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“Choose this day whom you will serve.”
Those words from Joshua 24:15 confront one of our most common spiritual habits:
procrastination.
We often know something needs to change.
We know we should repent.
Pray.
Return to Scripture.
Ask for help.
Walk away from a destructive habit.
Yet we quietly tell ourselves:
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will take God seriously.
Maybe then I will deal with that sin.
After that, I will repair that relationship.
Eventually, I will become more disciplined.
The problem is that tomorrow is never the day on which obedience happens.
Obedience always happens today.
Joshua understood this when he gathered Israel and challenged them to decide whom they would serve.
His words were not motivational advice about becoming more productive.
They were a covenant challenge about allegiance to God.
That makes the question deeply personal:
Whom will you serve today?
Here are five decisions every Christian should consider making now rather than postponing indefinitely.
What Does “Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve” Mean?
Joshua 24 comes near the end of Joshua’s life.
Israel has entered the land God promised.
Joshua gathers the people and recounts what the Lord has done for them.
God called Abraham.
Delivered Israel from Egypt.
Protected them.
Brought them into the land.
Therefore, Joshua’s challenge does not begin with:
“Look what you can do for God.”
It begins with:
“Look what God has already done.”
Then Joshua says:
“Choose this day whom you will serve.”
The choice concerns worship and allegiance.
Will Israel serve the Lord?
Or will they return to the gods worshiped by surrounding nations and earlier generations?
Therefore, Joshua’s words are fundamentally about who will have first place in your life.
Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve: Grace Comes First
This distinction is important.
Biblical faith is not simply human beings deciding to become better people through stronger willpower.
God acts first.
He reveals Himself.
Calls.
Saves.
Shows mercy.
Then His grace demands a response.
Israel’s obedience did not create the Exodus.
God delivered them first.
Likewise, Christians do not earn salvation by making enough good decisions.
We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Yet grace never leaves us neutral.
Christ calls us:
“Follow me.”
Therefore, the Christian life contains real decisions—not as a way of purchasing salvation, but as a response to the God who saves.
1. Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve
The first decision is also the most fundamental.
Who is Lord of your life?
Jesus warned that no one can serve two masters.
Eventually, competing loyalties reveal themselves.
We may confess Christ with our lips while allowing:
money,
pleasure,
approval,
career,
sexual desire,
comfort,
or personal ambition
to function as our real master.
Joshua’s challenge cuts through the confusion.
You cannot indefinitely postpone allegiance.
Every day your choices are already revealing what you value most.
Therefore, ask honestly:
Is Jesus merely part of my life, or is He Lord over my life?
For more on Christ’s lordship:
Choosing Christ Is More Than an Emotional Moment
Sometimes Christians treat choosing Jesus as though it were merely walking forward during an altar call or repeating a prayer.
Those moments can be meaningful.
However, discipleship involves far more.
Jesus says in Luke 9:23:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Notice the word:
daily.
Yesterday’s obedience does not eliminate today’s decisions.
Following Jesus means continually bringing our desires, relationships, ambitions, possessions, and plans under His lordship.
Therefore, choosing Christ today means:
“Lord, I belong to You again in the decisions before me right now.”
2. Choose Today to Stop Delaying Obedience
Many spiritual problems survive because we continually rename disobedience as:
“something I will deal with later.”
James 4:17 says:
“Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
Sometimes we do not need another sermon.
Another conference.
Another book.
Or another confirmation.
We already know what God has said.
Perhaps you need to forgive someone.
Confess a lie.
End a sinful relationship.
Ask someone for help.
Return something that is not yours.
Stop hiding an addiction.
Begin treating your spouse differently.
If Scripture has made the issue clear, waiting for a dramatic feeling can become another form of avoidance.
Why Spiritual Procrastination Is Dangerous
Procrastination feels harmless because it does not usually say:
“Never.”
It says:
“Not yet.”
That sounds less rebellious.
Yet repeated delay can slowly harden the heart.
Hebrews 3:15 warns:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
There is urgency in the word today.
Not because God is impatient in the way humans are impatient.
Rather, because sin becomes easier to tolerate when repeatedly protected.
The first compromise may trouble your conscience deeply.
After many repetitions, what once disturbed you can begin feeling normal.
