The Choice is Yours

Joshua 24:15 - ...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...

Serving. We all serve in some manner or another on a day to day basis. At least we should be. It isn't all about us. It's not about that's not in my job description. It's about lending a hand when you recognize someone else is in need of assistance...no matter who it is. 

The serving mentioned above is of a deeper nature. It's referring to serving God. The first part of the scripture says this: And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD... I'm sure there are those who can't imagine this level of service. I'm not certain that even I fit all the requirements. This scripture is stating unequivocally we must set our devotion and allegiance to the one true God.

This is a difficult concept sometimes. Is anything we tend to consume ourselves with over God? Can we not find time for Him? Is He not that important? Is He someone we will look to if some awful thing comes upon us, but not build up our strength before that happens?

We must exercise our faith. That means looking to the Lord before we encounter difficulties. It takes time to realize our faith. We practice other things in life that we might be better at them. This is what God would have us do with Him that our faith would be strong. We must give up some of the things we enjoy to serve Him. How else will He strengthen us? How else will He give us understanding? He asks us to seek Him each day. He asks us to serve Him in everything we do.

Oswald Chambers made this comment in today's My Utmost for His Highest, When God gives us a vision of truth it is never a question of what He will do, but of what we will do.

Chambers reminds us that when we are faced with some struggle or some important decision and we are taken aback by it to look back at a time when He had already worked out a problem...remember what you did when you were touched by God before--the time when you were saved, or first saw Jesus, or realized some truth.

Recall those moments when facing the next big thing. Know that He is greater than any problem we have. Know that He knows our wants and desires...and He knows which ones are worthy of wanting and which need to go on the back burner or thrown out! Oh, His answers may not always be what we would like, but that's because He has some other greater plan...and all we can do is trust Him.

We have the freedom to make up our own minds...to make right or wrong choices. It's which choice is the right choice? I know people who hang on for a long time waiting for the right job, the one they know God would like them to take. Others wait until the right person comes along to marry. Others have to make the choice to trust God with their children and their children's goals for life...especially if their serving the Lord might take them into battle or the mission field.

We also have the freedom to be victims or victors. I've known people who could not (would not?) shake their life's circumstances because they were comfortable in receiving "whatever" from others. They lived as a victim instead of walking away from that mindset and into the victorious mind of Christ.

Oh, don't get me wrong. We all slip sometimes but the Holy Spirit will guide us back when He sees us struggling. This is God's love in action. He will never leave us nor forsake us. His Spirit stands along side us, as close to us as our shadow...if we know Jesus.

Time and again I have had to remind myself of the promises God has given me specifically. He has shown me by His Spirit what I am to hold close to my heart. I'm thankful for these specific promises. They ARE what I hold dear to my heart. They ARE my hope. His words to us are truth and they are, as 2Corinthians 1:20 shows us: For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

Do we serve the world and it's ideas of what is right or wrong? I see a lot of that happening. Look at the news. There is a world out there serving only themselves. There are people who are determined to annihilate those they deem unnecessary...and we as a country are among those people. These people may seem, some day, that they are winning the battle, but let me tell you, I know Who wins the final battle. And I'm thankful I follow the Victorious One.

Serving isn't as dreadful as it sounds. We all like to think we're self-made persons. I can remember a time when I bicycled...a lot. Sometimes I would bike for weeks at a time. And I would pride in myself that I traveled from Point A to Point B under my own power. That was before I knew Jesus. Today I would be thanking Him for giving me the strength to do this, for allowing me to see the world from a bicycle, for not letting the scenery zoom by without really seeing it, but living in the midst of it for hours at a time.

So...serving...following. We all should follow someone's lead. But that someone should be Someone. This Master is not like worldly masters. This is the master Master. He knows what we need before we ask. His ways are greater than ours. His plans for us are good. Everyone wants to be successful. Success comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ and serving Him.

We are told in Revelation 7:15: Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. Those who choose to serve God today will get through all the things life has laid before us, even in death. The reward above, to serve God day and night, may be contrary to what some think heaven will be like...and some might think if all I'm going to do in heaven is serve God...(various answers could be given here). We have no idea what serving God will be like. Psalm 84:10 says this: For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. A relationship with Jesus helps to understand this!

Taking the step to be in relationship daily with Jesus Christ gives us the truth. Our understanding comes when we begin to live in relationship with Him. Who can understand these things? Begin to serve Him and we will be given this assurance: Hebrews 9:14 - How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? He is our living God. He is the one Person worth serving, with the promises of greater things eternally. Who will you serve today?

Psalm 100:2-3 - Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.