The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days —2 Chronicles 15:17
Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”— yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless— you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.
Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
We found this prescription hard to argue with. But also found in it the possibility of getting Pharisaical and creating a checklist to make sure we were rooting out all the imperfections in our lives. Just thinking about that makes us tired, … Not to mention the facts that we’ve had such dismal results with the will power and organized methods like that … and that you didn’t have much good to say about those Pharisaical methods when you were here either. Then a phrase from The Message translation came to mind… “the unforced rhythms of grace” Here it is in context.
Matthew 11:28-30 The Message (MSG)
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
That seems so much more inviting than ramping up my diligence to keep myself spiritually fit. Obviously you ensured that both verses made it into the canon that we read. So are they just two sides of the same coin? What is the middle way that you would have us to walk?
You brought to JD’s mind Psalm 37:4 (NLT)
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
and Matthew 6:33 (NLT)
33 Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Maybe if we just focus on those two in the “unforced rhythms of grace” we’ll be safe from running off the road into either Phariseeism, or License for Whatever Feels Good. How does that sound to you? Sorry about doing all the talking today.
It sounds great to me. Now just go out and do it. It may seem that you’re doing all the talking … but you invited me into your conversation at the beginning. I heard that and I came. So I was there the whole time. Who do you think brought those thoughts to your minds? I will work with my kids, especially when I’m invited.
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