Matthew 6 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
I remember when I announced to my small world that the Lord was speaking to me about becoming a nurse and had given me a heart for Israel. It was like a had grown a second head. That was almost ten years ago and the Lord still confirms that in my heart. He is, after all, a God who does not change and I am a nurse with a heart for Israel so maybe I do not change too much either. But I must tell you that something unexpected is happening to me. I have grown to despise being a nurse.
My plan initially, and I felt such a strong urging from the Lord in this matter, was to finish nursing school, work as a nurse for a year, travel as a nurse for a year and then either join the International Red Cross or something along that line and I felt sure that the Lord would provide an avenue for me in Israel. An initially that plan worked.
I did well in nursing school and have done well as a nurse. I put in my year and I traveled for a year and then last year I took my first trip for mission type work to Jerusalem. And since that time my work as a nurse has began to lose its lustre to me. I find it tedious and a little frightening, monotonous and unfulfilling. An ever growing source of irritation and every day the thought grows in me that I have taken a gift from the Lord and used it for my own personal benefit. I feel like Ananias.
You remember Ananias, don't you? He sold a piece of property and kept back some of the money of that sale for himself and then he, along with his wife Sapphira, brought the rest of the money to the church while claiming that they were giving it all to the Lord.
This has been a hard concept for me. I believe that people should earn a living, be a responsible member of society and that you can share your faith and show the love of Christ to others in almost any profession and certainly in nursing. I have committed no real sin in my career and there have been many times that I felt that the Lord was pleased with my work and that I had made a real difference in someone's life by being their nurse. So....what?
I believe it may be this...nursing was given to me, for a time at least, for service to the Lord and not for money alone and that I am abusing the trust that was given to me by Him and for Him. And because of that it has become a master in my life. It has become sin to me. Not the act of nursing, which I still love, but the fact that I am earning a living as a nurse and giving none of it back to the Lord for service.
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Nursing is a fine and noble career no doubt and just as there is nothing wrong with selling a home and keeping the money for yourself there is nothing wrong with working for your living as long as you are not lying about who you are and what you are doing and who and what you are doing it for.
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