To Encourage You

Joshua 24:15 “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.”

The life of one who serves the Lord is marked by contrast.  It is different both from what it once was, and it is different from the lives of the vast majority who are alive at this very moment.  That was the clear conviction of the great leader Joshua in his day who spoke the words in the verse above, and it’s no different in the day in which we now live. 

In Joshua’s last recorded message to Israel just before he died, he calls the nation to a life set apart.  He reminds them of the idolatrous ways of their ancestors and he points to the idolatrous ways of the Amorites who had occupied Canaan before Israel entered and conquered it.  With this instruction, there is a message to every believer that there are always temptations to turn back to our old ways before we knew Christ as well as to become friends of the world in which we now live and which is opposed to Christ.  Our lives, if we would serve the Lord, will be different than this.  Our lives will have changed.  Whatever our lives were before we knew the Lord, they will no longer be.  We – and others – should be able to see the change. 

Our Lord gave His life for us, and we are to give our lives to Him in return.  Any other allegiance, any turning back to our old ways, is to be resisted, for those ways are inconsistent with a life of service to the Lord.  And our lives should likewise be in contrast to the world in which we now live.  The popular opinions, lifestyles, and attitudes of the day are certainly being influenced by the prince of this world, and as such, they run counter to what God has called those who love Him to demonstrate. 

A choice must be made by each of us to either look back to our former ways, look around at others, or look up to the God Who loves us and Who has called us to serve Him and love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind.  It is a choice that will be evident, for it’s the difference between light and darkness, life and death, and the narrow way that Jesus told us that few will find in contrast to the broad way that most are on (Matthew 7:13-14).