I choose God

Martha Olawale

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

I chose God! Those three words have become a hallmark of my life because I recognize the need to continually reaffirm my declaration in response to Joshua’s call: “Choose for yourselves this day, whom you will serve.” Although many Israelites gave the right answer in Joshua 24:16-18, they failed to continually reaffirm their allegiance to God, so their choice would be clear in the morning, at noon, and at night, and so that the generations after them would know where they stand.

The Bible says in Joshua 24:16, “So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” That was a great answer, filled with confidence, but choosing God today does not guarantee we will tomorrow. It’s not enough to acknowledge and declare God’s greatness for what He did yesterday; we must remember Him tomorrow for what He’s doing today.

The Israelites broke their word, serving God only as long as Joshua and those who knew what the Lord ‘had done’ for them lived. Joshua 24:31 says, “Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.” This made it seem that God’s goodness was in the past, limited to bringing them out of Egypt. When the human witnesses died, so did their promise to God. They neglected that God continued to preserve them after Egypt, and although there were no more seas to cross, He continued to walk them through every road they traveled.

If only they had made it a priority to continue recording the things God did for them to preserve and establish them after their freedom from bondage and their journey through the wilderness, they would have chosen to serve Him not only for yesterday’s victories but also for today’s breakthroughs. Their promise to God before Joshua, as assuring as it sounded, had shallow roots and needed daily watering to take deep root. It needed sincerity and truth, as Joshua asked for in verse 14, saying, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth.”

We must keep choosing God because we are prone to amnesia about His goodness. The same God who leads us through the valley and walks with us on the shores also brings down giants for us and removes barriers before us. He wipes away our tears and gives us reasons to laugh. Choosing God means that, at each turn in life, we acknowledge Him, choose righteousness over sin, and live in honor of His continued grace. We must choose to serve Him not only for battles won but also for the rest that follows.