Who Will You Serve?
Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
We all have a choice to make. Will we serve the gods of this world, or will we serve the LORD? Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24). Which is the same as saying that you cannot serve both God and the world – you have to make a choice. The issue is not legalism verses faith. The issue is loyalty to God verses obedience to men and compromise for convenience sake. This is the time to say, “O My Father … not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39).
Are You Willing to Pay the Price?
This is full surrender to God, even at what may appear to be great personal loss. The decision that Daniel and his companions made could have cost them everything. But that was a price they were willing to pay. This is real living faith in action. Faith is not so much what you say or profess or feel or think. Words and feelings come cheap. Faith is what you live.
All profession of faith is worthless if it is not lived. Either you will trust God to be able to handle every situation, no matter how hopeless it may appear to be, or you compromise saying, “God will understand, He knows the situation I am in. What else could I have done?” The life you live, especially when things look the most desperate, will tell if your faith is true or false. A person will live the faith they have.
A Simple but Effective Prayer
Easy words to say and as noted above, words come cheap. But when you come to an overwhelming situation that staggers your faith, what do you do? There is a little prayer in the Bible that we should always keep in mind. Short, simple, but very effective, and Daniel and his friends may very well have prayed something like it. “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). We must never forget that faith is a gift. We must never confuse faith with willpower or stubbornness or obstinacy, or pigheadedness.
Obedience, Both a Choice and a Gift
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
The person of faith can be a doer of the word because they recognize that the “doing” is not only a choice, but also a God given gift. They understand that “it is God who works in [them] both to will and to do His good pleasur.” (Philippians 2:13) and that though “there are diversities of activities … it is … God who works all in all.” (1 Corinthians 12:6).
There is a Pharisaic form of obedience that is legalistic. But true obedience is not to be confused with legalism. Legalism is obedience with the thought of “earning” merit with God. A legalist has the mindset of an employee working for wages. “I have done this, therefore, I am owed that.” True obedience is by contrast the outflow of a living faith, a gift from God.
“Your Will be Done”
Daniel and his companions had a choice to make. Would they stand true to their convictions and trust God to supply their need? Or would they worry and fret themselves out of God’s hand and take the apparently easy way out?
Matthew 6:31-33 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
What did Daniel, and his companions do? They decided to seek God and his kingdom above all else. The decided to trust God to provide them with the food and drink that they needed. This is real faith. A quiet determination to follow God no matter where, no matter what. Trusting God in every situation. To be willing to say, “Not my will, but Your will be done.” (Matthew 26:39).
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To be Continued