Wholeheartedly

2 Chronicles 24

(vs 2) Joash [king of Judah] did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest.

(vs 17-18) After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God's anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

For the first years of Joash's life, he followed God wholeheartedly. But it says that when Jehoiadah the priest dies, Joash turns his life around. It makes you wonder why this is. It seems that Joash may have shared in Jehoiada's faith but didn't exactly take it for himself. Like he did it all right, got ticks in all the boxes but his faith may not have totally been his own but Jehoiada's as well. It's a bit confusing.

Think of it this way. I love going to the Indy. I go every year with my Dad. I can make myself look the part, buy all the right stuff. But does it really mean my heart is in it? If Daddy stopped going, would I continue of just stop as well? I may have all the merch, the tickets but what about the passion? It's kind of like that. Joash has done all the right stuff, but when Jehoiada 'leaves' he doesn't continue becuase his heart isn't in it.

The question for us is, are we following God wholeheartedly or basing it off someone else? I was talking to my mum once about when she got married. She said that when she got married, she was just a baby Christian, a new one. As for Daddy, he was a youth leader. She looked to him and saw him as really spiritual. But she learned that Daddy's not perfect and he doesn't know everything. No one can be absolutely right in their faith. She had to quickly make sure that her faith was hers and strong because of her and God, not because of Daddy's.

Now, people are great for support. Friends, mentors, families. They all help us grow, but they can't stand up for us in every situation. We need to strengthen our faith with God's help. God gives us trials to do just that. Trials help us make sure that our faith is genuine.

A prayer: God, I pray that you'll help us to stengthen our faith so that even when Christian supports leave, we'll still have that solid faith. Thank you that you'll never leave.

God bless and keep growing

Don't Just Follow the Crowd

Micaiah Prophesises against Ahab

Ahab (king of Israel) wanted to go to war and have Jehosaphat (king of Judah) help him. But, Jehosaphat first wanted to ask God and see if this was a good idea and part of 'the plan'. After all, God is the boss and knows 'the plan.' Anyway, Ahab, granting Jehosaphat's wish, gets together 400 prophets who are all telling Ahab to go to war. But Jehosaphat wanted a prophet of the LORD. This is how Ahab replies,

(vs 7) '..."There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad." '

I must admit, when I first read that, I laughed. I mean, what's the point of asking someone for advice and the ignoring it because it's bad. But we'll just let that go now and I'll continue on the point of this.

Ahab did end up sending for this prophet. His name is Micaiah as you may have guessed. So, here were 400 prophets, all lying but pleasing the king and only one of God's prophets, whom the king hates. And of course, Ahab doesn't like what Micaiah is saying. You must admit, 400 people and two kings all doing one thing, you'd want to stay on the safe side and copy them or just run away. Well, I would at least. I mean, the king has power! He could do anything to you.

But Micaiah knew that God could do so much more to him then Ahab ever could. So despite everything else, Micaiah stood boldly and told the truth. Even when the king didn't want to hear it.

(vs 13) ' "As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him [Jehosaphat] only what my God says." '
(vs 27) ' "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." '

It was probably really humiliating, he got slapped and then sent to prison with just bread and water. But do you think he regretted it? Man can do stuff to you, but how much more could God do? That sounds kind of bad but regret is really hard to live with. Wouldn't it be better to serve God, than try and hide behind the crowd?

Living for God can be a really tough thing. There are many times when we need to stand up for we believe in. Even for people who don't believe in God, not following the crowd is so much better than missing out on who you could be. The best thing to do is PRAY. Pray that God will forgive you for times you hid and will give you strength the next time. He wants to help. He really does.

God bless and keep striving towards the goal

Facing Your Enemies

2 Chronicles 20

vs 17) Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.

We all have enemies. Whether they're people or things. The other night, in church, we were talking about identifying your enemies which is pretty funny because now I want to talk about facing them.
For all of us, Satan is our enemy. But there are more: business, greed, confusion, doubt and so on. It has been defined as something having destructive or injurious effects. In other words, it can hurt us. Basically, they stop us from doing things.

In this story today, Jehoshaphat is king and once again, a vast army has marched out against them. In this case, the army represents the enemies. Pretty straight forward. They (the tribe of Judah) call upon God because they know that can do this by themselves.

v6) "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.

God hears their prayer and this is what he says.

vs 15) "Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.

vs 17) You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.' "

He says, 'Look, don't worry. I'll fight this, just go, face your enemies and I will fight for you.

It still took faith for Judah to march down and face their enemies. It's not easy stuff. But they trusted God. They went down singing praises to God. Talk about making an entrance! When they got there, they oly found dead people. Kind of gross but their enemies are gone! In verse 23 it said they (the enemies) killed each other.

So Judah praised God even more. (vs 7)

Alrighty, there's the story. Now it's our turn. How can a really old story help us?

As I said before, we all have our enemies. Whether it's doubt, busyness or Satan. They all stop us from completely enjoying God and doing what he wants. These are pretty hard to face.

But God tells us to face them. We can't keep running. But He'll help us eliminate them. If Satan's starting to overpower you, say some verses or sing some songs. Satan hates it. He can not stand to hear God being praised. If fear's getting in the way, talk to God. He's bigger than everything. He wants to help.

Judah stood up and faced a massive amount of enemies with the right attitude and God saved them.

He can help us too!