“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 24:15

“Who are you going to serve?” is a familiar question from the book of Joshua.

   As the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land,  Joshua put this choice before them, much as  the choice of salvation is set before us in our day.  Neither then nor now does God demand we do anything for Him.  He simply lays out the option, and the choice is up to us.

   Choosing to serve God goes way beyond salvation.  It’s a daily choice.  Will we pray for our enemies or raise an angry fist against them?   Do we put others first or seek to satisfy our own interests?  If given the chance, do we choose to give to God extravagantly or do we opt out and justify our selfishness with one lame excuse after another?

   Just as we have the option to serve or not, Jesus had options too when it came to serving us.   He might have chosen to claim His rights as a King and reign in comfort instead of dying for our sins.  What would have happened if He had made that choice?   He might have decided He was too tired to heal when the people came to Him at the end of a long day of ministering.  What if He hadn’t chosen to speak to the woman at the well?  Or fed the five thousand?  Or allowed Judas to betray Him? 

   There are innumerable choices Jesus might have made that would have changed the course of the world forever.  But He didn’t.  Because He loved the Father, and surrendered Himself completely to the Father’s will, He chose to serve us at the expense of His own comfort and well-being.

   So the question remains:  In light of what Jesus did for you, who are you going to serve?   Will you choose God or will you choose Self?

   The choice you make has a profound impact on the course of your life–and the lives of those around you.  If you choose to serve Self, God will not argue.  He gives you free will.  But in the end, you are either condemned or justified by the choice you make now as to whom you are going to serve.