• Mood: determined

Choose this day

“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. 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.”

—Joshua 24:14-15

Before he dies, Joshua reminds his people that, in creating them in His image, God has given them the dignity of choice. Scripture reveals a God who chooses and who creates a people who also choose. Some see a contradiction in this, but the order of things is clear from the very beginning (courtesy barlow_girl: when asked to reconcile divine predestination with human freedom, Charles Spurgeon replied, "I never reconcile friends."). Just as with every capacity God has given in His image, it is exercised with limited power under His complete sovereignty. God's choices carry His authority; our choices express the dignity He's given, to His glory.

As one whose security rests firmly on God's choice, I too often forget or neglect how important my choice to serve Him is. It matters. Joshua even knows the limits of Israel's ability to follow through on their choice (verse 19: "But Joshua said to the people, 'You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God...'"), yet the choice is still important. For me, it is all the more—since I am clothed in a righteousness not my own, I can serve this holy God freely, and I am called to do this. Yet the choice is there, and even in not making it consciously and deliberately I choose something less than Him.

Today, I am choosing better.