Thought for Today
Joshua 24:15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region 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."
Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Matthew 6:27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—
“Some of us have a hard time accepting gifts. When we feel as if we’ve paid for it or earned it, we obtain a sense of control over the transaction.” (These Days, June 13. 2026)
I do believe that many of us have a hard time accepting gifts. I am sure that most of us prefer to believe we have control over our lives. This morning, however, I am thinking about what I call ‘the illusion of control.’ Do any of us truly have control over our lives?
It is true that there are many elements of our lives we can control. Long ago, our ancestor-in-the-faith, Joshua, challenged the Israelites to choose whom they would serve. That same challenge still faces all of us each and every day. As Christians, we should recall the words of Jesus that I quoted yesterday, “Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Jesus was not restricting the idea to a choice between God and wealth. That is a false dichotomy. Jesus’ point is about divided loyalties. It is the same point Joshua was making.
We do have some control over our lives. We can make the choice of whom or what we will serve. We can choose good over evil. We can choose to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.
Truthfully, however, we cannot choose our birth family. We cannot choose our parents, our physique, the color of our hair or eyes. We have no control over how tall we will be. Our birth nationality is determined for us as is the language we will speak in our youth.
Even some of the most basic elements of our being, things like our proclivity for mathematics, science, music or art are outside of our control. To a large extent, we are born who and what we are.
Do we have control over our situation in eternity? That question frames one of the greatest issues of the Protestant Reformation. In seminary, I learned about the great slogans of the Reformation: sola fide, sola gratia, sola Scriptura, by faith alone, by grace alone, Scripture alone.
For 2020+ years, Christians have debated whether or not there are any salvific acts we can take to ensure or insure our salvation. Protestants have taken Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus as our guidepost. We believe that ultimately, the only thing we can do in terms of our salvation is to accept God’s gracious gift of salvation through our faith.
Yet, we also believe in free will. We believe we can freely choose to “serve the LORD” or to “serve the gods our ancestors served.” We have the choice to serve God or wealth. Regrettably, far too often we mistake our freedom of choice as freedom from choice. We are called to make our choices in life. We must choose whom or what we will serve.
Our freedom of choice does not free us from the consequences of our choices. Some consequences are immediate; some are long term; some are eternal. We should always bear that in mind as we do choose. But, choose we must!
Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served or wealth, fashion, or anything else, but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. We can control the choices we make about whom or what we serve. Remember, our God does not ask the impossible, only that we love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God. Is that too much to ask for eternity in God’s house?
Stay safe, choose wisely, trust God,
Pastor Ray