Prevent Your Downfall (2 Chronicles 36)

After Josiah chose to not consult God and died from a battle wound, his successors did evil in the sight of the Lord, and were subsequently captured and made prisoners. Then the temple of God was destroyed. God gave his people ample warning to follow his commandments or face the consequences. They chose not to listen and did indeed have repercussions to face. 

We have been warned by all the stories in the Bible. We have seen several kingdoms rise and fall. We have read about the devastation that happens when God’s word is not followed. We can prevent this from happening to us. We can prevent the downfall by choosing God, choosing to live our lives according this his word, and spreading his word to others as Jesus calls us to do. 

We need to stand strong against the changes trying to be forced upon us that do not line up with biblical teachings. We need to fight for the family, man and woman as God described, and their children. We need to remind others of God’s call for life. We need to love other people but that doesn’t mean we should support their sinful choices, If we don’t take his warnings to heart, when destruction and devastation happens, we will only have ourselves to blame.  

Do Not Let Your Guard Down (2 Chronicles 35)

2 Chronicles 35:22 But Josiah would not withdraw from him, for he was seeking a pretext to fight with him. Therefore he would not listen to the words of Neco that came from the mouth of God

We just finished reading about the way Josiah led the people to observe the Passover, in a celebration greater than any other recorded. He closely followed God’s instructions and had the people do the same. Then when a neighboring nation appears, Josiah feels threatened and doesn’t not listen to the word of God. He doesn’t consult God or prophets, but instead chose to fight (even though the other army clearly stated they were trying to get around Josiah). And what happened? Josiah was seriously wounded and died. Had he consulted with God, he could have avoided this catastrophe. 

We must remember when we are high on our mountains, that God is the one who put us there. And if something comes amiss, we need to seek God first before we charge headfirst. Because what is next to the top of the mountain? A cliff and the downhill slide. Josiah was a godly man, and did many wonderful things. But even godly men can be tested. Do not let your guard down, even when you are at your highest, because the devil is always around the corner.

How Long Do We Have? (2 Chronicles 34)

2 Chronicles 34:31 The king stood by the column and made a covenant in the presence of the LORD to follow the LORD and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees with his whole heart and soul, carrying out the words of the covenant written in this book.

Anon only ruled for two years, but in those two years he did many terrible and evil things. His father Manasseh began his rule as one of the most wicked kings ever, so maybe Anon saw those things and kept them in his heart. But even though Manasseh turned his life around and humbled himself before the Lord, Anon did not follow the right path. Anon was killed and his son, Josiah, was made king. Josiah tried to restore and rebuild God’s temple from the beginning. It is possible that Josiah saw Manasseh’s change of heart and knew this to be right. It is impressive that Josiah did not follow his father’s lead. Maybe he realized the death (spiritual and physical) that would follow if he chose to not turn his people to God?

Josiah was given the Book of the Law given by Moses while he was rebuilding the temple, and realized all the horrible things the people had been doing against God’s given words. The prophetess told Josiah that the wrath of the Lord would be held back as long as Josiah lived because he humbled himself and repented with tears. But the Lord knew the people of Judah were fickle, and would change their hearts with each new leader, following their leaders path. So the wrath would indeed happen once Josiah died. 

As our world is doing many horrible things against God’s word, we need to humble ourselves before the Lord. We need to clean our conscious and truly live as he called us to live. His wrath is coming, and we need to have ourselves straight before it gets here. I will not wait for tomorrow to do what should be done today. I will not be caught sleeping. I will observe the commandments and Word of God with my whole heart and soul. I will pray for the souls of those who do not know his word and I will pray for those who choose to not know it. We don’t know how long we have before God’s judgement comes upon us. But it’s best if we don’t wait to find out. 

God Forgives You, Forgive Yourself (2 Chronicles 33)

2 CHRONICLES 33:12-13 He humbled himself abjectly before the God of his ancestors, and prayed to him. The LORD let himself be won over: he heard his prayer and restored him to his kingdom in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is indeed God.

Manasseh was twelve when he took the throne, and did more evil than even the pagan nations. He took Judah so very far from God. Yet, when he was captured and put in prison, he prayed to God for help, and God answered him. 

