Joshua 22:5
But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh were going back across Jordan to their land.  The activity of war is over, and now it’s just going to be daily life, routine, something more ordinary.  So during this kind of transition time, Joshua gives them an important reminder.  It’s all about our relationship with God and how much we are willing to invest in it.  It must first be a conscious choice whether we will follow Him or not, whether we will seek Him or not.  But then it is also a choice once we’ve decided to follow Him of how much we will invest of ourselves and our lives in doing that.

Will we take diligent heed to do the commandments, or will we do it only if it’s easy or convenient?  Will we love God totally and completely, or do we have other loves that compete with Him?  Will we walk in all His ways, or do we pick and choose?  Will we keep His commandments, or do we think it’s okay to break some of them?  Will we cleave to Him, get closer and closer, or do we keep Him at arm’s length?  Will we serve Him with all our heart and soul, or do we give Him less than our best?

We have to ask ourselves what God is worth to us and what our relationship with Him is worth to us.  Will we remember Him when life is good and we’re kind of reveling in our victories?  Do we still make time for Him even when we have a lot of other things to do?  Are we careful about the kinds of things we do so that we don’t do things that displease Him or go against His ways?  Have we lost any of our excitement or passion in living for God and growing in our relationship with Him?

When we truly love the Lord and seek after Him, we will more and more desire to walk in His ways and to be more like Him.  We’ll long to obey His every command because we won’t want to do anything against Him.  We’ll pursue Him more and more and get closer and go deeper.  And then service is a natural result of that, as we just desire to do all we can for the one we love so much.  But it is all about our heart.  It starts with loving Him first.  So whether we’re at the beginning of a new journey or returning from victory, let us be sure to carefully tend to our relationship with God.