Joshua sends back home the fighting men who were settling on the other side of the Jordan. He leaves them with a summary of commands, of how they should live. They are to love God, walk in His ways, keep His commandments, cling to Him, and serve Him with all their heart and soul.
If any of us would do those things, we’d be set for life. Nothing else would matter; well, it would all matter because we’d be with Him and living for Him, so it would all have purpose. Nothing else would matter in the sense that you wouldn’t have to worry about anything. You’d be like the Israelites at this point in their history, at rest.
That’s the goal—to get to that rest. We get there by loving God, walking in His ways, keeping His commandments, clinging to Him, and serving Him heart and soul. At the same time, we get there as a gift from God. He calls us, brings us to Himself, forgives us, cleans us, gives us His righteousness, works in us to will and work according to His good pleasure. It’s all His work.
Our job is surrender ourselves to Him to work out His good pleasure, the kind intention of His will. Why wouldn’t we want to surrender to a good, loving, powerful, faithful, true and just God’s kind intentions for us?
Those phrases about the kind intention and good pleasure of His will are from Ephesians 1. Of course, that’s what we want! If we think or act differently, we’re deceiving ourselves. Our choices for ourselves will never be as good and perfect as God’s choices. Our choices in selfishness lead to death. That’s not what we want. Our choice to surrender to His good work leads to life. That’s what we want.
It’s all a matter of what you believe. Do you believe the Bible is true or not? If you believe it’s all true, then it’s a non-choice to give up selfish ways and surrender your life to God to work His purposes in you.
The only reason not to would be that you don’t really believe through and through. If that’s the case, hope isn’t lost! Ask Him to help you in your unbelief. He will never abandon or forsake His children. He promises to be found by those who seek Him and He never lies.