Choosing our leader

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.   — Joshua 24:15

During this month last year, millions of people in the United States cast their votes for a slate of political leaders, including President. After months of campaign speeches, television ads, and debates, each voter had the opportunity to say to one candidate, “I choose you.” Not everyone’s favorite won, but every voter had a choice.

Unlike a political election in which the majority rules, each of us is given the opportunity to select our personal leader each day. In the spiritual election deep within our hearts, our choice will stand no matter what others may decide.

After many years in the Promised Land of Canaan, the aged Joshua called the people of Israel together and issued this challenge: “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” (Josh. 24:15). In a great collective response, the people said, “We will serve the Lord!” (v. 21).

Everyone serves some kind of god. Whom will we choose to have rule in our hearts today? — David McCasland

Thy will I choose; I give to Thee

All of the life Thou gavest me;

Thy will I choose, no life I ask

Except to do Thy given task. — Anon.

READ: Joshua 24:14-25

Each day we choose the one we will follow in life.

The Bible in one year:

• Ezekiel 19-21

• Proverbs 13:1-12