“If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. (…) The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

We have the same choice that Joshua gave to the people of the tribes of Israel, to choose to serve God or not. God loves us so much that He gives us this free will of choice, but notice that there is not an option to choose idols and God. We can’t serve both. Joshua made his choice clear—he chose to serve the Lord.

“‘No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.’” (Matthew 6:24)

Choose today whom you will serve because you cannot serve two masters. When the tribes of Israel declared that they would serve the Lord, Joshua told them to destroy the idols among them (Joshua 24:23). If you have decided to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, then you have to put away forever the idols of your past and destroy any idols among you. Perhaps in the past you served an idol of drugs or pornography or gossip or lies. Maybe you’ve made an idol of your phone or an app, turning to it when life gets difficult instead of the throne of God. Do you turn on a movie or binge a television show for peace and comfort instead of turning to the Prince of Peace and the Comforter? Perhaps you sacrifice your body and time for a paycheck and have enslaved yourself to money. Perhaps you’ve enslaved yourself to your past, dwelling on past sins and mistakes. What idols can you identify in your own life that you need to destroy?

“I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.” (Isaiah 43:25)

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,” (Philippians 3:13)

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you have chosen to serve the Lord wholeheartedly and have given your life to Christ, then you are a new person, the old life is gone and the new has come. God says he will blot out your sins and never think of them again. If you have chosen to fear the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly, then destroy the idols of your past and continually be on the lookout for idols in your life. Choose today whom you will serve.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 

—Redeemed