COV LIFE BLOG

Joshua 24:1-28 – You Can Only Serve God by the Grace He Provides

Ye cannot serve the Lord.
 
It seemed as though Joshua sought to damp down the enthusiasm of the people. They were all on fire to serve, but he repressed their ardor, crying, “Back, back! This is no place for you.” We are reminded of a precise analogy in the Gospels, where our Savior said to Peter and the rest, “Ye cannot follow Me now” (John 13:31–38). Why this Divine reluctance?
 
The answer is clear, when we consider the sequel in each case. In the one, we have only to turn a page in our Bibles, to come on all the disobedience, anarchy, and backsliding of the Book of Judges; in the other we see that Peter denied and the rest forsook Him. How obviously it was shown that there was a moral incompatibility between their self-confident assertions and the service of the Holy God. But this incompatibility was present to the Spirit’s discernment when these strong asseverations were made, first by the Israelites, and secondly by the Apostles.
 
So it becomes us to speak very reverently and leniently of our ability to obey. We are probably over-estimating our powers. Created might wanes and fails beneath the searching demands of the Holy One. Perpetual failure has weakened us; for when once a door has been broken through a wall, that spot is always ways weaker. A fallen ancestry has predisposed us to fail. To will is present with us, but how to perform that which is good we find not. No one can look thoughtfully into the workings of his own nature without realizing the terrible paralysis which has befallen it. We need then that God should counteract our fickleness by upholding us with his steadfast, or constant, Spirit (Psalm 51:10).

F.B. Meyer

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Joshua 24:1-28. Notice the people’s declaration that they will choose to serve God, and yet Joshua responds that they can’t. Do you often remember that you are incapable of serving God on your own? Do you remember as Galatians 3:3 reminds us that after having begun by the Spirit, we are incapable of living other than by the Spirit as well? Where do you struggle to remember and walk in this truth?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
Not In Me by Sovereign Grace