Summary: <br> If you have a dog, you understand the importance of obedience. If you have a big dog that can launch you into a face plant, you really understand the importance of obedience.<br> Our yellow lab is appropriately named Tank. He’s 130 pounds of curiosity and ambition. He loves his mama because I sneak him table scraps, but he listens to his Daddy because Daddy disciplines him. He knows Daddy means business so the command to sit is met with a butt that drops to the floor. My command to sit is met with a look of “no thanks, I’m not interested.” Yes, he responds to me as if I’m an unwanted salesman.<br> A dog has one master, and I’m not it.<br> We are the same. We will be influenced by our master, that which powers over us. The question is, what is your master?<br> Matthew 6:24 says “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.<br> Can money be your master? Absolutely. But so can your work. So can the home you live in and the things you own. So can the opinion of others and your incessant need to impress or please. When something or someone is elevated as your master, it essentially owns you. It dictates your perception and your actions.<br> I’ve been owned by a career before. My full worth and identity was derived from the number of clients I had and the money I was making. It became all about the car I was driving, the clothes I was wearing and the house I was living in because a girl who’s trying to be successful must look successful. And in the process of trying to look so darn successful, I became quite miserable. My work was a cruel master and I was an exhausted slave.<br> If you can’t walk out of the door with a full face of makeup, the question is, who are you trying to impress? Stop and check yourself, because vanity can quickly become an imbalance of show and praise that leaves you dang empty on the inside trying to be someone you’re not.<br> Why would God warn us of this? Because he knows how dangerous it is to be ruled by something that does not love you. A master who does not care for you in return uses you up and walks away when your best is gone. Your money does not love you. Your job title does not love you. The likes on Facebook and follows on Instagram do not love you. It could all be gone tomorrow and then what?<br> But God promises he is the master that will never leave you nor forsake you. He is a constant steady. He is the one and only guaranteed continual in your life.<br> Money may come and go. Beauty is a pursuit that only gets harder with age and honey you ain’t getting any younger. Everything starts going South, literally. That house you so desperately love today will be going out of style in the not too distant future. Yes, remember when orange and brown linoleum was a thing? It went out, right? So will those wood floors you paid bookuu bucks for and you’ll be looking to cover them with the new trend of carpet. Oh my gosh, if green shag comes back in style it’s going to be a nightmare. I stayed at an airbnb recently that had a big green shag rug and sadly I must admit I liked it. It’s coming ya’ll! Remember how Grandma’s house was always dated and out of style … that’s going to be you with your shiplap walls and white cabinets.<br> If you put your value and worth in what you have, it’s always going to be threatened. Someone will always have newer, bigger and better and here you’ll be on the hamster wheel of happiness chasing after an ever moving target.<br> When God is your number one, your whole world can fall apart and you will still stand. You can be surround by chaos and calamity and remain grounded. It is God, when given the right position in your life, who will never let you down.