We are taught the 10 Commandments in religion classes as children. We are also taught about God’s forgiveness and reconciliation. As a child, I couldn’t understand that if someone sinned so bad, why God would forgive them. Through the years, with reading all these books in the Bible with you, I have a better understand of God’s grace. No matter how bad the sin, if the person is truly sorry, truly repented, truly wanting God’s love, God will give it. God doesn’t want to withhold his love from anyone. Even people who do unthinkable crimes can seek forgiveness of God if they truly mean it. Even murderers can get away from the devil that holds there heart, and earn God’s favor back. 

God heard wicked Manasseh’s prayer.  God can hear our prayers, too, if we simply humble ourselves before him, open our hearts to him, and ask. There is nothing so wrong that God doesn’t want you anymore.. You must forgive yourself. That is a hard thing to do sometimes, and can also prevent us from seeking God’s forgiveness. We may not feel that we are worthy of his forgiveness. But you are! Jesus dies on the cross for YOU! For every sin that had been committed and every one to come. No matter what mistake you have made, God still loves you That is the message we need to be spreading now more than ever. People’s hearts have been led astray. Let’s work together to help them know they can find God’s love again. 

Trust in Him (2 Chronicles 32)

2 Chronicles 32:20 But because of this, King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, prayed and cried out to heaven.

We have read several times throughout both books of Chronicles about the ups and downs for the people of Israel and Judah. About the waxing and waning of their faith, and thus the increasing and decreasing of God’s protection over them. Here again, we see Hezekiah praying to the Lord for protection as the enemy comes up at the people, and the Lord provides it. 

The enemy will never completely go away until the world ends. There will always be someone or something to come up against God. The stronger our beliefs, the strong that evil will seem to be pursuing us. The stronger our connection, the more the devil will try to break it. So even if we have been following God closely, there will still be things that come up to try and shake our faith. We must remain strong, we must not have doubts that God is there. He is, with his angel army, ready to help us, just as he did Hezekiah. 

Even in these times now, as laws come into question, “rights” are sought, morals are broken, God is there ready for us.  Christians need to be united in our faith, united against the dark one, ready to show the world God’s love. 

Serve Him (2 Chronicles 31)

2 Chronicles 31:21 Everything that he undertook, for the service of the house of God or for the law and the commandment, was to seek his God. He did this with all his heart, and he prospered.

Hezekiah was different than most of the other kings. He didn’t do his works for his own gain. He did it all for the goodness of the Lord. And he did it wholeheartedly. He sought God first. He put God first. Everything he did, he did with God in mind. And he prospered. His prosperity is due to his service to God; he was truly blessed because was pleased that Hezekiah chose to put his everything into his work. 

How many times do we do some kind of work expecting to hear praise? How many times do we get upset when our work goes unrecognized by our peers, our friends, or our family? I too have been guilty of this. Instead of doing our work to just serve man, we should be doing it in service of God. That puts a new light on it, and may even make the most mundane tasks less. When we do our service for man with our hearts filled with God’s love, we are serving the Lord.

If we started our day thanking God and use the attitude of “I GET to do xyz today” instead of “I have to do xyz,” we might start to see more blessings in the work we do.  No happy at work? Does it pay the bills, help cover expenses in your life, puts food on the table? Than you GET to provide for yourself or your family. Thank God for that. And then head off to work doing your job for the service of God. Remember Jesus service he did for us, so that we may go to heaven. That might also make your job seem less mediocre. Just try that mindset for a few days and see where it takes you. Do your work with all your heart and see how you prosper.

Return to the Lord (2 Chronicles 30)

2 Chronicles 30:9b The LORD, your God, is gracious and merciful and he will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.

Our Lord is jealous and can be an angry God. The people of Judah learned this, several times unfortunately, because they didn’t learn lessons from the previous generations troubles. They didn’t keep to his word, and chose to follow their own path. And learned tragic lessons for their transgressions. 

