January 4
Verse of the Day for January 4
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.Joshua 24:15 KJV
The Key of Beginnings · Day 4 of 31
Reflection · 3 min read
Deciding Once So You Stop Deciding Daily
Joshua is old and near the end. He gathers the tribes and puts a choice in front of them, and the way he phrases it is worth noticing.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Choose you this day. Not choose every day. One decision, made once, on a particular afternoon, at a particular place, in front of witnesses.
There is a kind of exhaustion that comes from re-deciding the same thing every morning. Whether to pray. Whether this is worth it. Whether today counts. The deciding costs more than the doing.
Joshua's answer to that is to settle it. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord — stated in the present tense about the future, which is what a commitment is.
After that, the mornings are not decisions. They are simply what a person who decided does.
Choose this day,so you stop choosing every day.
Some of what you are calling weak discipline is actually an unmade decision being remade every twenty-four hours.
Make it once. Then the mornings get much quieter.
Carry this today
What are you re-deciding every morning?
Pray
Read Joshua 24:14–18
14Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. 16And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; 17For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: 18And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God.
Keep praying
Reflection by Collins Asein, from the daily devotionals in the PrayerKey app. Bible text: King James Version.