Service

As the new year began, I spent some time catching up on blogs. I’d missed a few during the holidays, and it’s always a blessing to revisit my favorites.  One is Deborah’s Journey, though she has a couple of others, it was here I read of her verse for the year, Joshua 24:15b.

She had a lovely graphic, but I wanted to use her link and verse quickly, so I needed one without waiting for permission. I stopped by another favorite blog (both are on my side bar), Bran Made Tags. Sometimes months go by without an update there – but scrolling through offers tons of beautiful graphics.  I didn’t have to scroll, though. Top of the latest blog – there it was. 

I saw the rooftops first, and thought, “Wow, that would be just right. I can change the verse …”, but I didn’t have to. There it was, the verse we should all use during 2013:

Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14-15 KJV)

It’s the close of the campaigns, the close of his career. He’s lived through the wilderness, fought for the land of promise and now he shows his determination to continue to be of service to his Lord, whatever might come.

He recognizes that others may not. They came through the same hardships, survived the same battles, or were born a generation later and see only the promises. Some will determine that evil does come when serving the Lord. They will seek other pleasures. They will turn away from God’s service, forgetting they are where He brought them.

What is the service He requires?  Later, by another, we’re told:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV)

It’s the humbleness that gives us such problems, isn’t it? We have a tendency to take pride in what we do, forgetting that God has a specific purpose for us. When we quench the spirit, thwart that purpose, things become less clear and much more chaotic. Decisions are harder, temptations stronger. When all we need to know is:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV)

In spite of the many biblical promises fulfilled by men who did fear God and keep His commandments – as well as the examples of those who did not – we forget our duty and neglect our service. Will we serve our Lord in 2013?