BUT our Lord is also merciful. He is gracious and kind. He is forgiving when we repent and return to him wholeheartedly. He promised his mercy to us through his son, Jesus’s death and resurrection. We can be forgiven if we choose to be forgiven. If we chose to not seek God’s help or we refuse to repent because we think we are right, he will not return to us. We need to learn from our Biblical history that God isn’t playing when he says to follow his laws. He isn’t going to give in and let us live as we want without repercussions for our wrongdoings. Yes he loves us so very much and wants to be with us, but we have to be open and honest with ourselves and with him to receive that love. You are not to forgone for God to open his arms for you. You are worthy of his love and forgiveness. What do you need to let go of to return to the Lord?

How is Your Temple? (2 Chronicles 29)

2 Chronicles 29:36 Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had re-established for the people, and at how suddenly this had been done.

When Hezekiah became king, the first thing he did as restore the temple for God. In the very first month of his reign, the cleansed the entire temple, re-consecrating it, and were completed on the 16th day. The. They completed all the rituals for burnt offerings and re-established the house of the Lord.

Many times, people don’t change because they think they are too far gone or change will take too long. It’s much easier to just stay in the same rut than to work hard at getting cleaned up. But here, we see Hezekiah manages to clean and re-establish the house of the Lord in less than a month. Yes he had lots of help, but so do we. He made it a point to find the help, turning to his fellow people, to get things back in order. He didn’t hide in his house, saying “woe is me, I’ll never get this done because I am all alone.” He made the conscious effort to fix what the previous generation had desecrated and get back on the right track with the Lord. 

God wants to live in us. He wants to have a place in our hearts, in our minds. But he doesn’t want to share our heart with things of this world. In order to give God our hearts, to allow him to live inside us, we need to do some serious cleaning. We have to remove all the remnants of the previous life, whatever that consisted of. We need to seek forgiveness for the lies and sins we committed. We need to actively seek the Lord daily to strengthen the walls of his temple. We need to find friends of good Christian faith to help us sing praises. It is never too late to turn back from the wrong choices we made. 

Our changes may not happen in 16 days. Sometimes it takes weeks or months, sometimes years. But changing our hearts to be with the Lord is the most important change we can make. If you are not walking the path of the Lord, you should take the time to look and see where you can make changes. Give yourself time, but also hold yourself accountable or find someone who will. Your body is God’s temple. He wants to live inside you. If it’s not up to par, fix it. Repent for your sins. Your temple can be rebuilt. It needs to be rebuilt. God wants it rebuilt. What are you waiting for?

Receive with an Open Heart (2 Chronicles 28)

 2 Chronicles 28:15 All of them who were naked they clothed from the spoils; they clothed them, put sandals on their feet, gave them food and drink, anointed them, and all who were weak they set on donkeys.

Judah made bad choices against God, and they fell. The Israelites saw Judah fall, and took it upon themselves to enjoy the plunder. But this angered God just as much as Judah had angered him with their evil ways. He sent a prophet to warn the Israelites that what they had done to their own kinsman was wrong. The Israelites turned from their plans, clothed the prisoners and sent them back on their way.

We all make mistakes. We all sin. We are all called to not pass judgment. When we see a fellow man, woman, child who has fallen into sin trying to get out, should we just point and blame them for their wrongs? No. We are called to receive them with an open heart, help get them to their feet, and send them back on the right path. 

It is easy to point fingers, especially with all the issues going on in our country with abortion, individual “rights”, personal identities, etc. People are making terrible choices that will affect their future, choices against God’s word. In the midst of their choices, we are still called to love. It is not very loving to throw stones because we don’t agree with the choice made. There will come a time, hopefully, that they realize the choice was wrong. When they come to realize the mistake they had made, and try to seek reconciliation, we should be there to help them get back up. Not keep them down in the mud. Until that time comes for them to realize the mistake they have made, we need to keep the light of God shining. We need to continue showing kindness, showing God’s love. I pray that many people will come to realize their mistakes and seek forgiveness sooner rather than later, but whenever they reach out their hands for help, we must be ready to embrace them. Just as we are embraced when we fall. 

