Wholehearted

 1 Kings 8:61 ESV 

Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.” 
 

I can't help but think how hypocritical of Solomon this verse is. He allowed his pagan wives to draw his heart away from the Lord. I take it that Ecclesiastes is his repentant swansong.

Notwithstanding that Solomon didn't practice what he preached, this verse is still true. His father was a man after God's own heart. He himself though had divided loyalties.

 God hates half heartedness. He wants us to be wholly true to him. His law is to love him with all of our beings and to love one another as we love ourselves. 

It's all very well to worship God at the dedication of the temple, or when we first profess faith, or on Christmas day. When the going gets tough, we're to remain faithful to the Lord. That's when the rubber hits the road: the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

 'Lord our God, please help us to be wholehearted in our devotion to you, even when things are hard. In the name of Christ we ask this, amen'.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Power

 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.Exodus 9:16 ESVhttps://bible.com/bible/59/exo.9.16.ESV  Secular historians point to the lack of extra-biblical evidence of Hebrew slavery in Egypt and ensuing exodus. But here in this verse, God describes how this anonymous Pharoah has been immortalised in the annals of the Hebrews, so that God is proclaimed in all the earth. The mighty men of the world might think they can stand against God and win, but resistance is futile!  The more stubborn Pharoah was, the more the Lord was able to display His power. The more insistent Pharoah was of keeping his slaves, the more unreasonable he appeared. It was a battle of wills, and the will of Yahweh prevailed.  In the end, Pharoah will have been broken by the plagues. In the final plague, his own firstborn son was killed, the next in line to the throne of the world superpower. He might have tried to put a brave...
Read more

Light

 he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6 As the Lord speaks through Isaiah, his audience shifts from Israel as a whole to his servant, who we will discover is a suffering servant. But this servant has a great calling: to be a light not just to his own people of Israel, but to the whole world. God doesn't want to simply bless one people upon the face of the earth, he wants to bless all peoples of the earth. His means of doing it is through his servant. His servant's first job is to bring back the people of Israel to God, and through them to reach the world. So who is this suffering servant? Isaiah himself served God, and suffered for it. But his message was primarily for the Gentiles. Now Jesus said at one point that he only came for the lost sheep of Israel, but he went on...
Read more

Allowance

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Ephesians 4:2 (NLT) We're to be Christlike. He is the ultimate example of humility, gentleness, patience and love. Not only so, but He empowers us by His Holy Spirit to become conformed to His likeness. Christ humbled Himself to death on a cross on our behalf. He was gentle with people who were cruel to Him. He was patient with those who murdered Him, and prayed, 'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing'. Because of Christ's love, God can make allowances for our faults. We deserve His condemnation, but thankfully we can be forgiven because of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. Our sins can't just be brushed under the carpet, they have to be dealt with at the cross. We're not to be humble, gentle, patient and loving to earn God's favour. Because God favours us in Christ, we're to be humble, gentle, patient...
Read more