Choose today!

[looksgood]

I wanted to bring this passage of scripture out to us. It seems we as a whole are in need of its message. The question was posed to isreal as to who they would serve just as it is to us today. Isreal answered and said the Lord.

Today many answer the same way. Many answer "I am a christian."

But look at the reply to their answer:

“You cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”

Joshua told them they could not serve the Lord if they were going to turn and go after other gods. We make gods of our sins sometimes when we let them rule us and we follow after them. God has told us plainly we can not serve two masters.

So let us count the cost and reply again:

“No, but we will serve the LORD!”

If we choose this day to serve the Lord then we must continue. We must PUT AWAY OUR OTHER GODS! We must incline our hearts to God.

I many times have thought...how do you make your heart follow God? It seems so hard sometimes to get yourself in a place of having a daily relationship with God when there are so many distractions.

Let me tell you a secret I hear spoken to my heart...You choose it. You choose who you will serve. You choose to follow God or go after other things. You choose to fill your belly before you seek God. You choose to spend time with family before God. You choose to go after these things.

It really isn't a matter of forcing your heart to serve God. It is a matter of choosing God or not. We think it is hard sometimes to follow God with all our heart only because we want to serve our sins. We by nature want the pleasure of sin. But we choose if we will serve it or not.

Joshua 24:

16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods; 17 for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the LORD drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the LORD, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD!”
22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD God of Israel.”

 

[TrueHope]

Let me tell you a secret I hear spoken to my heart...You choose it. You choose who you will serve. You choose to follow God or go after other things. You choose to fill your belly before you seek God. You choose to spend time with family before God. You choose to go after these things.


This is an eye opener for me. I daily find it a struggle to stay focused soley on the Lord. Especially as my family is going through a serious power struggle regarding authority here. (Children vs. parents) And going through the daily ups and downs, though I constantly talk with the Lord, it is so difficult to set aside those special hours. ( I have my secret to share....when I am struggling for one and one time with the Lord, and I know I will be too tired or unfocused, I ask Him to make sure I do it...and He does. For example, I was waking up early to pray....and I lost the routine....so I asked Him, Please...Make me keep this promise to You...and I get up before my alarm now...waken out of nowhere. No matter how deep my sleep or nice the dream. And I wake up laughing knowing who got me up, and thanking Him because He is truly Faithful as the Bible says!!!!)

But to go back to worshipping other Gods, I never would have thought about family, food...Now, I say this, as I Know we are NOT to put anything or anyone before or above the Lord our God. But we get so caught up in uor daily lives, routines, struggles. etc. And being so caught up allows the snake to sneak in and deter us our time with the Lord...thus forsaking Him who loves us so!

Thanks for posting this, I needed an eye opener!!!

God Bless You

 

[Criada]

Amen.
As a mother, I think one of the hardest struggles is putting the Lord before your children! He has been taeching me to trust him inthis - His love for my children is so much greater than mine!
Now I can take time out with Him without feeling guilty about neglecting them - but it was a hard lesson to learn!
Praise God for His patience with me!

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

I follow God and when He says my family life is in need of attention and my private life being threatened needs looking after then that comes first.

The priorities are God set, not man set.

I got a phone call last night that upset me so that the need to look after my families privacy must come before anything as that's what's happening today.

I think God gives us our priorities on a need to know basis that are dealt with one at a time.

Taking care of God's business is taking care of all it . imo

Choosing God is part of all of life.

Allowing Him to work is another. How He does that is His business.

 

[xxkingskidlmxx]

Choosing God is part of all of life.

Allowing Him to work is another. How He does that is His business.

God has never needed anyone to look after his business, he uses who he will or he does it himself.
I find it almost amusing that those who use the name of the Lord in vain, not only does he not stick with them but he looks after Himself completely.

1 Samuel 5

The Ark in Ashdod and Ekron

1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. 5 That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.

6 The LORD's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumors. 7 When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god." 8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?"
They answered, "Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the ark of the God of Israel. 9 But after they had moved it, the LORD's hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.
As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people." 11 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy upon it. 12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

I think this shows that no matter how we want God to act he will do what is best for him and for his glory.

 

[JPPT1974]

By choosing the Lord, we allow Him to grow in our lives as well as letting Him do His will and job in us.