More Than A Conqueror Devotional #6

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve – Joshua 24:15
January 27, 2010

After 40 years of wondering in the wilderness, the Israelites have finally possessed the land the Lord God promised to his people. Israel has nearly expelled the original inhabitants of the land, most of the territory has been distributed among the tribes and there is at last peace in the Land. As the end of Joshua’s life draws to a close he assembles the people of Israel to declare unto them this word from the Lord. Joshua recounts Israel’s past; from the covenant God made with Abraham all the way up through Moses leading God’s chosen people out of Egypt. Joshua reminds the people of all that they have been through and what Jehovah God has done for them. “And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not do ye eat” (verse 13). The generation prior to this one; those who were not allowed to inhabit the Promised Land were idolaters and because of their wickedness they died in the wilderness. And so Joshua decrees unto Israel a powerful mandate; choose. If after all that the Lord Jesus has done for this people if they imagine in their hearts that He is not God than they are to choose at the moment whom they will serve. God will not allow this stiff necked people the opportunity to apathy or ambivalence any longer, this day they must make a choice.

We are more than conquerors today because Christ has still empowered us to make a choice. In Deuteronomy 30:16 Moses issues a similar charge to the people of Israel; “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” In this life we are not the unfortunate victims of circumstance or fate, but rather we have the ability to dictate to our environment and alter our reality through the choices we make. Through Christ we can have abundant life, we can prosper as our soul prospers and we can overcome the circumstances of this world. Today choose Christ, choose life and declare as Joshua declared, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!