It really comes down to one important question for every one of us: Who do we truly serve? This is not merely a theological question reserved for pastors, scholars, or Sunday morning discussion. It reaches directly into the hidden motivations of the heart and exposes what governs our decisions, consumes our attention, and receives the greatest portion of our emotional energy. For many of us who have struggled with addiction, codependency, fear, shame, guilt, resentment, or doubt, the honest answer is uncomfortable. We may have spent years organizing our lives around an addiction, compulsive behavior, unhealthy relationship, secret fear, or desperate need for approval.

There is a simple word that helps us confront this reality: dedication. It is a familiar word, but familiarity has stripped it of much of its sacred weight. We speak of dedicated employees, dedicated parents, dedicated athletes, dedicated volunteers, and dedicated recovery advocates. These uses are not necessarily wrong, but they can cause us to forget that dedication once carried the meaning of consecration—something or someone being set apart for God’s possession, service, worship, and glory.

A. W. Tozer recognized this spiritual loss when he wrote, “It is one of the ironies of modern life that after a word has been dropped from the Christian vocabulary because it no longer expresses any vital content in current church religion, it is often taken up by the world and made to mean not the same thing but something close to what it once meant in its original Christian usage.” Tozer was concerned that Christians had not merely lost a religious word. We had lost the sacred idea the word once represented. Dedication had become synonymous with enthusiasm, discipline, productivity, or commitment, while its deeper meaning of complete surrender to God had quietly disappeared.

This raises a more specific question: To whom—or to what—are we dedicated? One person may answer, “I am dedicated to my job.” Another may say, “I am dedicated to my family.” Someone else may be deeply committed to a church, ministry, fellowship, political cause, or community organization. Those of us in recovery may confidently declare, “I am dedicated to my recovery and sobriety.” Employment, family, fellowship, service, and recovery are all worthy responsibilities. Yet none of them can safely occupy the place that belongs to God alone.

Anchor Scripture: “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” —Matthew 6:24, NRSVUE

Jesus does not present divided loyalty as a difficult arrangement that requires better time management. He presents it as an impossibility. We may attempt to satisfy two masters, maintain two identities, or divide our allegiance between God and a ruling desire, but eventually one will receive our obedience while the other receives our excuses. The controlling master may be money, alcohol, drugs, sexual compulsion, resentment, approval, a relationship, religious performance, professional success, or the need to control every outcome. Whatever we cannot surrender has already begun competing with God for the throne of our hearts.