Today’s Reading

Second Chronicles 13-16; John 14

Selected Verses

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.  2 Chronicles 16:9

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  John 14:12

Reflections

King Asa had some good years but, sadly, he veered off course by trusting in the power of a foreign ruler instead of maintaining confidence in the God who had delivered him in former times. Why did he veer off? Perhaps, he thought he was strong enough to handle the situation without the Lord. Perhaps, he forgot that he was merely a steward of God’s people and that God would not abandon him if he was faithful and believing. Maybe it was all of the above. At any rate, his heart was not blameless toward the Lord and he paid for his unfaithfulness dearly with continual wars for the rest of his life.

In John 14, there is a long list of ways that Jesus shows His love for His disciples. He is concerned to bring comfort to their troubled hearts. The Lord wants them to be with Him and He reassures them that He is the way to the Father.  He promises to send them a Helper, the Holy Spirit, and He tells them the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will be with them.

There is another promise, however, that parallels my thoughts on Asa. That is, Jesus promised that His disciples would do the works that He did, and even greater works than He had done, because He was going to the Father. His going to the Father coincided with His sending the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the disciples doing those promised greater works. Indeed, those unlikely and unlearned men would soon be changing history with the gospel (Acts 4:13).

Think about it

Here we have two ways to approach our work and responsibility before God. We may rely on our own resources or the resources we can scrounge up from others, like Asa did. Or we may rely on God, maintain a clear understanding that we work with Him and that He will “give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”  Today, be neither overconfident nor overwhelmed, but walk blamelessly before God by Christ’s mercy and be His fellow worker.

© 2017 John A Carroll  Used by permission