Choose

Choose

Joshua 24:14-16 14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods,

My wife has wanted to eat at this particular restaurant for many years but I just can’t seem to find it. I have done Google and MapQuest searches but it doesn’t appear to exist. She continues to offer it up each time I ask her where she would like to eat. For you married men you already know the punch line of this joke but here it is anyway. The name of the place is “I don’t care, you decide.”  

One of the greatest gifts God gave man was the ability to choose. Adam and Eve were both given the gift to choose through obeying God or not. Eve was deceived by Satan and then she offered the fruit to Adam. Through his chose, Adam made his wife’s opinion greater than God’s and therefore chose to disobey God.

Joshua was nearing the end of his life. He had witnessed the struggles his people had demonstrated in making God honoring choices. He presented them with 2 choices. Serve God or serve false idols. The people responded with “Heck no, we would never serve other gods.” Joshua was not even cold in the grave before the people broke their promise. Why would they forsake God with all the wonders he had shown his people in leading them from captivity? They carried out the same pattern Adam did when he rebelled. They valued their new neighbor’s opinion greater than God’s. How many bad decisions have you made that were based upon valuing others’ opinion greater than God’s? I can say without a hesitation that 100% of my bad choices came from this process. Choosing to elevate someone’s opinion higher than God’s makes an idol of their opinion and most often leads to worship and construction of other idols. Every addictive behavior I ever conducted began with the idol of other’s opinion. It comes with our sinful nature. But what if, through the strength of God’s Spirit, we began to say no to this fleshly desire to please others? What if we responded to Joshua’s challenge with choices that demonstrate a fear, loyalty, faithfulness and obedience to Him? We can spend our lives looking for “I don’t care, you choose” or we can set our sites upon serving the Lord with God honoring and Holy Spirit empowered choices.

 
Jonathan Jones, President and Founder of Perfect Hope Ministry

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