Grace Gives Us a Choice

What We Believe: A Wesleyan Perspective — Week 2

Scripture: Joshua 24:14–15 || Watch here. 

As a boy, I remember standing with the neighborhood kids while two captains chose teams for baseball. The best athletes were picked first. I usually waited a little longer.

Eventually, someone called my name: “Rick.”
My assignment was catcher. It wasn’t glamorous, but I discovered that the catcher participates in virtually every pitch. I had a place on the team and a part to play.
Yet being chosen didn’t force me to participate. I still had to walk onto the field, put on the equipment, and take my place.

That memory helps me think about our response to God’s grace. God loves us, pursues us, and invites us into a relationship with Him. His grace makes our response possible, but He does not force us to receive Him.

In Joshua 24, the invitation to choose follows a reminder of God’s faithfulness. God had called Abraham, delivered Israel from Egypt, protected His people in the wilderness, and brought them into the Promised Land. Before Joshua asked for their commitment, he reminded them of what God had already done.

The choice came after grace.

Joshua then declared, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,” adding, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

Our Wesleyan understanding calls God’s work before our response prevenient grace—grace that goes before. Sin has damaged us, and we cannot save ourselves. But through Jesus Christ, God reaches toward us and enables us to turn to Him.

Before we recognized our need, God was working. Before we reached toward Him, He had already reached toward us.
God initiates. Grace enables. We respond. Christ saves. The Spirit transforms.

Responding to grace involves repentance and faith. 

Repentance means turning from sin. Faith means trusting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Our response does not earn salvation; we receive what Christ has done for us.

We can know Bible stories, sing familiar hymns, and attend church for years. But Joshua’s question remains personal: Whom will you serve?

When we receive Christ, God does more than add our names to a membership list. He forgives our guilt, makes us spiritually alive, adopts us into His family, and assures us through the Holy Spirit that we belong to Him.

Joshua’s declaration also challenges those who already follow Jesus. We cannot make our children or grandchildren believe, but we can show them what faith looks like. We can pray, share our testimony, and tell the next generation how God has been faithful. Our example becomes an invitation for them to respond.

Perhaps you have wondered whether God would want someone like you. You know your failures and feel unworthy of His attention.

The cross reveals His love for you. You do not have to make yourself worthy before coming to Him. His grace is already reaching toward you.

Joshua said, “This day.” The invitation calls for a response today: trust Christ, turn toward Him, and let His grace shape your life.

Listen to this melody as you meditate on the goodness of God.

God pursues us.
Grace comes before us.
Christ died for us.
The Spirit calls us.
Grace enables us.
We are given a genuine choice.
And when we respond through repentance and faith—Christ saves us.

God has extended His grace to me—how am I choosing to respond?

“As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”