He is My Strength

2 Chronicles 14-16

 “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9

The Life of King Asa of Judah – When Asa took the throne he “did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord.” He got rid of all idols and anything used to worship other gods.  He trusted in God and knew that his strength came from Him.  When he went to war the first time, he called upon God to deliver him from his enemies.  God did, but Asa’s army plundered all the villages in their path.  This immediately struck me as wrong – killing and taking just because you can.

Then as they were returning Azariah received the Spirit of God and warned Asa about what happened to Israel because they did not seek God.  They were tortured and suffered.  So Asa listened and repented.  He had all of Judah and the surrounding areas get rid of all idols, pledge an oath to God, and sacrifice huge amounts of plunder they took from those villages as an offering.  Because of this repentance, God blessed them with 20 years of peace.  Then Israel came.

When the king of Israel attacked Judah, Asa went to the king of Aram to ask for help.  He offered him silver and gold and asked for a treaty to help him run Israel off.  He agreed to the treaty and Judah was freed from Israel’s attack.  However, because Asa did not rely on the Lord for his strength but another king, God removed peace from the land.  Asa was so angry that he died without ever trusting in the Lord again.

Can we become too comfortable in our times of peace? In those 20 years of peace that Asa enjoyed did he forget how much the Lord had done for him and when struggle arose again, forgot who to put his trust in?  I absolutely believe this is something that has been, is, and will continue to be a serious issue.  When times are good, we start to believe that we don’t need anyone to help us out – “we got this.” I’m doing everything right, sort-of-thing.  But then disaster strikes and we don’t know where to turn.  We’ve forgotten how to depend on God and try to take matters into our own hands. I have definitely been there and I can look back and see how God allowed events in my life to happen to bring me back to Him.  

I can even see it in losing my daughter.  It pains me to think about this.  I don’t want to believe that it took something that drastic to bring me back to Him.  And I don’t know if I was really falling away from Him.  But, I can see places leading up to the accident where God worked in my life to prepare me for it.  I was in a comfortable place, life was good.  Yes, 4 children and a full time job and a church ministry was stressful but I was happy.  I had no valid reason to be distraught or in anguish. However, God was working. He was there. He had been improving our marriage and helping us work through the many problems we faced over the 17 years we’d been married.  In February, He placed on my heart, through a devotional I had read, to begin a journal where I wrote down something about Joel that I was thankful for each day for a year and present it to him the next Valentine’s Day.  I’m still working on it and it has been such a blessing to me. (I showed him the journal in progress while we were still in the hospital with Phoebe to show him how much I appreciated him and was invested in him). A couple of weekends before the accident, He gave my parents and me a healing weekend of rejuvenating our relationship.  And, the morning of the accident, He woke Keren up before I left for work (she was always a late sleeper and I did not usually see her in the mornings) so that I could hold her and hug her and laugh with her one last time.  God knew I would need these things to help me get through this.  He never abandoned me and I never want to get so comfortable that I forget what He has done for me.  I want to live my life in full service to my Father.  I want to always feel Him close to me and remember how much He loves me.  He is my strength.