The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
1 Kings 15:1-24, 2 Chronicles 13-16
Act 2: God’s Covenant People
Scene 6: Kings and Prophets: God divides the kingdom people.
Background Information: 1 Kings 15:1-24, 2 Chronicles 13-16
David is said to have been faithful “except for Uriah.” This is a pretty big exception. David committed murder and adultery. I Kings also fails to mention the failures of King Asa, only highlighting the good. The author is not trying to hide these facts, but he is focused narrowly on whether any of the Kings of Judah will remain faithful to the covenant as King David did. In the Northern kingdom, none will receive a passing score. In the Southern kingdom, very few will. No human king will be perfect, and only a very few will even be considered relatively faithful. When we read in Chronicles, we see the fuller story of Asa’s life. He began well, zealous for the Law of God. He even kicked his own grandmother out of the palace for her idolatry. However, as an older man, he valued peace over faithfulness. As a result, he had no peace, nationally or personally. On a national level, he made a treaty with the King of Aram (Syria). This brought a rebuke from God through a prophet. The rebuke was because Asa had trusted in alliances with other nations rather than trust in God. Asa’s response was not repentance, but rather hardness. He put the prophet in prison and began to cruelly oppress his own people. On a personal level, his life ended in tragedy. He developed a disease, and it was said that he did not seek help from the Lord, only from the physicians. There is nothing wrong with help from physicians, but it was the fact that he sought help only from physicians and not from God that revealed how far his heart was from his early years. God was looking for a faithful man whose heart was fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9). It doesn’t matter that Asa began well; it is necessary to finish well. We must not turn from faithfulness to God in the foolish hope that we can make peace happen, or that we can bring about our own version of a good life. Walking with God will mean constant spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12). We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus, but we must not try to make peace with the world, our flesh, or the devil. In this life we must make peace with the reality of continual warfare.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Pray for the youth as we travel and get settled into camp. Please pray for those who are anxious about our week at camp that God would give them peace. Ask that new friendships will be made as well as old friendships deepened.
Pray for God to provide Jason & Lisa with the necessary visa approval from their Central Asian country this week! They need this visa before they can come for a visit this summer, but the process is proving to be difficult.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.