The most important decision

The most important decision you will have to make in your life that will influence and guide all of your other  decisions is this: 

Who do you give your allegiance to?  

Basically it means that you choose this day whom you will serve.  Everyone serves something or someone, otherwise we would be unable to exist.  We were made for worship.  This was meant so that we would enjoy God forever, but when sin entered humanity our connection to God became separated and our craving for worship went in all kinds of broken directions.  Worship of self-image, worship of money, worship of beauty, etc.  So when Christ died on the cross, He reconnected us to God, making a way back to our true connection of worship.  He made a way for us to be complete again.  However, worship is also a choice because it implies affection.  Choose this day whom you will serve is also another way of saying choose this day whom you will love.  

The one who holds your allegiance will also hold your obedience.  

The other day I was driving and I accidentally cut a guy off on the road and he followed me all the way into the trader Joe's parking lot!  Right away, my pride kicked in (feeling "how dare he try to make such a big deal of my mistake or try to intimidate me!") and I took my sweet time to drive v e r y slowly and then even stopped at one point to look at my phone until he finally drove up next to me, and I gave him a nonchalant gaze to show him that I was oblivious to his existence.  As he made some wildly angry hand motions and his face was heated I just smiled condescendingly because he looked silly and I wanted him to know that that's what I thought of him.  Then he drove off.  Immediately (and during) something felt so off in me.  But it all happened so quickly that I had reacted naturally, rather than responded intentionally.  God showed me how prideful I still am when my faults are flung at me.  Instead of humbly apologizing I resisted the call to humility and acted on the idol of self-glory.  An idol that has brought me nothing but disappointment, loneliness, and destruction.  I wish I could rewind that scene and pull over to that guy and apologize for cutting him off.  That's all I had to do.  Lesson learned though, and perhaps God brought me to that in order to teach me the reality of how sudden moments will occur where we don't have an hour to think about what we will say or do, we have a few seconds to decide....

If your allegiance is to the one true King you are a warrior not just in outward dress of conduct but one inwardly.  Your loyalty is with Him at all times no matter what the enemy might tempt you with.  Whether with torture (eps against your pride) or wealth, a person who has made up his or her mind of where their allegiance is, remains undeterred in their inner person, their character.  Allegiance is so much deeper than mere association.  It is a bond of love for the one you serve who possesses what is good, right, and true.  

"If you decide that it’s a bad thing to worship God, then choose a god you’d rather serve—and do it today. 

Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped..., or one of the gods (on whose land you’re now living.) 

As for me and my family, we’ll worship God."

Joshua 24:15 (MSG, condensed)

Choose this day whom you will serve. 

As for me...

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John 3:30

My allegiance is to the Lord.  

And grace, the response I get from God when I am found with treason, changes my traitor heart into devoted.  

Jmegrey