Choose For Yourself

O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them. Isaiah 25:1 NLT

A few weeks ago I heard a young lady talking about basketball, just about the time when basketball fever gripped New York. You see, the New York Knicks made it to the playoffs! I think the first playoff game was that same evening. She spoke about the players then she shared a story from her life. She said that she was chosen quickly when she played sports as a teenager and many times she was the captain. I believe that people choose players who can help the team win the game.

What is involved when you have to make a choice? The dictionary says that to choose is to select someone or something as being the best.  Now, when it comes to God, the same thing is true, you have to choose Him. The Book of Ruth is named after a young gentile woman. This young woman married a man who was a foreigner in her homeland. Unfortunately, he died. When Naomi, her mother-in-law, decided to return to her people, Ruth wanted to go with her. Naomi tried her best to discourage her, but Ruth had already made her choice. She told Naomi in Ruth 1:16, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God,” Ruth recognized Naomi’s God as the best.

When Isaiah said, for you are my God, he was stating that he made a choice. He experienced the goodness of God in the past and nothing was going to come before God in his life. Joshua made that same choice. When he was at the end of his life, he wanted to challenge the people to walk in the ways of the Lord. He told them in Joshua 24:15, “And 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.” You have to settle that matter for yourself. Are you going to choose the Lord?

Thought for Today: Friend, choose the Lord.

Have a blessed day and walk in faith and victory.