Choose This Day

Choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Josh. 24:15

...Today if ye will hear His voice... Ps. 95:7

And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow Me. Lk. 9:23

Every morning that we wake up, God sets a choice before us. Will you choose to serve Him, or will you choose to serve yourself and idolatry. If you choose Him, you choose good and life. If you choose to serve yourself and idolatry, you choose evil and death. Yesterday is past and absolutely nothing can be done to change it. Tomorrow is in the future and you don't know if you'll even be a part of it. But today, while it is called “today”, you must make the choice: Will I choose God and life or will I choose self and death?

In Deuteronomy 11:26-27, God told the children of Israel through Moses, “Behold, I set before you THIS DAY a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD you God, and a curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out out of the way which I command you THIS DAY, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.” The choice is yours – a blessing or a curse, but it depends on the choice you make. I capitalized the words DAILY and THIS DAY so that you can see the connection. We must DAILY choose right or wrong; good or evil; life or death. So many want to have the best of both worlds or “ride the fence”, as the old saying goes, but you have to choose. You can't choose to love God and love the world, too.

I recently saw an illustration, where a man had two ladders standing opposite one another, which looked like a V shape. He had one foot on one ladder and another foot on the other. He demonstrated that you can only go so high before you are stuck and must choose between ascending one ladder or the other. Jesus told us, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24 The Apostle James, who was also the Lord's brother said, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8

When the prophet Elijah had brought the prophets of Baal and Israel to the top of Carmel to demonstrate the power of God by fire, he cried out: “How long halt you between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” 1 Kings 18:21 The prophet Joel saw in a vision and declared, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:14 Now is the time to choose. Get out of the valley of decision. Choose to serve the Lord and you will choose life. But if you choose otherwise, it is death. The apostle James also said, “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death.” James 1:14 The apostle John taught us, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 1 John 2: 15-17

Consecrate yourself fully to God. Give your mind, will, emotions, plans, thoughts, everything that you possess over to Him and He will not disappoint you in any way. Choose His way for you.