What Selfish Choices Have You Made?

1 Kings 14: 8-9….and22 -   I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.  You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back.

…. Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done.

 

Rehoboam and Jeroboam … were given a choice to rule the kingdom they were given with God’s commands….to love God and follow his ways and have a blessed and prosperous life. But both of them went their own selfish way…and ended up leading many people into practices that made God furious. They Both died with no real legacy of God to leave the two sons that took the thrones after them.

 

The fighting they did with each other did no one any good….except satan.  He must have been pretty pleased with himself…all that idol worship….all those shrines built to common men…male temple prostitutes…obelisks built to honor every god except Yahweh.  Crime settled in where prosperity would have ruled and most of the gold Solomon had collected was taken by the king of Egypt.

 

Reminds me of the world I live in.  Crime is at an all-time high….you can’t turn on the news or read a paper without reading about a murder or robbery somewhere. Men and women still sell their bodies for food...drugs…or rent money.  Satan has even convinced many to worship the material things in our world …many thinking that money is the only prosperity that exists.

 

But I know that God is working in someone’s heart as I write….helping them to understand the hold satan has on those of us that still live here on Earth.  It is easier than you think to go the way of Rehoboam or Jeroboam…..getting caught up in our own selfish desires...instead of waking each morning and visiting with God…and asking him what we should do that day. I sure don’t want God angry at me…life is hard enough as it is.

 

Father….I thank you for this story that reminds me to spend more time with you…allowing your love to seep into my soul and help me make choices that will honor and advance your kingdom.  Help me today to find ways to purge my life of any idol that still holds me back from the pure love that you offer us after we have confessed all our sins.  Help me to find you so that you will be pleased and not angry at me.  Amen.