Therefore, fear the LORD and worship Him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship Yahweh. But if it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.”     Joshua 2514-15 HCSB

In children’s church, the kids put a lot of thought into the lessons, and they ask the hard questions. Last Sunday as we began to study book of Joshua, one of them asked, “Why does God give us a choice?” I have often pondered this question. Wouldn’t our lives have been much simpler if God had created us as robots who worshiped Him and never sinned. He could have just programmed us to always do what is right.

This would have saved Adam and Eve a lot of trouble and would have saved mankind. What if we were all just programmed to be loving and kind and be just like Jesus. Jesus would not have had to die that horrible death on the cross and we would all live in heaven on earth.

There would be no sin, no crime, no need for the police or the courts. My whole career would not have existed. If Adam hadn’t sinned, we wouldn’t have to work. We would simply live off the bounty of the land that God provided. Sounds pretty awesome doesn’t it.

There would be no divorce because husbands and wives would use the Biblical example of marriage and there would be no fussing or fighting.

In our Scripture passage today, Joshua is letting the people of Israel know they have a choice. They can worship the false gods, or they can worship the one true God. He is also letting them know that he and his family have chosen to worship the one true God.

We don’t want people to like us or love us because they have no choice. We don’t want them to be around us because they are forced to do so. We want people to like us for who we are. We want to be loved for who we are. God is no different.

There was a time in my life when I thought God was such a loving God, He would understand our sin and go easy on us. But since I have been doing more Bible study, I realize this is just a lie the devil tells us. It’s dangerous to believe this lie.

God gives us a choice. He allowed Satan to go into the garden of Eden and tempt Adam and Eve. He allowed them to succumb to the devil’s temptation. He punished them and generations to come for their sin. We have to understand, He is a loving merciful God. He is also a God of great wrath. When we cross the line, there could literally be hell to pay.

God loves us and He wants us to love Him. We are told in Matthew 22:37 to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. When we do this, we will naturally love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In doing these things, we will be obeying all of the Ten Commandments.

We don’t have to love God; we have a choice. We don’t have to give up our sinful ways, we have a choice. God loves us so much; He gave his only Son to die for our sins. We can accept Him or reject Him; the choice is ours. But if we reject Him, we choose an eternity in hell. If we accept Him, we will have eternal life with God in heaven (John 3:16).

Seems like a no-brainer. Sadly, many will be deceived. We are told that few will actually make it to heaven (Matthew 7:14).

My prayer for you today is that you are one of the few. I pray that you will choose to surrender your life to Christ before it’s too late. Choose to put Him first and acknowledge Him in all you do (Proverbs 3:5-6). Trust in Him and obey Him before time runs out.

Have a great day!