“If it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship; …but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” - Joshua 24 vs 15.
We are solely responsible for our choices, and likewise we have to accept the consequences of our every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime. – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
We choose to do good or bad, we choose to go to work or not, we choose to make something of our lives or not, we choose to study for a degree, the type of degree or not, we choose to be happy or not, we choose to live above sin or not, we choose what we wear, how to colour our hair or not, we choose to marry or not; and all of these choices have consequences. Notwithstanding, at the end of the day it’s our choice. These choices we make do not come without their fair share of challenge; yes work is stressful, yes studying is strenuous, marriage is challenging, hair styling and dressing is costly, yes enough negative things happen to make us sad, depressed or even bitter but we don’t have to be mindless victims, we can choose to be purposeful victors.
One argues, why does such a good God allow such evil in the world. God did not choose evil, mankind did, the scripture in Romans 5 vs 19 says “and just as through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also through one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” Adam disobeyed and plunged us all into sin, Jesus Christ offered his sinless life on the Cross and provided us with salvation. We might not have been able to avoid being born sinners, but we sure can choose not to remain sinners. We can do so by choosing to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of our lives.
Joshua offered the people of Israel a choice, he told them that they would have to decide whether or not it pleases them to worship God, but he continued by stating his decision, he said “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. It’s easy to slip into quiet rebellion, going about life our own way, but the time always come when we will have to decide who or what will control us, in taking a definte stand Joshua was displaying spiritual strength and leadership, what will our choice be today? God is not going to by some magic or compelling force make us serve Him, It’s our choice, but remember our choice has consequences and we will have to live or die with these consequences.
Like Joshua, I choose God, what say you?
Author: Janet Morgan
