January 1 - We Will Serve the Lord

Today's Reading:
Joshua 24:1-33
Acts 21:18-36
Psalm 68:15-20
Click on Text Link to Read Online

Focus Verses: Joshua 24:14-15
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 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."

Insight:
There are many alternatives to being faithful to God and serving him. Living for God requires choice and commitment. Joshua knew that many people would be unfaithful—that serving the Lord would not be desirable to everyone. He knew that many would choose the false gods of their father's or the new gods of the land they were entering. But as for Joshua, his choice was made. He and his family would serve and seek the Lord.

Response and Action:
I choose faith in God over everything else. I want to faithfully seek and serve the one true God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I will not choose the false gods and failed pursuits of the world around me. I will seek first the Kingdom of Christ and his righteousness.

O God, help me to live for you and through you in thought, word, and deed. Help me to turn away from what is wrong and do what is right. Help me to love you with all of my being, and to love my neighbor as my self. By the power and grace of your Holy Spirit, lead, teach, transform, shape and strengthen me, that I might delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Help me, by faith, to do the good things you've prepared in advance for me to do--to be faithful, fruitful, and effective as your servant, through Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: Matthew 10:37-39 
37 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Resources:
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
by Timothy Keller