ICS Daily Devotions
Identity and Value
Luke 16:13 (NKJV) “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
As Christians, it is important that we sort out our identity and values in life if we want to truly live for Christ, because it will be easier for us to make the right decisions and resist temptations that might cause us to compromise with the world.
What we value most will dictate our life and our lifestyle. We need to put God first in our life, then give our family priority over our work. If we value our job and what others think of us more than God, we will easily compromise, but if we have the right identity in Christ and value our relationship with God first, there will definitely be some non-negotiables in our lives.
Once the family nucleus begins to disintegrate, the rest will also crumble with it, and no amount of money will be able to restore it, and if your job robs you of your quiet time, Sunday worship, and fellowship with the saints, then you need to ask if that is a job that God really wants you to have.
If our security is in Christ, we will not fear losing our job. Someone might ask what if they lose their job by placing too much emphasis on their family. It is more important to live a balanced life and one that is blessed holistically anyway. Our job security should be founded in God alone, where we trust Him to provide.
The act of tithing is a form of worship as well as a paradigm shift to trust in God rather than in man. It helps to break our reliance on self and our job. It is easy to say that our trust and faith is in God, but action is a step of faith and an outward expression of an inward conviction.
The economy will change and company will restructure, but God never changes. We must come to a point of surrender because whoever is our master will dictate our lives, and we will not be able to live out the Christian life with its values and principles if money is our master.
Only if God is our source of provision and our master can we truly follow God and pursue godliness.
Sermon: Affluenza
