Choice. We all have it. God bestowed on us the right of choice since the very beginning of time. Choice is perhaps the greatest gift that God has entrusted with each of us. God gives us choice, hoping that we will make the right ones, but knows that realistically we often times fail to make choices that please God. It goes without saying, but choices affect us. Choices set our lives on certain paths; they propel us forward and hold us back. The choices that we make or that other people have made in our lives affect who and where we are today. Who and where we are is an accumulation of past choices. Joshua has made a choice to serve the Lord. In this passage, Joshua has gathered God’s people together. As he recounts all that God has done for them in the past, they remember the power of God that guided them in hard times. The Israelites knew a God that made ways out of not way, a God that opens closed doors, a God that delivers us out of difficult and trying situations. They recounted what God had done in the past and were reassured of God’s faithfulness.

This day. Remembering the past and recounting the path to the present, Joshua and the rest of Israel had to make a choice. They had just settled into the Promised Land, a land that God had promised Moses and the Israelites long ago. They had arrived and God’s promise to them had been fulfilled. This day was a day that they needed to make a choice: to serve their faithful God or to serve other gods. Just as the Israelites, we too make a choice to serve God or to serve other things as if they were gods. Each day we decide to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God or to live lives of conformity to the world around us that often times does not please God.

Serve the Lord. God desires a response of service. Serving God is the appropriate response to following God. Joshua is clear that he will serve the Lord. He has made the choice to serve God. God requires that we not be idle recipients of the gifts that God gives us, but that we response with an enthusiastic “Yes!” as Joshua does and commit ourselves to actively serving the Lord.

“Choose this day whom you will serve…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Each choice we make carries with it implications. Choice is a good thing; God gave it to us. When our choice to serve the Lord is our first priority, we please God. God is faithful; we see this over and over again in the Bible, in our lives, and in the lives of those around us. God is faithful and working in this world. When we make the decision to serve God, we are choosing to fully trust in God. This is the most important decision that we can ever make. The implications of this decision, that we make this day and everyday, will guide our tomorrows as we are assured of the faithfulness of God working in our lives and through all time.

Prayer: Lord, I choose this day to follow you. I want to serve you now. Guide me in my daily living so that my actions may be pleasing to you. Amen.

Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Leigh S. Martin