Chapter 14
King Asa. Asa's prayer: this must be memorized and repeated in times of danger!
"Lord there is no one besides you to help between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you, and in your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are Our God; let not man prevail against you."
I love the imagery of God, standing as a barrier between the strong and the weak. "We trust in you." So many of us have a skewed picture of Almighty God, one that makes it hard to trust in Him. But He is trustworthy, no matter how we see Him. We can trust in Him.
"Let not man prevail against you." Not that they could, right? But as we picture God standing there, fending off the strong and protecting the weak, I think this prayer is for more of the same. Stay. Be my protector. Keep the strong for overpowering us.
Chapter 15
v2 Again...If you seek Him, he will let you find him.
v7 Beautiful, encouraging words.
v16 Asa was so devoted to reforming the nation that his own mother was taken down from her place of honor and power.
Chapter 16
v2 Asa's blunder. He takes riches from God's house, and uses them to bribe king Aram to form a treaty with Judah.
Even after God shows us repeatedly that He is on our side, we still are "prone to wander". This is what I call believing in God, without actually believing Him.
You know He's real, you know He's big, and strong, and powerful. But do you BELIEVE HIM when He says He has the best in store for you? That He loves you, and He knows you more deeply that you know yourself. And not only does He want you to be GOOD and HOLY, but He wants you to be loves and happy, safe, and satisfied.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe HIM?
Or have you taken your life into your own hands?
That's what Asa did.
v10 A prophet calls him on his lack of faith and disobedience. So he throws the prophet in prison.
Something in Asa's life changed. Maybe he was lost in his pride. But after he imprisoned the prophet, his feet became diseased.
v12 "Yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians."
I know that sometimes God allows trials in our lives just to wake us up and remind us to seek Him and rely on Him. Some of those trials in my life have led to the sweetest seasons I've had following the Lord. I pray that I never allow those trials to build up a barrier of bitterness toward the Lord, that would separate Him from me, instead of bringing me closer.
Because what we choose to do about trials in regard to our relationship to God, is our choice. He's not going to force us to love Him.
Next time: II Chronicles 17-19
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