we owe ourselves to take up and follow Christ’s example in order to count ourselves the followers of Jesus Christ. Note: The above list of gods is not exhaustive. Selling your soul to Satan and worshiping him in any form whatsoever is also serving a lesser God. Where do you stand and have you put away those gods? God will continually bless you when you put Him first and serve Him sincerely and truthfully. You’ll be an overcomer and an intercessor for the sake of Christ, your Lord and Savior.
Let’s pray: Again, today please pray with me:For God to protect and preserve the CHURCH, Jesus’ Bride on this earth. Pray for God to reveal wrong teachings and for discernment to understand the truth. And for God to deal with wrong prophets and those who have added to His Word and or subtracted from His Word to mislead followers. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Today’s reading: Genesis 10-12; Matthew 4
It's Hard to Serve Two Masters Successfully.