I don't usually use devotional books during my quiet times with the Lord. I like to pick a book of the Bible and work my way through it looking for reasons to love and worship the Lord and for lessons He'd like to teach me. But the one consistent exception is that along with my personal Bible reading, I like to read, "My Utmost for His Highest", a classic devotional by Oswald Chambers.
The Scripture for yesterday, April 15, was from 2 Chronicles 15:17, "The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days." Asa was one of the good kings of Israel during the days of the divided kingdom. Although Asa was a good king, the "high places" were not removed from Israel during his reign. These high places on mountains and hillsides were places where people performed rites of idolatry, worshiping foreign gods, and not the True and Living God.
The reading for the day is entitled, "Failure to Pay Close Attention". In reference to Asa, while he did promote the worship of the God of Israel, he also failed to eliminate the idolatry going on at the same time.
Chambers asks: "Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all?"
He goes on to say: "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."
This exhortation resonates with me. I was only yesterday speaking with a friend about the imbalance in my life recently. I've been very busy with ministry related things - all good - but have been neglecting - "failing to pay close attention", as Chambers says - to my relationship with the Lord! I've been taking a succession of days off spiritually, so how can I expect to remain spiritual?
I have sometimes asked myself: "What if everything you DO was taken away - maybe by illness or accident - and you were confined to a bed and couldn't do ANYTHING to physically serve the Lord - would simply taking joy in Jesus be enough?" It's an important question because in my heart of hearts I really don't want anything to be more important than the Lord. I don't want to be worshiping on the "high places" of ministry while neglecting that most important of life giving relationships - my relationship with Jesus.
I think it's no accident that I have had the opportunity to twice this year teach women from the book, "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World", by Joanna Weaver. The chapters are based on the gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verses 38-42. Like Martha, I've been busy, busy, busy - with a lot of good things - but I'm beginning to notice the poverty of soul that comes with neglecting to sit at Jesus' feet and just enjoy Him and listen.
Lord, help me to worship at YOUR feet and not at any high places that keep me from you. And thank you for the encouragement it is to hear you say of Asa, who, like me, wasn't always paying attention, "nevertheless, the heart of Asa was loyal (to You) all his days."
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