Joshua 24:14-15: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”, (NIV) (italics added by me).
This passage of Scripture has been heavy on my heart these past couple of weeks. Who are we serving? Are we truly serving God, or are we serving other things in our lives (some or all of which have possibly become idols)? Do our lives point toward the reality that Jesus Christ is not only our Savior, but also our Lord? Have we surrendered everything we have to Christ, or are there still things in our lives that we are choosing to cling to and put before God?
Joshua was clear in this passage to the Israelites – he told them to choose this day whom they will serve, suggesting that we cannot serve God and something (or someone) else. It can only be one or the other. This has a similar point as Jesus did in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money”, (NIV) (italics added by me). Even though Joshua was not explicitly talking about money in Joshua 24:14-15, it is clear the point that he was making:
You can only have ONE God.
Nothing and no one else can or should take the place of the one true God. We must choose to serve him, and put him above everyone and everything else in our lives. We must choose this day whom we will serve, and as Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, we cannot serve both God and money – nor can we serve God and ANYTHING or ANYONE else. We must serve God alone. We must surrender to him and make him number one in our lives. Let’s give our God everything, my friends. Let’s surrender everything we have to him, each and every day of our lives. Let us choose this day to serve the Lord – not money, other people, sex, pornography, food, alcohol, etc. NOTHING in this world (people or things) can EVER take the place of the one true God, and may our lives reflect and point daily to this reality.
Leah's blog 