Are You a Light? (2 Chronicles 27)

2 Chronicles 27:6 Thus Jotham continued to grow strong because he made sure to walk before the LORD, his God.

Not much is said about Jotham in the Bible, expect that he reigned for 16 years, and followed the Lord even though the people continued to act corruptly (2 Chr. 27:2). It can be tough to walk the straight path when everyone around us is taking the corrupt route. Jotham continued to do what was right, however. He didn’t let others pull him away from God’s word. We need to be like Jotham and put straight our lives so that we are seeking God first. Young people are in search of mentors and need to see someone who is trying to doing things right, regardless of what’s down spiraling next to them. We need to let God’s light shine brighter today and tomorrow than ever before. The ones who need God the most are drowning in the sea of change and wokeness being thrown at them. They need a light to get to God. Are you living your life correctly, according to God’s word? Without adding new words or ideas just to please mankind? Are you upholding the Bible and what God taught us through Jesus? Can you be that light?

Another Reminder Against Pride (2 Chronicles 26)

2 Chronicles 26:5b, 16

… as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper… But after he had become strong, he became arrogant to his own destruction and acted treacherously with the LORD, his God.

Uzziah’s story started off great. He listened to God, he obeyed God, he followed the righteous path. Then it seems his humanness took over. He became strong, made a name for himself. If they had social media, I’m sure they would have “followed” him. All of this went to his head, and he became haughty. His ego became too much for him to remember who he was supposed to be, because I’m sure all he could think about was how much bigger he could be. He had forgotten God’s rules and laws. He even thought so highly of himself, he thought he could go in the temple to make his own offering to the Lord (we know it was a job for the priests). And how did that go?? He got leprosy. While he was right in front of the priests, getting angry (basically throwing a temper tantrum because he couldn’t get what he wanted), God showed him not to mess around.  My mom always said, “God doesn’t have to come down with a big stick.”

We are all human. We all have times when our flesh, our desires, our wants can try to lead us astray. It is a fault we earned through original sin. Though we may be baptized and cleansed of original sin, it doesn’t stop us or prevent us from evil creeping in to trick us into believing false things. When we allow pride in any shape or form to win in our hearts, we allow ourselves to be consumed by the world. Once we start down that path, it is an uphill sticky slope to get out. It’s not impossible, but it will not be easy. The best thing to do is to not get caught up with our own prides. Proverbs 11:2 says, ‘when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.’ 

Pride is self-affirmation. Recognizing the existence and value of one’s individual self. The thing is, we are only here because of God. Our individual self belongs to God. All of our unique characteristics, our quirkiness, our laugh, our skin color and freckles, our eye color, our gifts were all given to us by God. God made us each unique to work together for the greater good. He gave us strengths and weaknesses so we can learn to use them with each other and build his kingdom stronger. But somehow, because of sin, lust, greed, desires of the flesh, etc. started slipping into our minds. We wanted to have more than what he gave us, we wanted to look better than what we were given. We see others and want what they had instead of being satisfied with what we have. We wanted to be heard. We wanted to be different. We didn’t like the rules. We didn’t like our paths. Me, me, me. Mine, mine, mine. Now, now, now.

We have forgotten the only One that our self should matter to. The One that we should be trying to build our lives for. The One who loves us regardless of our quirks. He gave us this life to use for a while. Like checking a book out in the library. What is your book going to look when you return it?

In God we Trust (2 Chronicles 25)

2 Chronicles 25:2 He did what was right in the Lord’s sight, though not wholeheartedly.

The second part of the sentence says it all: not wholeheartedly. Proverbs 3:5 Tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” King Solomon wrote the Proverbs, so Amaziah would have known he was called to trust in the Lord wholeheartedly. He did listen to the Lord and call off specific troops he had set up, but then he brought back gods of the people he defeated. Like many of us, he chose to do what he wanted anyway. Instead of listening to the prophet and the King of Israel, Amaziah chose to push forward to fight against Israel. God allowed this destruction (because it was a destruction) since Amaziah brought back the idols. 

God wants our whole heart,  it just a part of it. Even if we had a fantastic win because of the Lord, it doesn’t mean we get to do something below our expectations from God and get away with it. There have been a few times in my life when I had several good things happen, and it seemed like I forgot to show gratitude to God and continue to live as I was called, because then something not so good would happen. We must remember it is through him that we have blessings. We must be grateful for these every day. We cannot trust in ourselves, in flesh, in men. Only God is forever. Only in him should we put our trust. 

