Derek shares a meaningful verse for today’s #ScriptureSaturday …

Before becoming a Christian some years ago now, I guess like many people today I had no real concept of God, church, sin or salvation and I had never had a bible let alone read one and only knew the Lord’s Prayer through school assemblies.

When I first heard the gospel message that Jesus was God and died for my sins so that I could be put right with God the Father, and that He rose again and lives today in the lives of those who trust Him and put their faith in Him, it changed my life. It was like turning on a light in a darkened room.

But I needed to get to know this God of the bible, so when my wife Joy bought me my first bible I read it all from beginning to end. I didn’t understand a lot of it yet it began over a period of time to speak to me in new ways. Many aspects of my life changed such as my attitudes towards life, others and myself. God made me look beneath the surface of my life at the real me.
     

But one particular verse spoke to me like no other and remains a scripture that will always remain highly significant in my life as important now as it was when I first read it all those years ago. It was Matthew 6 v 24 (RSV)

²⁴ “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. You cannot serve God and mammon. 

I realised almost immediately after reading this verse that God wanted me to follow and serve Him from now on and to stop following the worlds’ ways which I had been doing quite happily. God was telling me I needed to give up certain things in my life and to sort out areas in my  life that could prevent me from following Him in the way I should.

He highlighted one area in particular which was that I was addicted to smoking. I started smoking at ten years of age and at this time forty a day was average. The words of Matthew seemed to be telling me if I was addicted to tobacco then it had mastery over me and I couldn’t have two masters. I prayed, I mean really prayed for the first time for God’s help in stopping and after a few months I did and the amazing thing was that since that time I have never yearned for a cigarette and I have felt completely healed.

All of us have things in our lives that hamper our relationship with God. Yours might not be smoking but other things in your life may well be stopping you from having a more closer relationship with God than perhaps you have now. Like the apostle Paul we do things we shouldn’t and don’t do things we should. The world loves to distract us from our walk with God but we need always to remember we can only serve one master properly.

So let’s always endeavour to continually stay close to God, keep our eyes focused on Jesus and say with the assurance of Joshua ‘As for me and my household we will serve the Lord’