Therefore, when God exposes something that requires repentance, respond while your heart is tender.
3. Choose Today to Build Your Life Around God
Psalm 90:12 says:
“Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Moses does not ask God to make life longer.
He asks for wisdom to live the days he has been given.
That prayer exposes another form of procrastination.
We often imagine meaningful Christian living begins someday in the future.
When I have more money.
When the children are older.
Perhaps when work becomes easier.
Maybe after I understand my calling.
Or once I feel spiritually strong.
But your real life is happening now.
Today is not preparation for your life.
Today is part of your life.
Therefore, build your present rhythms around what matters eternally.
Choosing Whom You Will Serve Shapes Your Direction
Spiritual growth usually does not happen through one spectacular decision.
It develops through repeated ordinary choices.
Open Scripture instead of automatically reaching for your phone.
Pray when anxiety appears.
Tell the truth when lying would be convenient.
Go to church when isolation feels easier.
Ask forgiveness when pride says to defend yourself.
Turn away from temptation before it becomes stronger.
Spend time with people who strengthen your faith.
None of those decisions may feel dramatic.
Nevertheless, together they shape a life.
Direction is often determined by repeated small choices.
Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve With Your Time
Our calendars reveal priorities surprisingly well.
We often say:
“I don’t have time.”
Sometimes that is genuinely true in a particular season.
However, frequently the deeper issue is:
“I have not made this a priority.”
Everyone has limits.
A parent with small children may not have an hour of uninterrupted prayer every morning.
A person working multiple jobs may face real constraints.
Therefore, we should avoid creating artificial spiritual rules.
Still, each believer can ask:
What does faithfulness look like in the season God has given me?
The goal is not copying somebody else’s routine.
It is intentionally making room for God in your own.
4. Choose Today to Deal Seriously With Sin
Some decisions cannot remain vague.
If something repeatedly pulls you away from God, you need a plan.
Jesus uses deliberately radical language in Matthew 5 when speaking about temptation.
His point is not physical self-harm.
His point is:
do not treat destructive sin casually.
For one person, that may mean removing an app.
For another, ending access to pornography.
Someone else may need accountability for alcohol, gambling, anger, dishonesty, or sexual temptation.
Repentance sometimes requires changing the environment in which temptation thrives.
Freedom Usually Requires More Than Willpower
The older version of this article used pornography as a major example.
I would keep it only briefly here because we already have an entire recovery cluster devoted to that subject.
However, one principle remains valuable:
take one faithful step today.
Do not promise yourself:
“I will never struggle again for the rest of my life.”
Instead ask:
“What does obedience require from me today?”
Perhaps it means confessing the struggle.
Installing accountability software.
Calling a mature Christian.
Removing access.
Seeking professional help where appropriate.
Or entering a structured recovery process.
For more:
The important thing is not merely wanting freedom.
It is beginning to walk toward it.
Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve When Temptation Comes
Temptation often tries to make the future disappear.
It says:
“Only this moment matters.”
Faith does the opposite.
It remembers that today’s choice has consequences.
That does not mean one failure destroys your entire future.
The gospel offers forgiveness and restoration.
Yet grace should never become permission to keep arranging our lives around predictable defeat.
Romans 13:14 tells believers:
“Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Therefore, wisdom asks:
What am I repeatedly providing for the very temptation I claim to want freedom from?
That question can reveal where a practical decision is needed today.
5. Choose Today to Ask for Help
Pride says:
“I should be able to fix this myself.”
Wisdom knows otherwise.
God frequently helps His people through other people.
Proverbs celebrates wise counsel.
Galatians tells believers to bear one another’s burdens.
James encourages confession and prayer.
Therefore, asking for help is not evidence that your faith has failed.
Sometimes it is evidence that humility has finally begun.
Perhaps you need:
a pastor,
mentor,
counselor,
accountability partner,
doctor,
trusted friend,
or mature Christian couple.
The specific person depends upon the problem.
But isolation usually makes difficult struggles harder.
Asking for Help Is Still Your Decision
Other people can support you.
They cannot make your choices for you.
A mentor can advise.
A pastor can pray.
A counselor can help identify destructive patterns.
A friend can hold you accountable.
Yet eventually you must respond.
Paul says in Galatians 6 that believers should bear one another’s burdens, but he also says each one should carry his own load.
