Choose to hope in the Lord today.
Joshua 24: 15 is one of the great chapters of the Old Testament. Joshua is speaking to Israel for the last time. He’s challenging the nation to make a choice. “Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.”
When meditating on the subject of hope found in scriptures, I have learned that Joshua truly understood the power of choice. He challenged his fellow Israelites to choose to hope, and to have faith in God’s ability to do what he promised. We also have to choose to hold onto hope regardless our circumstances, often in exchange for our idols or the things in life that make us feel a false sense of security.
Here are a few things we need to remember about choice.
- We must choose for ourselves.
- Choice involves sacrifice.
- Once we choose, to delay acting on that choice gives us time to change our minds and miss our limited window of opportunity to hope.
What does it mean to choose for ourselves? A lot of people want their mother or their father, their sister or brother, or someone else to make decisions for them. But when it comes to the major decisions of life, no one else can choose hope for us. We have to choose it for ourselves. God asks each of us to choose for ourselves to hope in him, to choose hope over despair.
The second thing we need to remember about choosing to hope in God is it often involves some sort of sacrifice or exchange. The sacrifice God required of the Israelites, communicated through Joshua, was they had to give up their idols, their worship of foreign gods, and dedicate themselves entirely to the Lord. It was a major sacrifice to choose to hope in the one true God above the idols they had come to rely upon. Choice involves sacrifice. We have to trade our human nature and tendencies for hope.
Finally, the third point I’d like to make about choosing hope regards timing. Have you ever made a decision to do something, but after a period of time rethought your decision? When we choose to hope in God, we need to act promptly on that choice, otherwise we could miss the boat. Think for a moment. Let’s say you are scheduled to be on a ship leaving the port at 12:00 midnight tomorrow. Time passes by and you can’t make up your mind whether you want to be on the boat or not. If you delay even by just one minute after midnight, when the ship toots its horn and heads out into the harbor, you will have missed the trip. You will not be on that boat. Time has decided for you. Time will decide for you on matters related to hope. The time to hope is now. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. If you’re going to hope and hope in God, the time to hope is now. We don’t know how long we’ll to have on earth. Life throws curves at all of us. I’m surprised that I’ve been here in this world as long as I have been. The importance of time cannot be overemphasized. Your time for decision, your time to choose hope is limited.
Choose hope for yourself. That choice will cost you something, but you will never regret making the decision to hope in the Lord. He has incredible plans for your life. Don’t miss the boat. Hope in God today.