Joshua 24:14–15 (NKJV)
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, 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.”
Joshua could lead the people to the other side of the Jordan river but he could not lead them to serve the Lord. They had to make that choice themselves.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “To serve God means to fear Him, obey Him, and worship only Him.” There are many things we can be forced to do. Serving God is not one of them. It is a choice we make. A halfhearted choice is a choice not to serve God.
There is no neutral zone in serving God. Joshua says “fear the Lord.” We must know who we serve and worship. We think often of God as being this wonderful old granddaddy type person. God the Creator of all things is the Creator of life…we live at the pleasure of God. At any moment we could be struck down.
We must remember this awesome God who controls life and death loves us. Remember John 3:16. He desires a relationship with us that is real and meaningful (1 John 1;1-10).
True believers in God fear Him. We must choose to Reverence and worship Him and to believe and follow Him.