"Choose you this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15)
So spoke Joshua to the children of Israel. They could choose themselves whether they would be servants of God or not, and the same power of choice lies with each of us. The secret of success lies in the use of the will. We can will to serve God, or we can will to serve the god of this world. "To whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, [says Paul,] his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." (Romans 6:16)
Every sin is prefaced by yielding on the part of the sinner; and every righteous act is also prefaced by yielding; but in the one case the yielding is to Satan, and in the other case to God. In the moment of temptation, when it seems that we must fall, we may yield ourselves to Him, and in that condition we will not yield ourselves to Satan, for we are controlled by the one to whom we yield ourselves.
And when you yield your will to God, you do not thereby lose your will, for God allies it with His own, which is a source of incalculable strength. And then you will know that: "It is God which works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)--Present Truth, November 30, 1893--Joshua 24:15
E.J. Waggoner