LEARNING DAILY

 

1 Kings 18:21, And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

 

Do you think there is a more important statement or question to think about other than Elijah’s question to the people of Israel? Do you remember Joshua telling the people of Israel, “to 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.”

 

Choosing to follow Jesus Christ through the salvation He offers each of us is a personal choice, one we all make. To choose to follow other gods, is to choose to walk on a broad way that leads to destruction, an eternity separated from God. To make the choice to accept His salvation is to choose to walk on a narrow way that is difficult; however, it leads to eternity in the presence of Jesus in the kingdom of God. As with the choice given the people by both Joshua and Elijah, the choice of who we follow is ours today. Once we decide to follow Jesus and walk on His narrow way, we must make the conscious decision to follow Him each day.

 

I want to make this as encouraging as possible today. I know how easy it is to allow the busyness of the day interfere with my walk on the narrow way. I have found when I fail to start the day with my Bible or even a short time in prayer, I tend to walk closer to the edge of the narrow way and temptation becomes so much stronger. Are you following me? It seems to me, that Joshua and Isaiah were telling the people they needed to count the cost of serving Jesus.

 

In Luke 14:28, Jesus said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it will mock him,”. Jesus taught that whoever choses to follow Him and be his disciple should first decide whether he/she was willing to pay the cost. The cost of real discipleship is to give up all relationships and possessions; do not misunderstand this. This does not mean we must reject all that we have, but that all we have must be used for Christ’s service and under His guidance for His honor and his glory.

 

Today this means each of us must decide who we will follow; there is no place for a middle of the fence position. The prevailing mood, today, is to remove all things representing God and His Word. The people of God must renew their commitment to follow Him, to walk with Him on the narrow way. We must not be like many who followed Him while He was on earth. They enjoyed the miracles and the free food, but He knew their hearts were not really interested in the way of life He was calling them to live.

 

To choose to live for Him by walking the narrow way with Him is a difficult way. But He is there to guide and strengthen us to finish what we began when we chose to accept His salvation.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.