Christian Living

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Joshua 24:15 (NIV) “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.”

One of the greatest possessions of any human is his free will. We cling to, flaunt, and abuse this wonderful gift from God, but that is our “right”; it is ours and we can do with our free will as we want. The truth of the matter is that most of us do not understand what the gift of free will means or entails. Joshua may not have been directly teaching on free will in this passage, but we find the very basic definition hidden in his words.
Our understanding of free will is that it entitles us to do what we want, when we want, with whomever we want, where we want, to whomever we want, anytime; WRONG. Notice in the passage that there are just two choices, other gods, or the Lord; this is the definition of free will. Free will is not the ability to choose this, that, or the other thing; free will is the ability to choose God or this world. Each time we “do what we want” we make the choice; God or the world. Every “whomever we want, where we want, to whomever we want” comes down to only two options; God or the world. This is what it means to have free will.

Like Joshua we need only make a choice one way or another, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Flaunt you free will and make the conscious choice every day; speak it aloud in the morning, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Employ your God given right every time you make a decision, any decision, “Do I watch this movie”, “Do I fudge the numbers”, “Do I take this job”, “Do I go left or right”; “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”. So make a choice “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” The gift of free will consists of only two options and we must choose one or the other for we cannot “serve two masters.”

Make a choice, “if serving the Lord is undesirable to you”, and that is all right, then choose to serve the world, other gods; on this path the road is “for wide is the gate and broad is the road the leads to destruction”, make this choice and life seems easy and carefree. It is easy to understand its allure, its appeal, but make a choice. The only other option, as mentioned is “we choose the Lord”, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” This choice is much more difficult there is “no bout a doubt it”; suffering, love, grace, mercy, pain are all associated with this path, but it leads to eternal life, again make a choice. Free will is about making the choice God or the world, just make a choice, I say that like you have an option, you are making a choice right now whether you know it or not, so make a conscious choice to follow whomever, just make the choice.

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