Who Gives You Counsel? (2 Chronicles 24)

2 Chronicles 24:17 After the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king; then the king listened to them.

After the death of Athalia, Jehoida the priest help young King Joash rebuild Judah. They destroyed the idols and altars. They collected taxes to repair and rebuild the temple Joash did what was right in the Lord.  He had great guidance through Jehoiada. Unfortunately, Jehoiada died when Joash was around 47. After this, Joash turned to princes of Judah for guidance, and turned from the Lord. The Lord allowed other nations to come up against Judah, and Joash was killed. 

Instead of waiting on the Lord to give him another guide or prophet, Joash tried to figure things out on his own. We know that didn’t end well for him, as it didn’t end well for any other his ancestors who tried to go on without the Lord’s guidance. We all need spiritual guidance in our lives. We need the Lord, and he comes through people in our lives. But so does the devil. So we need to be aware of who we seek guidance from, who we let into our lives, and what influence they bring. We need to think deep beginning today of who will guide us towards God and who will lead us away. We can’t wait until tomorrow or next week to start filtering who belongs in our inner circle, or we could surely be digging our hole deeper. 

Don’t Allow Yourself to Become Static (2 Chronicles 23)

2 Chronicles 23:21 All the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been slain with the sword.

For seven years, Athaliah led the people of Judah in her evil ways, while Jehoida the priest raised Joash the heir in the ways of the Lord. God never forgot his promise to David, and even though most of Judah was running rampant with wickedness, Jehoida remained faithful to the Lord. 

It can be very discouraging to see evil win. But that doesn’t mean we should stop fighting against it. We can not be static in this world, for the sake of our children. The amount of people finding themselves in these new identities is tragic, because they don’t see that God made them perfectly as they are. They are trying to fill a void that only His love can fill, but they either are too stubborn to let him, or they weren’t raised to know him. 

We need to help break their chains because they don’t see themselves as chained to the devil. There is not need to get ugly about it. Serving others is the way to show Jesus’s love. Kindness, empathy, respect, loving as Jesus loved. All the people, even those confused, as still people. They are still children of God. We need to help them see it. We must live as we should. We can start with building a friendship with others, and offer encouragement. We must continue to pray and commit ourselves to the work of the Lord, so that once we get past all this mess (and we will), we can rejoice and enjoy the quiet. 

Lord, I commit myself to your word. I will be one of the faithful. I will trust in you. I will live in righteousness. I pray for a wall of protection around my children to protect them from the ungodly influence in the world. 

We Can Break the Chains (2 Chronicles 22)

2 Chronicles 22:3 He, too, walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, because his mother was his counselor in doing evil.

Once Jehoshaphat decided to make alliances with Ahab, it seemed to bring doom to his family and several generations after him. His son Jehoram and grandson, Ahaziah, did not reign for very long because they followed the ways of Ahab instead of ways of the Lord. Ahaziah’s mother, Attaliah, was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel is the one who brought Ahab to tolerate evil ways and the worship of Baal. On both sides, we can see how false profits and evil seemed to follow one generation after another. 

Generational trauma can be seen throughout history and still to this day, in which people use what happened to their ancestors to relinquish blame on their own actions. One way to look at it is for people who lived through WWI and the Great Depression. People who were in the war may have seen violence, abuse, struggled with chemical dependency, PTSD, and poverty. Their children growing up in this May have also struggled with alcoholism, codependency, anger, emotional abuse, and untreated mental illness. Then their own children may have developed depression, alcoholism, eating disorders because of approval seeking and identity confusion. Trauma can be passed through family lines, and unless it is noticed and attended to, will continue. That’s all the children know and it is how they will continue to live and treat their own children. Unless someone breaks the chains. 

This is the same with religious and political upbringings. Sin will be passed down from one generation to the next as well.  Children will follow their parents beliefs and traditions unless they choose to stand for a change (which is not always in a good way, as we see in our culture today). God has given us the goods to pass on to our children so that they may be brought up with his word. We have the Bible, the written word of God, that we need to be passing down to our children, so it continues down the generations. We need to spend time with the Lord to see if there is any patterns from our own childhood that needs to stop before we imprint them on our children. I’m working hard each day to not continue certain behaviors that were taught, because I want to do better. 

