This is an admonition to myself as much as anyone else. It is in our nature to stray away from seeking God when things are going well. There is a clear example seen in the life of King Asa. Asa was a king of Judah. He was one that God said did right in the eyes of the Lord.
He had been zealous for the Lord tearing down Asherah poles (poles representing a false god), and other places of idol worship during his time. He was so zealous that he even demoted his grandmother because she still worshipped Asherah, and he decreed it the law of the land that all residents of Judah were to worship the Lord the true and living God.
Because of his devout heart toward seeking the Lord, God gave him rest from all of his enemies for 35 years. For 35 years he did not have to fight any wars. However, during the 36th year, the Israelite army begin to prepare to go to war against Asa.
Asa, at that point, made an agreement with an army who became his ally. The agreement with the allying army caused the Israelite army to back off. After all of this had taken place, a prophet named Hanani came to Asa with the below message.
“Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” – 2 Chronicles 16:7-9
Asa became so angry at the prophet that he placed him in jail. According to the word of the Lord he had to endure war throughout the remaining of his reign. He also ended up with a foot disease.
What is the point of this all? The point is that we need to remember to seek the Lord. We need to be consistently in the practice of seeking the Lord first. This should be our daily habit. Asa had an extensive time-frame where everything was going well, and somehow that time frame tempted him not to seek the Lord anymore.
Once, he became content not seeking the Lord he started to exhibit traits that were not in line with the Lord such as jailing a prophet for speaking God’s heart. The more we seek the Lord, the more we become like him and exhibit his characteristics rather than our own fleshly characteristics.
The opposite becomes true when we do not seek the Lord. We in turn exhibit ungodly and worldly characteristics. We need to be careful not to walk in pride and simply ride the tide of good times with the Lord, but we need to remember to maintain a consistency of seeking God. In doing so, we will be well equipped for those bad times that sometimes catch us by surprise. We will also continue to make room in our lives to continually see the glory of the Lord displayed within our lives personally. That is what God wanted to do with King Asa, and that is what God wants to do with us.
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