2 Chronicles 16:7-9 “At that time the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah, and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with exceedingly many chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.” This episode talks about how we need to rely on God instead of on things of this world. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Rely on God
2 Chronicles 16:7-9 “At that time the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah, and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with exceedingly many chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.”
I love the way the Holy Spirit works. I heard this verse recently on the Bible in a year podcast and I was thinking it would be a great verse to talk about with you. Then I forgot. Today I was typing up the minutes from our prayer group meetings back in December of last year and I saw this verse again. I felt it was a confirmation that God wanted me to talk to you about this verse. This is just one of the many things I love about God. He asks us to do something, and then if we forget, he gently reminds us. I also love that He doesn’t seem to be upset with us that we forgot. He doesn’t make us feel bad, He just reminds us of what we said we would do. He is such a loving Father.
The reason this verse stood out to me is because it is about a king who turned to others for help instead of turning to the Lord. King Asa was went to the King of Aram and asked to make a treaty with him and for that king to break his treaty with the King of Isreael so that Isreal would withdraw from Judah. Up until this point when King Asa went to battle he would rely on the Lord to help him win the battle and the Lord did. So in this verse the seer Hanani went to the king of Judah and told him that because he didn’t rely on the Lord, he relied on someone else, then the army he wanted to get escaped him.
I thought this was good because it is a reminder to us to rely on the Lord. How many times have we turned to things in the world for help, instead of relying on God? How many times have things seemed overwhelming and we don’t see a way out and so we ask others for help before we ask the Lord for help. Asking others for help is not a bad thing. However, when you stop relying on the Lord, that is when it becomes a problem. The seer reminds King Asa about some of the other armies that he went up against that were huge armies with lots of chariots and calvary and yet King Asa defeated them because he relied on the Lord. I wonder what changed? I wonder why he was able to rely on the Lord for some of the time, and yet not other times. Especially when the Lord delivered him from some pretty tough enemies.
I don’t understand what was going through the king’s mind. Even though I don’t understand what the king was thinking I would say we probably do the same thing. There are times when we rely on the Lord more easily than others. There are times when something happens and we go straight to the Lord and we ask Him to fix it or to take care of it. Then there are other times when we try to fix it ourselves. We ask others to help, we may even go to people we don’t like just because we think we really need their help. This is when we need the reminder that God is all we need. Rely on Him and He will always come through. In the daily devotional that I am reading titled “Jesus Calling” it has messages from Jesus each day. Two sentences from today’s devotional stuck out to me. It said, “A trusting response includes Me in your thoughts as you consider strategies to deal with a situation. My continual Presence is a promise, guaranteeing that you never have to face anything alone.” This is confirming what I said earlier. It is not that you shouldn’t ask others for help, asking for help is great. It is only a problem if you don’t have God in your thoughts as part of your plan. If you are doing all you are doing without God.
I love the second to last sentence in this verse also. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him.” “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him.” Isn’t that beautiful? It's as if the Lord is just constantly scanning earth to see who needs Him to help them. If you are in trouble, the Lord knows it. There is no hiding anything from the Lord. He knew what you were going to do before you did. He is always there to help you get out of it. We had a word of prophecy at our prayer group that said, “I am here. I am here with you wherever you go, whatever you do, I am with you. Know that I am your God. I will be with you in the good times and bad times. Know that I am with you.” God tells us this weekly. I think it must be something He really wants us to hear.
If you are trying to solve things are your own, don’t. Lean into God, rely on Him and He will get you through. God was upset with the King of Judah for not relying on Him and for turning to things of this world. Don’t let that be you. Keep God in your thoughts as you come up with strategies for dealing with all situations. Begin your day with asking the Lord what He wants you to do. Whenever you encounter a difficult situation turn to the Lord and ask Him how He can help you. Ask God to lead you and you can’t go wrong. Consult Him as you would consult your best friend. Tell Him what is wrong and then listen to what He has to say. Don’t just tell Him how to fix your situation, tell Him the problem and let Him tell you the way to solve it.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless those listening to this episode today. Lord, we all fail to turn to you at times, help us to change this. We all rely on the things of this world, help us to rely on you first, every time Lord. We are so grateful that you keep constant watch on earth, scanning for trouble so you can help those whose heart is true to you. Our heart is true to you Lord, and if it isn’t please change it so it is. Let us know what we need to do to be more true to you. God you are the great “I AM” and you are the Word of Live. You are our joy and our live. We love you Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!