“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” Joshua 24:15 NIV.
When your decision to serve God is irrevocable, every choice is simpler.
My thoughts and comments today are about “wise decision making.”
Life is about choices, and choices are not without consequence; wise choices are for your benefit and foolish ones to your detriment. Good choices are not accidental; they result from wise decision making. Wise decision making is not an ability anyone naturally possesses; it is a skill you acquire. Build relationships with people who make wise decisions. Cleanse your heart and mind. Submit your will and desires to God’s will. Seek Godly counsel. See Proverbs 15:22 NKJV. Know and trust God’s Word to guide you. See 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV. Listen to the Spirit of God in your heart. See Isaiah 30:21 NIV. You will know in your heart what is right, when you really want to choose right.
For some, that comes more easily. For all, experience is the best teacher, assuming that you learn from the occasions when you weren’t careful about choices. No one of us has a perfect record. Is there anything about your life that is not impacted by your choices? Sometimes, you have the opportunity to correct your choice; at other times you just have to learn from it, admit your decision was wrong, minimize the consequences, and try to be wiser the next time.
Joshua was a Godly leader with a demanding task. In addition, Moses was a tough act to follow with big shoes to fill. And he was not all that eager to do so. Read Joshua 1:1-9 NIV. Obviously, Joshua suffered a lack of confidence about the task of leading a not always cooperative people into God’s promise and intention for them. Repeatedly, God had to remind Joshua to be “strong and of a good courage.” The people he led were not always so Godly – much like us, probably. Often they just did not get it right the first time – or even the second, or third time.
Joshua confronted people with a clear choice, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” Joshua 24:15 NIV. No one can make that decision for you; you make it for yourself. Isn’t that the same choice that confronts you today? When your decision to serve God is irrevocable, every choice that follows is simpler. Read Acts 27:13-25 NKJV. Israel had come to a crucial junction, personally and nationally. There were decisions and choices to be made if they were to go forward in the purposes of God. They could choose to serve God, or by default they could revert to their family history or be absorbed by their surrounding culture – “the gods your forefathers served, or the gods of [those] in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15-18 NIV. That’s the right choice, “As for me . . [I] will serve the Lord!” Read Psalm 100:2-3 NKJV.
Life is not to be governed by your circumstances. Life is not about what happens to you; life is about what you make to happen for you by Godly choices and wise decision making. Ultimately, your firm convictions about God and life, and your decisions about your circumstances connect to govern your life. A choice to be made indicates you have options. View and decide them wisely, and not without prayer and/or Godly counsel. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked . . but his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on His Law he meditates [continually] day and night.” Read Psalm 1:1-6 NIV.
My prayer for you today is that you choose wisely according to unchangeable truth.