When We Don't Feel Like It

I’ll admit it: sometimes I’d rather not serve God.

The Christian life is often downright hard: putting others first, forgiving offenses, confessing and killing sin repeatedly, giving away money happily, living counter-culturally. Following Jesus means challenge upon challenge; it means swimming against the current. There’s a lot of joy too, but sometimes doing things my way seems a whole lot easier.

But today’s verse confronts me (and all of us) with a choice: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

Will we devote our time, energy, and affections to the gods of our culture or to the one true God? Most of us have never worshiped an actual physical idol, but the idols of our hearts can be many. All we have to ask is: what am I placing my trust and security in more than in God? Whose approval is more important to me than God’s? The answers to those questions reveal what we need to surrender and how we need to re-prioritize things in order to keep Jesus in the center.

Putting off or avoiding this daily decision is detrimental to the people closest to us. Time spent on the fence is time wasted and irrecoverable. When we retake the throne, it affects our family. They begin to miss out on the joy, healing, and hope that serving God brings.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s choose today whom we will serve.

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Jesus, I choose today to put you in the center of my life and home. Please reveal any ways I am serving false gods. Only you can meet my needs and those of my family. Amen.

Additional Resources: Do you feel that you are losing your passion for Jesus? Have you let Jesus slide to the outside edges of your life? Numb to God is a resource we think you'll find helpful.