1 Kings 15:9-15
The other day as I doom scrolled on Facebook I ran across an old picture of me during my senior year of high school. As I sat there looking at the photo I chuckled and told Sarah how skinny I was! During that time, I was a 2 sport athlete for my high school as well as always playing basketball at any given opportunity. I continued to say, “wouldn't it be nice to go back to that size?” Sarah then said to me something we tell each other all the time: “What are you going to do about it?” As I write this devotional I stop and think how powerful that statement is. All too often we see things in our lives that need to change but rarely do we ever step up and make the change that is necessary. Instead, we sit back and wish we did things differently. In today’s scripture we see King Asa do what so many of us don't do! He makes the necessary changes that are needed. One thing we must call out for its importance as we study 1st and 2nd Kings is that King Asa was the first religiously good King of Judah, he reigned from 911-870 BC. During this time Asa did 4 good things.
1. He removed the “sacred” prostitutes.
2. He got rid of all Idols made by former Kings.
3. He removed the corrupt queen mother and burned the idol she made.
4. He placed Holy items that he and his father had dedicated to the Lord back in the temple.
King Asa was not perfect, but he was willing to make hard decisions. The question we must ask ourselves is are we willing to make the changes that are necessary for spiritual maturity? It is far too easy to make changes for secular success but are we willing to make hard decisions? As we heard in a past sermon from Pastor John, we do not necessarily wake up and decide not to honor God or purposely not read the Bible. However, life pulls and pulls at us to the point where we slip away. What changes do we need to make to bring us back to reality? Joshiah Queen has a song called “Sundays,” and the chorus goes as follows:
“If you only ate on Sundays
You would starve down to your bones (Ooh)
If you drove your car on empty
You'd never make it home (Ah)
I don't wanna live a stagnant, lukewarm faith
When I gotta give my heart with no restraints
My soul would waste away
If I only ate on Sundays”
My point is simply this, if we only do things on Sundays, we are starving ourselves the rest of the week. We do not run our cars on empty or never charge our phones. We do things to make sure the meaningless stuff is taken care of…so why not the spiritual? So, I end with a simple but powerful question! What are you going to do about it? What choices do you NEED to make that are necessary for your spiritual maturity? What is the next step you need to take and how do you do it? I encourage you to take time right now and seek God in prayer asking him to make it be known to you, then follow through and make the change!
1. He removed the “sacred” prostitutes.
2. He got rid of all Idols made by former Kings.
3. He removed the corrupt queen mother and burned the idol she made.
4. He placed Holy items that he and his father had dedicated to the Lord back in the temple.
King Asa was not perfect, but he was willing to make hard decisions. The question we must ask ourselves is are we willing to make the changes that are necessary for spiritual maturity? It is far too easy to make changes for secular success but are we willing to make hard decisions? As we heard in a past sermon from Pastor John, we do not necessarily wake up and decide not to honor God or purposely not read the Bible. However, life pulls and pulls at us to the point where we slip away. What changes do we need to make to bring us back to reality? Joshiah Queen has a song called “Sundays,” and the chorus goes as follows:
“If you only ate on Sundays
You would starve down to your bones (Ooh)
If you drove your car on empty
You'd never make it home (Ah)
I don't wanna live a stagnant, lukewarm faith
When I gotta give my heart with no restraints
My soul would waste away
If I only ate on Sundays”
My point is simply this, if we only do things on Sundays, we are starving ourselves the rest of the week. We do not run our cars on empty or never charge our phones. We do things to make sure the meaningless stuff is taken care of…so why not the spiritual? So, I end with a simple but powerful question! What are you going to do about it? What choices do you NEED to make that are necessary for your spiritual maturity? What is the next step you need to take and how do you do it? I encourage you to take time right now and seek God in prayer asking him to make it be known to you, then follow through and make the change!
Posted in Devotional