Whom Will You Serve?

How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.
–1 Kings 18:21

What does it mean to hold up the shield of faith? It means to believe that God will do what He has promised to do, and then to act accordingly. Faith allows us to move forward in God’s plan for our lives in spite of Satan’s attacks against us. In the story of Job, we find three truths that we must believe and act upon in order to keep walking with confidence. One: God is in control; therefore, trust Him. Two: God rewards the righteous; therefore, obey Him. Third, God’s kingdom will prevail; therefore, serve Him. As Job sat on the ash heap and cataloged all of his losses, he started asking himself, “Am I really on the right side in this deal?” But he cried out in faith in Job 19:25-26: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God.” In spite of the losses he had incurred, Job believed that Christ was coming back one day to establish His eternal kingdom on the earth. Job was saying, “I want to be on the side that is going to prevail for all eternity, so I am going to serve God.” You have to make that same choice. Are you going to serve the kingdom of God, or are you going to serve the kingdom of Satan and the things of this world? It is one or the other; it cannot be both. There is no room for neutrality in this battle.

Elijah said the same thing to the Israelites on Mount Carmel. The Israelites could not make up their minds between worshiping God or Baal, so Elijah told them, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). That word “hesitate” has a vivid connotation in Hebrew. It pictures a bird that cannot make up its mind which branch it wants to alight on, so it just keeps flitting back and forth. But eventually that bird has to land. Elijah was saying, “How long are you going to keep flitting between these two opinions about God? Make up your mind about who you are going to serve, but do not try to serve both.”

As Christians, it is time for us to quit hesitating and make up our minds about who and what we are going to serve. If money is going to be the center of your affection, go ahead and serve money with all of your heart. Do not try to serve both money and God. If your career is your god, quit wasting time on your church and your family, and serve your career with all of your heart. If pleasure is your god, go ahead and live the kind of life you really want to live. Quit coming to church when you would rather be out on the golf course. Go where you want to go and do what you want to do. But if God is truly God, then serve Him with all of your heart, believing that one day His kingdom will be the one that prevails.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Storming The Gates Of Hell” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org