“…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:15

Praise you, Lord God, for the many opportunities you give us each day to choose for you or others, for good or evil, for positive or negative, for what is constructive or destructive. Many of these choices seem innocuous and unimportant, but are steps towards or away from where we should be.

To choose to read email before doing my quiet time, to choose to have extra helpings regularly, to choose to look at pictures, images or people which stimulate negative thinking, to choose to speak selfish words—these all move me in the wrong direction.

They bring a sense of guilt and remorse, of emptiness. Over time these build up in my soul, clogging the flow of grace, diminishing my first love for Jesus, sapping energy, bringing discontent, discouragement and possibly depression.

Praise You, Lord Jesus, for the continuous working of your Spirit to both convict and guide us, to teach truth and encourage, to give perspective and heal.

When I have chosen what is wrong, and feel convicted about it, you bring me to confession and cleansing. You forgive me, reminding me of your full, rich love and how each failure is a potential doorway to deeper surrender, further breaking and spiritual growth. You remind me of the effectiveness of your death in bringing forgiveness, of your unending love for me, of your knowing all about me and still delighting in me—illogical as that may be–for your love is full of grace.

Praise you, Lord Jesus, the Lover, the Liberator, the Leader of my soul. You are a marvel, so magnificently different from any human being, so majestically pure, so marvelously persistent, so mightily powerful, so perfect in your character. You never change, you never vacillate, you never alter your ideas. You are rock solid, ever loving, ever correcting, ever forgiving.

With you we can move through the valleys of failure and selfishness, sin and poor choices and still come out to a good place because of your grace and goodness. You faithfully work to convict us, guide us, warn us, call us, protect us, chasten us—with you there is always hope for growth and progress. You reverse the second law of thermodynamics on a spiritual level, bringing order out of chaos!

I give you honor and praise and glory, Lord Jesus, for to know you is to be given stability in your love, grace in your commitment, hope in your power, peace in your forgiveness, joy in your presence, delight in your beauty, wisdom in your Word, strength in your might, help in your compassion and guidance in your wisdom. Your goodness and desires for us are summed up with this: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).

Prayer: “Glory be to you, honor be to you, obedience be to you in my life today, Lord God, that your Name may be lifted up before men and angels. Help me to hear you, to comprehend and obey you for your glory. Amen.”

—from EDIFIED!