2 Chronicles 16:9 (KJV)
9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
King Asa was just like many of us. We have problems because we fail to trust God. That does not mean that we stop believing in God, it’s just that we stop trusting God and put our faith, assurance, and hope in something else. Asa had called upon God many times and God had delivered. He had enjoyed peace for many years but then a problem came up and instead of turning to God he looked for help elsewhere. Had God failed Asa? Had God gone away from Asa? No, but Asa turned from trusting God and problems came and continued.
God will show Himself strong to those whose heart is perfect toward Him. Does that mean that we will never sin? No, we will sin but we must keep our hearts in perfect trust toward God. Too often when things begin to go smooth we think that we have everything under control and we begin to leave God out. We read our Bible less, we pray less, we skip church or worship services, we get involved in other things and we allow things to take the place of God. We didn’t mean for it to happen but it does or did. Asa allowed his wealth to become his god. When King Baasha of Israel came up against Asa instead of calling upon God he sent his money to King Benhadad and asked for help. Why didn’t Asa just call upon God as he had in the past? Good question! Why don’t’ we call upon God instead of trusting in other people or things? It’s because in our times of peace we often forget what God has done for us and we get lax in doing what we know we should do and we call on others before God.
Asa got upset when confronted with his decision to call on King Benhadad instead of God. We get upset when we realize that we have done foolishly before God. We even take it out on some of those who have loved and helped us. It is said of Asa that he oppressed some of the people at the same time. It’s sad when we have the opportunity to trust God and we fail to do so. It’s sad that problems come and we seek the answers at the wrong place. How great life could be if we would only continually trust God and not lean on other things. The writer of Proverbs tells us in 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed”. There is a lesson for us to learn in the life of Asa. Don’t give up on serving or trusting God. God never fails but other things do.
I have prayed for you this morning. I pray that each of us will trust God completely and not foolishly put our trust in other things.
Bro. Tom
Submitted
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