Every day requires a new decision. That decision is whether or not this day we will serve the Lord or ourselves. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could choose once for all time and then go on autopilot with God. The good news is when we choose to invite Jesus Christ into our lives to be our Lord and Savior we do receive God the Holy Spirit as our mentor, power and guide. The bad news is our once for all decision requires daily excercise to make it work. Each day I must awake and decide to seek the Lord or follow my baser instincts that are rife with selfishness, fear and desire. That is the decision required of you and of me. Let me say two things that I pray will help. First, by not making this decision I am deciding to tune into me and not the Holy Spirit. I should not then be surprised when at sometime during the day I realize I am disturbed within. I will not have peace about my day because I will see and hear things from a very self centered point of view. I will find that my day was at least a bit of a mess and I will be tossed to and fro by my emotions reacting to what I believe was good or bad about the day. There will be the constant companion of unsettled feelings within me. On the other hand if I will choose this day to follow the leading of God the Holy Spirit letting Him bring understanding and wisdom to the events of my day then I will have peace within and progress without. Second, practice does make perfect. If we want this peace and sense of progress in our Christian life we need to make our daily choosing a habit. The church calls this developing spiritual discipline. Few like the word discipline because it smacks of punishing work or the consequences of a bad choice. But the positive side of discipline is developing our spiritual muscles for the work of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ in a chaotic fallen world. Ask any runner who begins training and they will tell you how hard it was to get started. But ask them how they feel when they’re muscles are well disciplined and they will tell you how much easier it is now. For physcial activity it is building tone and muscle memory. The muscles remember for us how to run and make it so much easier than when they weren’t disciplined. The same is true of spiritual disciplines. By practicing them over and over they get easier and better. My wife Bev and I had the privilege of having lunch with ninety-seven year old Lena Johnson a pillar of Pathfinder church and a lady of great faith. I asked her how she was able to walk so closely with Jesus every day. She told us she prayed the day every morning. You might remember the prayer we used in worship for some time. Lord, this is your day. I am your servant. Help me walk with you on your path for me. Help me to do or not do as you guide. Lena said this prayer had helped her choose to serve Jesus each day. I told her when I grow up I want to be more like her. What about you? How is your spiritual discipline? Choose this day whom you will serve.