Those truths belong together.
Christian community does not eliminate personal responsibility.
It helps us carry it faithfully.
What About God’s Plan for Your Life?
The original article also asked whether you know God’s plan, calling, gifts, and purpose for your life.
Those are good questions.
However, they can become another source of procrastination.
Some Christians wait for God to reveal a detailed ten-year plan before obeying what Scripture has already made clear today.
God may guide you into a specific ministry, vocation, marriage, location, or assignment.
Yet His revealed will already includes things such as:
love God,
love your neighbor,
pursue holiness,
tell the truth,
forgive,
serve,
pray,
make disciples,
walk by the Spirit.
Do not neglect clear obedience while waiting for special guidance.
For more:
You Do Not Need to Understand Your Entire Future Today
This truth can remove enormous pressure.
You may not know exactly where you will be five years from now.
Neither may you fully understand your calling yet.
That does not mean you cannot move forward.
Psalm 119 describes God’s Word as:
“a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
A lamp usually gives enough light for the next steps, not the entire journey.
Therefore, faith sometimes sounds like:
“God, I do not know everything You will ask of me tomorrow, but I will obey what You have shown me today.”
That is a powerful way to live.
Choosing Today Does Not Mean Making Impulsive Decisions
There is an important balance here.
“Choose today” does not mean:
“Make every major decision immediately.”
Scripture also praises:
wisdom,
counsel,
patience,
planning,
and waiting on God.
You should not rush into marriage, leave a job, move countries, or make a major financial decision merely because someone says:
“Stop procrastinating!”
The distinction is between wise waiting and disobedient delay.
Wise waiting says:
“I need more information, prayer, counsel, or timing.”
Disobedient delay says:
“I already know what is right, but I don’t want to do it.”
Learning the difference is part of Christian maturity.
Why “Today” Matters in the Bible
Scripture repeatedly gives spiritual significance to today.
Psalm 95 says:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Hebrews repeats that warning.
Second Corinthians 6:2 says:
“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Jesus teaches His disciples not to be consumed with tomorrow’s anxieties.
The repeated emphasis is not that tomorrow has no value.
Christians plan.
Prepare.
Work.
Save.
And make wise long-term decisions.
Rather, Scripture confronts our assumption that obedience can always be safely postponed.
The only moment in which you can obey God is the moment He has actually given you.
Five Decisions to Make Today
Joshua’s challenge can help us simplify the question.
1. Choose whom you will serve.
Let Christ, not competing idols, have first place.
2. Choose obedience over delay.
If God’s Word has made something clear, stop waiting for perfect feelings.
3. Choose spiritual priorities.
Build ordinary life around Scripture, prayer, worship, community, and faithfulness.
4. Choose to deal seriously with sin.
Repent and put practical boundaries around areas of weakness.
5. Choose to ask for help when you need it.
Stop fighting battles God never intended you to fight alone.
None of these decisions earns God’s love.
They are responses to His grace.
Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve
Joshua eventually makes his own declaration:
“As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
He cannot choose for all Israel.
But he can declare where he stands.
The same is true for us.
Your pastor cannot choose for you.
Your parents cannot make that decision either.
Neither can your spouse.
Likewise, your church cannot choose in your place.
Others can pray, encourage, counsel, and challenge you.
Yet you must respond to God.
Perhaps there is something you have postponed for months.
Maybe years.
You already know what obedience requires.
Do not promise God another tomorrow.
Begin today.
Not because today’s decision will magically solve every problem.
Not because spiritual transformation happens instantly.
But because every faithful journey eventually requires a first faithful step.
To choose this day whom you will serve means refusing to postpone the obedience God is asking from you today.
Choose this day whom you will serve—because tomorrow’s faithfulness begins with today’s obedience.
Continue the Study
How to know God’s plan for your life:
How to surrender your life to God:
How to make godly decisions:
How to fight sin biblically:
Why Jesus Christ is Lord:
I am a blogger, writer, pastor, Director of Zion Romania Bible School, husband to Olguta, a father and, most importantly, a child of God. I also completed my studies at the King’s University where I earned a B.A. in Theology with a concentration in Messianic Jewish Studies. I love Israel and I love the ‘Jewishness’ of the Bible.
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