There are people out there who don’t know God because their parents and grandparents didn’t, whether because of ignorance or choice. We should pray for those children being brought up today in this world where people are choosing to go against God’s word, in hopes that they don’t start a whole new generational trauma.

We Cannot See the Future (2 Chronicles 21)

 2 Chronicles 21:6 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, since the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did what was evil in the LORD’s sight.

Jehoram couldn’t have known his life would turn out the way it did, but he should have had an idea. He knew what happened to to his ancestors who chose to turn from God. But I guess it wasn’t a good enough impression to keep him from repeating the same things. Being marrying a foreigner’s daughter, especially one who we know was trouble from previous chapters, didn’t set him on great ground. She probably convinced him to follow her gods and idols. His greed carried him on the wrong path when he killed his brothers and other princes to make sure no one could take the throne from him. A king not following God, not suited for the job, brought the people of God into evil. The people followed their leader into death, as a plague was sent upon them. Maybe not all the people followed Jehoram’s evil ways. It’s possible some may have kept their heart for the Lord regardless of how their leader lived his life. 

We don’t know how truly evil Jehoram was, if he punished those for not following his beliefs like some governments do in other countries. We are blessed to live in a county in which we are free to follow our hearts and our faith. In doing so, we must follow our conscious, and do what we know is right, regardless of how our leaders lead our country. We cannot see the future, but we know what happened every time to the people who didn’t follow God, those who turned to their desires, those who let the flesh lead them, those who chose idols and sin. We cannot compromise like Jehoram did. We cannot let someone who doesn’t follow God’s law be close to us and lead our hearts astray. What is the saying, ‘if you don’t learn history, you are doomed to repeat it’? There is no crystal ball to show us what is coming if our country continues on it’s path, I know we Christians have an idea. And it is not looking good.

This is God’s Battle (2 Chronicles 20)

2 Chronicles 20:15 The LORD says to you: Do not fear or be dismayed at the sight of this vast multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.

Jehoshaphat learned that an enemy group was coming to attack them. This time, he didn’t turn to another king for help since he remembered he had been in the wrong joining with Ahab previously.  He gathered his people, and prayed to God asking for his help, saying that they alone didn’t know what to do and their eyes were turned towards him. The spirit came upon a Levite telling them this battle was for God.

Even though the spirit told them the battle was for God, they still all went out to face the other nations. They didn’t hide in fear, letting God do his work. They didn’t say, “Ehh, God’s got this. We don’t need to do anything.” They showed their faith but arriving, lining up, and singing praise to God. Their showed their dedication to God in their action. What are ways we can show our dedication to the Lord in this constant flood of evil?

I need to show up every day, praying. I can’t just sit on my couch, waiting for God to fix it. I need to put on my armor of God and be ready to handle the onslaught of negativity being thrown by those against our faith and beliefs. I need to stand my ground and now cower in the corner. Knowing God is going to battle for me, I don’t need to go out shouting and being ugly. But I still need to go out, singing his praise. 

Undivided Heart (2 Chronicles 19)

2 Chronicles 19:9 He gave them this command: “Thus you shall act: in the fear of the LORD, with fidelity and with an undivided heart.

Jehoshaphat was trying to create a legal system based on God’s law. To do this, the people in charge couldn’t have a divided heart, meaning that had to see everything as God did, not as the world did. They had to use wisdom in their decisions and judgements.

As Christians, we are called to do the same thing. No, we are not called to make judgements over people’s lives, but how we live our own life should be done with wisdom and fear of God. Making wise and godly choices will not always make us the most popular person. To walk with God takes courage, and removing people from our life that doesn’t bring us closer to God is a good first step. I have had to make choices lately of people I want to be associated with, so I have removed people from my social media whose principles don’t align with God’s law. Yes this is just social media, but I still didn’t want to have their lies in my day. I can’t divide my heart with God’s law and man’s preferences. Neither should you.

God’s Word is Truth (2 Chronicles 18)

2 Chronicles 18 doesn’t have a specific verse for me today. Jehoshaphat makes an alliance with Ahab to go into battle. Jehoshaphat does take the time to ask for a prophet of the Lord to tell them if this is the right way to go or not. Micaiah comes and tells that Ahab is going to get killed, and Ahab is mad because he says Micaiah is always saying evil towards him. God is speaking through Micaiah and Ahab doesn’t like hearing negative things about him, even though they are truth.

