Monday, July 26, 2010

Seek God With All Your Heart All The Time

For years Asa reigning in Judah there was no war because God had given him rest. This is because he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and destroyed everything belonging to foreign gods. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment.

God is always ready to give us rest and all we have to do is to seek for his presence. He is ready to deliver us from all troubles in our lives as long as we set our hearts to seek him. He is our God and all we have to do is to be His people and He will dwell in us.

"Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, HE WILL BE FOUND BY YOU; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, HE WAS FOUND BY THEM.(2 Chronicles 15:1-4).

This simply means that if we transgress from doing His will we lose sight of Him. Sin is what separates us from his presence. We have to repent and He will restore us to serve him. When you repent from your wrongdoings, you are basically turning back to Him and definitely you will find Him. Interestingly, like the Israelites we rush back to God when we are in trouble, but the Lord, being the Good Shepherd is always welcoming.

When Asa heard this prophecy he called his people and they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord of their fathers WITH ALL THEIR HEART and WITH ALL THEIR SOUL and whoever was against the covenant was put to death. This is an indication of how much they dedicated themselves to seeking the Lord as a unity.

They even made an oath before God. "And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and HE WAS FOUND BY THEM, and the LORD gave them rest all around." (2 Chronicles 15:15).

I am putting an emphasis on the statement "He was found by them" because it gives assurance that if you seek the Lord with all your heart and soul you will surely find Him. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him; to all who call upon Him in truth.
The story of Asa is a great lesson on relying on God's wisdom as well as leaning to your own understanding. He made a treaty with Ben-Hadad the King of Syria, in a bid to overcome Baasha king of Israel.

God was not pleased with Asa that he relied on the Kind of Syria instead of the Lord. He sent Hannan to Asa who said, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars." (2 Chronicles 16:9).
God simply removed his protection and troubles began. Three years later Asa became ill and even worse he did not seek for the Lord even in his sickness. That is the sad story. For the better part of his life he was loyal to God and enjoyed God's presence but he lost it and died a sinner. We have to be loyal and seek God's presence to the end. Even when we falter along the way, we have to rise up and mend our ways, seeking for the Lord.

His son Jehoshaphat took over the reigns. Like his father, he continued to seek for the Lord. However, he erred by assisting Ahab who disobeyed God's word to go into a battle. Ahab was killed but Jehoshaphat safely returned home.

"And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Therefore the wrath of the LORD is upon you. Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from the land, and HAVE PREPARED YOUR HEART TO SEEK GOD" (2 Chronicles 19: 2-3).

Jehoshaphat was saved because he continued earnestly to rely on God's power (although he emulated his father by disobeying God towards the end of his reign). Even when you have lost track, God is always available to restore you, as long as you earnestly seek Him with all your heart and soul all the time!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Why God Keeps On Doing Great Things?

Recently I was invited to a church member's thanksgiving service. Sometime ago he was bedridden and his illness was not promising to a point that he eventually lost his job. However, God's grace was upon him and he was healed, got another job and continued with his life. He has a home (which he continued to establish in spite of his illness), a family and a job. He wanted to give thanks to God for answering his prayers and hence the service last Sunday.

When he personally invited me two months ago, I immediately knew I was not going to miss this occasion. As I thought and prayed about this function, I could tell that my faith was soaring. I recalled all the times this man pushed himself to church and how he would cry out to the Lord in prayer and how he would sing and dance for the Lord, forgetting about his health condition - fast forward to today, he preaches the Word of God with a meaning.

I asked myself why God continues to do wonders for us. Why God performs miracles? I realized that He does not do it just for fun. He does not do it just to please the person receiving the miracle. He does it for a specific reason. That is the message God imparted in my heart. Somehow I knew God wanted me to relay this message. That is why I was least shocked when I learnt on the day I am one of the selected individuals included in the programme to give a testimony. After all we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

So, why God keeps on doing great things? This is what Joshua told the Israelites, "For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever," (Joshua 4:23-24).
God does not want us to be just a reservoir of His blessings. He wants us to be a flowing river of His blessings so that all the people who get to know of our blessings may turn to Him. The hand of God is powerful and all people should know that so they may glorify Him.
What does fearing the Lord mean? David said, Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it." (Psalm 34: 11-14).

In other words, the fear of the Lord means living a righteous life. God is always ready to listen and answer the prayers of the righteous. The Apostle James says the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The Apostle Paul says the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
God has promised that he will dwell in us and walk among us. He has promised that we will be His people and He will be our God. He has promised that if we do not touch anything unclean and separate ourselves from the evil, He will receive us. He has promised that He will be our Father and we will be his sons and daughters.

"Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God," (2 Corinthians 7:1). My lovely friends let us seek His kingdom and his righteousness first. It calls us to be pure in heart. We have to ask God to cleanse us from anything that separates us from His face and that is sin. We often say nobody is perfect but God has told us to be perfect because He is perfect. Let us strive for the perfection of His holiness in fearing him. We can never see God without holiness. Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
We all desire to enter his kingdom, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is amazing how much peace you have when you know your heart is clean. In the book of the prophet Isaiah 32:17 the Word says the work (or fruit) of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and assurance forever.

My friend let us make it a point that we align ourselves with the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ and keep endeavoring to be righteous. My prayer these days to the Lord is that "Create in me a clean heart oh God". Let us seek Him with a clean heart. Let us seek Him in truth. He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Let us acknowledge Him for every blessing he pours unto us and that way the gospel of Christ will spread and many people will begin to fear Him. Bless His holy name!