Choose This Day

For as long as I can remember I have ALWAYS loved this verse:

"Choose this day whom you shall serve... as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

I know this is the common verse to find up in a home, but this verse has resonated with me because of my dad.  This is the one main verses that he would talk about growing up- I even have a shirt that is waaay too big for me that he gave me that has this verse on it. 

As I've gotten older and really thought about it's application to my life, I have realized the significance of what Joshua was saying to the Israelites.  Every day, from the second I wake up I have a choice.  I can choose to serve my emotions and complain about how I don't want to get out of bed and go to work.  I can choose to serve the people around me, ultimately knowing I will never be able to please everyone.  Or, from the start of my morning, I can choose to serve God. 

It's all a choice.  

What I love about Piper's article is that he talks about what happens after we make that choice.

Serving means to do "what he says in a way that makes Him look supremely valuable in himself.  It means to submit to Him in a way that makes Him look thrilling."

I don't know about you, but that is a different way for me to look at serving!  I think sometimes we can make the Christian life look extremely boring.  Serving God is the greatest privilege we have- being apart of something SO much greater than ourselves.  I think we make it boring when we bring it back to ourselves.  When we say, ok God, I'll serve, but on my time and in my strength.  So we get worn out and tired.

Piper urges us to look further into scripture and see that God doesn't want us to serve Him as though he needed anything.

“He is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).

He also wants to serve Him by His strength 1 Peter 4:11:

“Whoever serves, [let it be] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

We receive this supply of strength by faith- trusting "moment-by-moment" God is supplying us with what we need.

I like the idea of that- moment by moment.  When I think about what I need to do for the semester, or even the next week, I can easily become anxious and overwhelmed.  But, when I trust in God, serving isn't stressful, God gets the glory, and I can serve God with gladness (Psalm 100).

That sounds like a pretty good deal :) Happy Friday!!