We love choices, right? We love the freedom to choose things that make us happy or make our lives better. Regular or curly fries with that? Paper or plastic? We could stand in the salad dressing aisle in the grocery store for an hour in an agony of indecision. So many choices! 

Joshua, the leader who took over for Moses and guided God’s people into the promised land of Canaan, also needed to make a choice. Nearing the end of his life, he gathered the people to deliver a mini history lesson. He reminded them about how God had taken them out of slavery in Egypt to a land filled with blessings. He reminded them how God had again and again remained faithful to them, even though they, in turn, had again and again rejected their God in favor of the false, disgusting gods of the nations living around them. 

Joshua told the people they had to now make a life-or-death choice: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). 

Joshua’s choice was a whole lot more crucial than which two sides he wanted with his entrée. Our choice is crucial also. Each day this world tells us to choose false gods like money and possessions and substances and beauty. Don’t be fooled. There’s only one God. Who will you serve today?