The overall theme is piggybacking on the last several chapters. God’s word is truth and many people don’t want to hear it. They will try everything but still go against what we know to be truth. The culture today doesn’t want to hear the truth. They like being fed lies about themselves, about who they are, about others, about what is acceptable, about what is right, all because it makes them feel better. 

Even though it isn’t accepted easily and even though people will argue, we need to speak God’s truth. We need to be ready and armored to hear anger and hate. It’s not going to be pretty, not will it be comfortable. Jesus never said carrying God’s truth would be easy. Those people who argue are so fully wrapped in the lies they can’t see the way out. We need to help guide them through the jungle of lies, cutting each one so they can get to the light of righteousness. 

We are called to be speakers of truth, just as Micaiah was, even when the recipient doesn’t want to hear the truth. We are called to be more that the world wants us to be. 

Keep your Heart High (2 Chronicles 17)

2 Chronicles 17:6 Thus he was encouraged to follow the LORD’s ways, and once again he removed the high places and the asherahs from Judah.

At the bottom of the chapter in my Bible, it offered this extra bit: his heart was high,” a phrase that ordinarily describes arrogance and rebelliousness; in this case, however, it introduces a notice of Jehoshaphat’s fidelity to the Lord. 

I love it written as his heart was high. Jehoshaphat knew what had befallen David and Solomon and even his own father Asa when they forgot to follow God’s commandments. Jehoshaphat sought God for help, walked in His Commandments, and because of that God strengthened his army and helped him fortify the cities. Jehoshaphat then sent out his people to teach the word of God.

We, as a people, need to allow our hearts to be high and come together to spread the word of God. We need to strengthen our churches so we can attack the devil as one. We need to keep his word in our heart to keep our hearts from sinning. If we learn and delight in God’s law, we will be blessed and strengthened in His Grace.

 

Seek God First (2 Chronicles 16)

 2 Chronicles 16:7 Because you relied on the king of Aram* and did not rely on the LORD, your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped your power.

*In other Bible versions, it is king of Syria instead of king of Aram. 

Asa foolishly put his trust in another man, a man with an army, to help protect Judah from Israel. Instead of praying to God about what to do, he took it upon himself to charge forward. We do this quite often, when something goes wrong, charging head first without stopping to think or pray. Sometimes we may get through the situation unscathed, but in the long run we may have overlooked something important that we did in fact loose. Most of the time though, it will be blatant what we are going to struggle with because we didn’t stop to ask God for help first. He has a plan for us, but we have to want it to get it. He gave us the ability to choose him. 

I know I need to pray to God more when things get overwhelming. But not even then. Something I had mild things come up that I should seek God’s help with. Lord, help me to not be so quick to answer or solve things. 

What is Hiding in Your Heart? (2 Chronicles 15)

2 Chronicles 15:2 The LORD is with you when you are with him, and if you seek him he will be found; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

King Asa had just finished a great victory because of the Lord. It is easy to think that because we have won God’s favor, that we will never be without it. We are promised grace and mercy because of Jesus’s death and resurrection. That grace and mercy only applies if we actually follow God, repent our sins, and mean. Asa didn’t just say the words, “Ok God, we will seek you and only you.” Asa showed God he meant it by going through the villages and destroying idols. He even destroyed one of his own mother’s, showing that even in a family circle we are put to the test. 

In our own lives, we must make sure there are no hidden places where idols may lay. If there is a place where we are afraid to walk away from because of embarrassment or getting made fun of, we need to seriously think about all the lessons in the Bible of those who don’t surrender all the wrongs. God has said multiple times that he is with us when we are with him. If we reject him, he will reject us. Why do we keep thinking these messages don’t apply to our individual stories? 

I’m praying for you, reader, that you may find the courage to truly search your heart and make sure there are no idols in there. That there is nothing that is keeping you from fully accepting God’s love. Let go of all the “idols” you may have been turning to, even the ones you are afraid to let go of. No person is more important that God’s forgiveness. If someone walks away from you because you have turned to God, it is their loss. Pray for them that they too may turn from their falsities and find God’s love.