Who We Will Serve

Some time ago, I was reading back through the story of Joshua. When the Israelites were finally settled in the land that God had promised them, Joshua gathered the community together and he retold the story of God’s providence, God’s deliverance up to that point. Joshua ends his speech by encouraging them to make a decision, to choose to serve the Lord.

This made me wonder, what does it mean to choose to serve the Lord? 

Maybe it really is the small everyday decisions that add up. Maybe it’s the small decisions that speak to who or what we are actually worshiping. Every day we do get to decide: 

Today: Am I going to make a choice to care – even when every fiber of my being says, “Why bother… You won’t make a difference”?

Am I going to make a choice to look for God’s presence even in people who make me really angry?

Am I going to make a choice to give generously; even when I’m afraid to do so?

Am I going to make a choice to give priority to the activities I believe make a difference to the world around me and within me?

Am I going to make a choice to notice that even the toughest, most draining moments of life are actually at the same time alive with the same Power that created the universe, the stars, and love and fellowship?

I hope so… And I hope you will too. 

Let us pray: We remember, O God, that Jesus said that he came that we might have life – and have it in abundance. Help us to keep you at the heart and center of our lives so that abundant life would be ours; through Jesus Christ. Amen.