3-1-15 Who Will You Serve

14“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, 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)

Thoughts: Bob Dylan wrote a song, "You've Got to Serve Somebody- It may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you got to serve somebody."  The one to whom we owe our allegiance is our Lord- our God.  To serve no one is to serve ourselves- and selfishness is by nature an evil thing and dark hole.  Einstein said, "The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule."  He was speaking of the need to be humble.  Humility, selflessness, and love push us away from a selfish desire to manipulate and control others.   Joshua asks the question before he dies, "who are you going to serve?... Will you go back to be like everyone else, or will you choose to be people of a holy God?"   Many choose the easy way of following feelings and the way put forth by others.  Some will choose to serve God as long as He serves them.  If the going gets tough their faith will get choked out.  But if we serve God no matter what, we will indeed be blessed.  Jesus came to serve us- he helped people, healed people, comforted people, welcomed people.  He died for people to serve us.  But if we want to manipulate the Lord to turn the Creator of the Universe to give us our every whim- we are not helping ourselves, and we are discrediting Him.  God is our greatest help.  But we must choose His help.  When we join Him- to seek to serve Him in good or bad- we will find His love, His help, His strength, His courage, His hope, His purpose, and we will find ourselves.  For our hearts are restless til they find their rest in the Lord.  When we choose Him, we find ourselves chosen.  He is the Lord who serves; we serve and become like the Lord. 

Prayer: Lord, I serve you in the hard times and the great times.  I do not serve you because you bless me.  I serve you because you are worthy and my love for you grows as I see your hand at work in the valleys and in the mountaintops of life.