Who Do You Serve?

“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.”Joshua 24:15

This is one of those verses you can spend a lot of time thinking about.  It's a lot like the verse where Jesus asks Peter, James and John, "Who do you say I am?"  So, then, who - or what - do you and your household serve?  It's easy to just say, "Why of course we serve Christ."  But do you?  Really? 


In one of the talks at Via de Cristo we are asked about our ideals.  What are they?  How do we recognize what the most important thing or things in our life really are.  There are three questions whose answers really say it all.  Answer these honestly, and you will know who - or what - you really serve.


1.  What do you spend most of your time thinking about?
2.  What do you do with most of your free time?
3.  What do you spend most of your money that is not spent on daily necessities?


So, how many of us actually serve television or video games or sporting events or our jobs or our families?  Family is the tricky one, isn't it?  We know it is good to make family high priority... but have we placed them even above God?


It's not bad to enjoy any of these things.  God wants us to love our families!  And he wants us to provide for them through jobs we enjoy.  And he wants us to enjoy our lives by doing things that are fun.  But it is all about balance and priorities.


We can easily keep our families an important priority while giving God first place if we worship and serve God AS a family.  We can give all the necessary attention to our jobs if we keep our focus on serving God as we work.


Most of you know the sermon demonstration that Pastor John loves to use with the rice and golf ball.  If you fill a jar with rice and then try to put the ball in  the jar it just won't work.  But if you put the ball in the jar first and then pour in the rice, it all fits!  It is the same with our faith lives.  If we put God first and in the center of our lives, all the rest will fit exactly the way it should.


Our faith life is not merely a slice of the pie... it is the pie from which everything else is taken.


Father,
Teach us to ask ourselves each and every day, "Who do I serve?"  And then let us see the answer in all of our thoughts and actions of that day.  Amen.


Joys:  Getting a BIG start on Christmas shopping; homemade soup; time spent with Daniel yesterday