Choose this day...

I was going to wait and post this in a couple of days but after reading where some other friends are being lead, today is the right day.

I had a conversation the other day about how tired I was...that I felt "all used up".

When I said that, I got the picture in my mind of a woman with slumped shoulders, hard lines on her face, lipstick bleeding into the smoke lines around her mouth and eyes that wearily looked out at everyone. This word came to my mind, "Used by the world". I then got a picture of the same woman with no lines on her face, strong shoulders, eyes filled with peace and an expression of joy that wanted to burst forth from beautiful lips. The word that came with this was "used by God".

Immediately my heart jumped as this question was placed - "who will you choose this day to serve?"

I pondered on that and realized that I do daily have to choose. Do I serve God today or do I serve the world? There is no autopilot answer that you can do day after day - it is a matter of the will to truly choose to serve God...and even if I am "working" for God, if I do not choose to serve God, it will be a self serving response in futility that will exhaust me at the end of the day.

As I looked for scripture, I remembered what Jesus said, "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me." (Matt 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23.) Did you get that...DAILY we must pick up HIS cross and follow Him. I am smiling as I type this...but wouldn't it be easier to see and acknowledge each other of WHO we are serving this day by the Cross we carry on our shoulder...hmmmm!

The scripture verses that I used first are from Joshua and it is interesting that he does mention other gods. The last part of the verse will be familiar.

Joshua said, ""Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the 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 forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:14-16)

We do have to choose to throw away anything else in our life we are serving and choose God...daily...everyday.

This is not meant to be a recipe for religion and additional steps to peace with God. There is one way and only one way to peace with God and that is through Jesus. Without Him you are truly lost and there is no hope. Unless you have acknowledged Jesus as your Lord and Savior and repented this will be meaningless to you. If you have walked away from God in the past and are not with Him now just turn back now.

But it all comes down to this...

No matter what anyone else chooses or does, I choose to serve God. Today. Tomorrow I will declare it anew.