Choosing to Follow God

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Bill Crowder, and I titled our reading, Choosing to Follow God. The average person will make 773,618 decisions over a lifetime, claims the Daily Mirror. The British newspaper goes on to assert that we will come to regret 143,262 of them. I have no idea how the paper arrived at these numbers, but it's clear that we face countless decisions throughout our lifetime.

The sheer quantity of them might become paralyzing, especially when we consider that all our choices have consequences, some far more momentous than others. After 40 years wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel stood at the threshold of their new homeland. Later, in Joshua chapter 24, after entering the land, Joshua their leader issued to them a challenging choice. Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness, he said.

Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped. Joshua told them, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

As we begin each new day, possibilities stretch before us, leading to scores of decisions. Taking the time to ask God to guide us will influence the choices we make. By the power of the Spirit, we can choose to follow him every day.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Joshua chapter 24 verses 14 through 18. Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Then the people answered, far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt from that land of slavery and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us in our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.

And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord because he is our God. Let's pray. Father, sometimes life can feel overwhelming and so can the many choices that confront us. Please guide our steps in our decision making so that we can honor you in the choices we make. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.