Divided loyalty

In life and in grace it is very difficult to make real progress towards achieving set goals if one is not faithful and true in the heart. With the intent of enjoying “both worlds” people sometimes allow themselves to have divided loyalty. But divided loyalty is a recipe for sorrow and disaster in worship, marriage and family, choice of a life-partner and in employment and business.
In worship and allegiance    
The children of Israel suffered severely for provoking God to anger by their spiritual adultery.
Most of the times they were loyalists to Jehovah-God but at unexpected times they went whoring after strange gods like Baal and idols.
It is written of them in Judges 2:11,13 “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baal. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.” Their infidelity cost them dearly. Captivity, enslavement and toil were the price they paid for their divided allegiance. God would withhold His favour and blessings from them in their times of apostasy.
In Jesus’ day divided loyalty was a problem. People tried to serve God and mammon simultaneously. Judas continued walking with Christ but his passion for money led to his sorrowful fall.
In Luke 16:13 Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” When you stop using your wealth and money to serve God it becomes mammon. It s either you worship God with your gold or you worship your gold. Judas’ fateful end justified the wisdom of Jesus’ words of caution on divided loyalty.
Even today, most of us worshippers have double standards. We serve God during the day and serve Satan and his agents during the night. We sneak to witch doctors and fake prophets in the night to seek power to conceive and bear children as well as to gain business success.
When asked by admirers how we did it, we advise them to simply pray and God will bless.
 But I think we need to be wholly devoted to one deity as Elijah commanded, “If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him (I Kings 18:21). This prophet of fire knew that God was a consuming fire and a jealous God who tolerated neither neutrality nor double standards.
The Bible says that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro on all the earth looking for the one whose heart is perfect towards Him so that he can show Himself strong on his behalf.
A perfect heart towards God is a heart wholly surrendered to God. Showing Himself strong means God proves His ability and authority to help those who fully trust in Him. The question is never can God meet our needs but rather can we have “the single eye of faith” Jesus talked about? Double-mindedness is our problem. God says we receive nothing from Him if we are double-minded. It is easier for us to seek worldly help than to seek God’s because His requirements include righteousness, patience and faith. And these qualities are hard to get as they require us to be faithful and true to God first. 
In marriage and family 
It was for the happiness of the family that God, in His foreknowledge and wisdom, prescribed a monogamous marriage of one husband and one wife.
The moment a husband has his eye on another woman his heart is divided and happiness departs from his life and marriage.
On the other hand, a wife who always consults her mother to approve the decisions and instructions of her husband will soon be disjointed from the husband. Her divided loyalty in trying to meet the expectations of both her hubby and mum will cause her marriage to fall apart. When the Scripture teaches leaving your parents and cleaving to you spouse, it is referring to the issue of loyalty more than anything else.
In choice of life partner    
Nowadays it is common to hear of a bachelor or spinster pursuing two prospective mates at the same time. College students are the culprits of “parallel run”.
They need a suitor of their age at college to hang around with and a richer suitor working in town for financial support.
Whether it is for the reason of fear of losing a suitor or what it is uncertain. But what is certain is that divided loyalty divides everything including happiness in relationships.
 The best solution to this conflict of divided loyalty is to decide with finality what exactly you need and be faithful to that one thing.
Like David desire one thing only, to worship the true God only.
And that is integrity and purity of heart!
-For prayer and counselling please call 0772889766 or email mairos78@yahoo.co.uk