As for me and my house…
You’ve probably heard the saying, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” You can find it on mugs, wall hangings, Bible covers…you name it and it’s probably been printed on it. But do you know where it originates?
Joshua 24:15: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
The Hebrew for Lord is yhwh (Yahweh), the proper name of the one true God. Knowledge and use of the name implies personal or covenant relationship. The root of this name means “self-existing,” the one who never came into being and one who will always be. Yahweh is the most intensely sacred name to Jewish scribes, and many will not even pronounce it. They revere it so much that, when possible, they use another name when speaking of God.
The Hebrew word for serve in this verse is ʽābad, meaning to work, serve, labor, do; to worship, minister, to be plowed, be cultivated; to reduce to servitude, enslave.
Are you willing to be enslaved to the one true God? Are you willing to be plowed and cultivated to worship the one who never came into being and who will always be? Are you willing to minister and labor so that the Word of God reaches the ends of the earth; or maybe more importantly, the corners of your neighborhood, schools, workplace?
Are you willing to be uncomfortable, unpopular, unfairly judged, misunderstood? Because that is what true service to God entails. It requires us to keep our eyes squarely focused on Him, even when what He’s asking of us seems unreasonable or is something for which we feel ill equipped. It is in the stepping out in obedience that we are cultivated.
Several decades ago, I took my father for an outpatient procedure at a local hospital. Even though I had accepted the Lord ten years prior, I was still immature in my faith. I loved the Lord, but I wasn’t truly living for Him. As I sat in the waiting room, a lady shared that her husband had a history of heart-related issues and the procedure he was undergoing that day would determine if he needed further intervention. She was obviously concerned and as I listened to her speak, I heard Him. For the first time, I heard Him speak to me. Very clearly. Very directly. “Ask her if you can pray for her.” I can still remember my racing heart and the fear that raised up inside me. My reply was, “I can’t do that. She’ll think I’m nuts.”
But God isn’t prone to backing down. I heard it again, “Ask if you can pray for her.” When I say I was shaking, I am not exaggerating. So, I took a leap of faith, and said, “Would you like me to pray for you?” “No. I’m fine.” was not the answer I was expecting, but it was exactly the answer I got. Awkward.
Why would God have asked me to pray for someone who would flat out turn me down? Why would He embarrass me like that? And then He placed the answer on my heart. “Because I wanted you to be obedient.”
This wasn’t about the woman or her husband. It was about cultivating and pushing this immature Christian to grow in her faith. To go from believing and accepting Jesus, to living for Jesus. To follow His calling on my life and my actions. To learn to trust when I am terrified. To obey when I feel incompetent. For in these moments, we become servants of the One True God. The One who is, was, and always will be. The One who breathed life into our lungs that we can breathe hope into the world.
The Bible is clear that we must accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to spend eternity in Heaven with the Father. We can’t buy or work our way in. But, acceptance of Jesus is not the end, rather it is the beginning.
James 2:14-19 tells us: What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Are you choosing comfort over Christ? Do you ignore the “nudges” to pray for someone because it might not be well received? Do you sit in a church that is more concerned with political correctness than speaking the truth? Do you sit idly by as your Pastor ignores worldly issues of same-sex marriage, abortion, gender identity, indoctrination in schools, and government so as not to make anyone uncomfortable? Do you bite your tongue when God is telling you to speak truth into a situation? Do you only utter the name of Jesus in your Christian circle?
We are running out of time. We have a finite number of days on this earth to serve the One who sacrificed everything. I’m certain Jesus was uncomfortable as He hung on the cross at Calvary to pay for the sins of those reading this blog. He suffered, not so I could sit comfortably in my earthly world, but so that I would take risks to honor Him. That I would speak boldly of His love and sacrifice. That I would crush the enemy under the feet of a daughter marching to battle for the One True God.
He breathed life into us. Jesus breathed His last breath for us. So that we can say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”