Good Morning Everyone
Today is Monday November 14, 2011
The word of the day comes from Joshua 24:15 KJV
15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
My Interpretation
This is a very bold statement by Joshua. The more I have looked at this scripture recently, the more I see two things: One, our allegiance to the Lord needs to be solidified once and for all. Take marriage vows for instance. At the altar when I say I do, I am pledging my allegiance to Christen from now until the Lord takes me. I am publicly showcasing my affection for the woman that inwardly I have fallen in love with. At that moment, it doesn’t matter anything about what my parents did or didn’t do, what her parents did or didn’t do, etc. That moment is a defining moment in our lives, in my life. I had to say that regardless what external evidence I have of otherwise, I can’t get caught up in that. I am declaring before the Lord at His altar that my marriage will work because I love Christen but more importantly, I love and am putting my trust in God to keep our marriage. Now Christen and I are 5 (five) years in marriage next month, and the pledging hasn’t and can’t stopped. The first pledge I made was to solidify where I stood in regards to Christen and marriage as a whole. You could say this was my initiation pledge.
Now comes the other (hard) part. Two, there has to be a daily solidifying of what I already made a covenant with. Meaning everyday I have to decide to honor the words in which I said to love my wife in sickness and in health, to protect, to hold, to be my only woman (not just wife), till death do us. This has to be something that I do daily. Does that make sense? Why you ask because everyday I am presented with decisions whether I want to or choose to stand by the covenant choice I made to be her husband and her as my wife.
The very first time that you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are declaring that you will serve the Lord. Now that was the easy part. The part that gets many of us tripped up is a daily declaration that today we will choose the Lord. Why? Because daily we make decisions whether good or bad that show at that minute where our allegiance lies. When we are tempted, choose you this day…when you are angry, choose you this day…when you have been hurt and don’t want to forgive, choose you this day, when you know you need to get your body in shape, choose you this day…when you want to take a longer lunch or leave early, choose you this day…when others are gossiping or the internet shows some celebrity scandal, choose you this day…etc.
I really believe that in this text there are 2 choices: the overall (initiation choice) and the daily choice. If you read the entire 24 chapter, it starts with Joshua reminding the people of all that God had done for them prior to the 15th verse. If we look at our lives, we can say that God has done a TREMENDOUS amount of things for us as well. But even in knowing that, we don’t always do what we should which is why it is so important to daily affirm with the Lord that you will choose Him. Not just for the Lord sake but for ours. To put in front of us and hold us accountable that today, I choose to serve God. Today I choose to be obedient. Being saved does not mean that automatically we will have it all together. Daily we have to choose to do what is right just like we can choose to do what is wrong.
If you started your day off wrong and are still breathing, then the Lord is allowing grace to prevail that you have time to get back right and continue your day choosing Him over self. So don’t procrastinate, let us choose Him now!
Have a wonderful, blessed, productive, stress free day!
Amen
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