Thursday, April 21, 2005

Good and Bad Seasons; meditations from 2 Chronicles 26 & 28

Lately, I've been encountering people who are using their circumstances to determine God's perspective on their life. When things are going well, God must be pleased. When things are going poorly, God must be angry.

What to do? What to do?

That has echoed strangely to me as I've been reading through 2 Chronicles recently.

First, take the story of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. The text tells us of some fantastic accomplishments and blessing that the Lord gave Uzziah. Then, suddenly, it says (16) "But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction."

Next, on the same page in my bible, comes the story of Ahaz in chapter 28. The text tells us of some horrific wickedness and judgement that came to Ahaz. That is followed by this phrase (22) "In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord."

May God protect us from both of these things. May He protect us from the pride that comes from strength, and from the faithlessness that comes from distress. And may we use every circumstance as a reminder to live for the Lord with our whole hearts.

1 Comments:

Blogger Matthew Westerholm said...

Honestly, I wondering what this comment means. I track the first two (oddly spaced) paragraphs, then loose the train of thought quickly in paragraph three. Could someone help me? Is this a celebration of humanity's power and choice? JFB's website is down at this time, so I can't see the whole sermon.

From my devotions this morning, God says in Jeremiah 27:5 “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me."

Check here for biblical mentioning of the word "chooses."

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=chooses

12:15 PM  

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