So every day, we all make choices. They can be simple, like deciding what’s for lunch, or life changing, like choosing a major. So often, I know I make choices without thinking about what I’m really doing. As a believer, I know I made a conscious choice to follow the Lord, but sometimes I don’t realize what that means. Lately, the Lord has been showing me what it looks like to actively choose Him.
It’s so easy for me to go about my life, be involved in my chapter, enjoy my friends and family and not have God as the center of my life because I’m too busy focusing on other things. Fail on my part. The good thing is, He is greater than my sin.
I love Joshua 24:15. It says: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” I’d heard it before, but that is something I definitely needed to be reminded of. A choice is a daily, conscious decision. I was super convicted when I realized that when I am putting off spending time with the Lord or not fully resting and relying on His grace, that is also an active choice that I make. Yeah, kind of a reality check, I know. He’s faithful and forgiving though and wants to redeem us.
As sinners, we are going to mess up. It’s a fact. Joshua tells the people in verse 19, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; He is a jealous God.” How about a pride check on that one, wow. As we choose to serve the Lord, He humbles us. I’m thankful to serve a God that is greater than me and wants my whole heart. We have to recognize our need for the Lord to make us His. We can aim to serve all we want. We can try our hardest to be successful at serving, but if we don’t see that we can’t do it alone, it’s all worthless. We are not able to serve the Lord on our own. The goodness is that He equips us to do His work as we work together for the Kingdom. We can’t do it, but with Christ in us, we can do all things.
So how? How do we make this active choice thing a reality? After the people in Joshua insist that they want to serve the Lord, Joshua tells them in verse 23: “Throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” The Lord calls us to choose Him, humble ourselves, and then be willing to throw away our idols and the things in life that push us away from Him. This requires sacrifice on our part, but in the end, it’s a much better trade. He is better and works for our good. Think about what the Lord might want you to get rid of in your life that is holding you back from choosing Him.
He then calls us to yield our hearts to Him. He asks us to surrender ourselves completely to Him. This can be so hard. I’m a planner. I have lots of goals, dreams, etc. I like being in control. Ask yourself: What areas of my life am I holding on to? Where am I not letting the Lord lead me? This is such a struggle for me. Yet, I have to remember that the Lord is for me, and He will never forsake me. Surrendering to Him is so worth it. He has my best in mind, and He loves me more than I can understand.
As we choose to serve the Lord, He humbles us to recognize that we can’t do it alone. He enables us to throw away and fight our idols and yield our lives to Him. In Joshua 24, the passage ends with a covenant, symbolized by a rock, to remind the people what they had committed to. I encourage y’all to make sure you have community established in your life. We cannot choose the Lord and serve Him alone. This is a journey that we are meant to walk together.
Walking with the Lord is a decision. Together, let’s actively choose the Lord by allowing him to humble us and shape us by throwing away our idols and yielding our hearts to him. It’s a choice I know we won’t regret.
Written by Sarah Haile of Phi Mu
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