Making the Choice

From the words of Joshua, hundreds of years ago, ". . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ..." Joshua 24:15

Have you made the right choice?  Have you made any choice at all? If you made the choice to serve God, are there evidences of the change in your life?   There is another verse that comes to mind when considering these questions. It is also from the Old Testament, but was repeated by Peter in his New Testament writings. Read it closely.

"For I am the Lord your God: you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.." Leviticus 11:44  (and 1 Peter1:16)

If we have made the decision to serve  God, and if our lives are to be holy, like his, what are the characteristics of your life and mine which would be evidence of that? There are some things which would immediately come to mind....things like prayer, and worship, and praise. Maybe we will have cleaned up our language and we're working on having only pure thoughts. Or perhaps we would think in terms of visiting the sick, ministering to the homeless, or even signing up to teach a pre-school age Bible class. 

I must admit these were my immediate thoughts.  Closer examination of the matter led me to another word which I think comes closer to what God had in mind when he instructed us to replicate his holiness. The word is SURRENDER.

Sometimes we sing the song, "All to Jesus, I surrender; all to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him; In his presence daily live."  If we are led to know our choice in serving God is biblical, and sing in our praises to him about a complete surrender, is that the evidence of the choice we have made? If we believe and relate to the two scriptures above, then our choice in serving God brings about a holiness in us that is our way of living. 

Look at the first verse again and consider the choices we can make. It is easy for us to say we choose God, and continue to live lives motivated by the flesh. God is calling for more than that. He wants the choice we make for our lives to be a choice of our will as it is surrendered to him. It stands to reason the surrendered life must constantly be self examined to see if there are areas we still need to surrender to God. Remember he calls us to be holy, as he is holy. 

I pray we can all come to know the holy life to which God calls us. Even when we stumble and make mistakes, may we have the courage to remind ourselves there are areas of our lives that call for daily surrender. 

We, as the only thing mentioned in creation, being made in his image, are given the choice to choose his holiness as our way of life. That's' how much he values us. That's how much he loves us. 

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