Searching or Forsaking by Camille Stahl

Today’s Reading – 2 Chronicles 13 – 17 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers Read – Acts 13 – 15; Psalms 96 – 100; Proverbs 20)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Proverbs 3:5 & 6

Read the “0520 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Read previous posts from this passage – “Asa – He Started Well But Finished Poorly“; “Trust in the Lord“, and “Don’t Shoot the Messenger”

“And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” (2 Chronicles 15:2)

God desires fellowship with us.  But He will never push himself on us.  As much as we allow Him, He will bless us.  This is a glorious promise.  We need to fear nothing because with Him we can face any problem. The Lord was with Adam until he sinned.  The Lord was with Samson until he broke his vow.  In every case, man makes the break.  He could exist completely independent of us but we cannot live without Him.

Unlike other ‘gods’, if we seek Him, we will find Him.  The prophets and priests sought for Baal before Elijah.

“And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.” (1 Kings 18:28-29)

No matter how loud they cried or how deep they cut themselves, they had no power to call down their powerless god.  Hannah, the mother of Samuel, sought and found Him with just moving her lips with no sound.

The warning is not to forsake Him.

“But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)

People blame God for tragedies that they themselves are responsible for. They don’t want to have to answer or be accountable to anyone. As a result, there is no reading of the bible or praying. No one wants to go to church. When things go wrong, and they will, no matter if you’re in the will of God or not. That’s when people throw their fists at God.

Whose team are you on?  Searching or forsaking.

Thank You

1 John 5:13