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[expand title=”Devotion Text”]2 Chronicles 16:12
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.
How does it happen? How does a person follow hard after God for many years and then blow it at the end? Do we start believing that success is of our own doing? Do we become worn out by obedience? When does pride drive out humility?
Asa, the king of Judah, was a bold reformer. He did “what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord.” He led the people to enter into a covenant “to seek the Lord . . . with all their soul and all their heart.” Asa even deposed his own grandmother “because she made a repulsive Asherah pole.” Then something snapped . . . spiritually speaking. In his last years, he made a treaty with a pagan king. When God sent a prophet to confront him, Asa became “so enraged that he put [the prophet] in prison” and “brutally oppressed some of the people.” But in today’s passage, we learn that during his illness, “he did not seek help from the Lord.”
What causes the best days of one’s life to be seen only in the rearview mirror? Asa is a great reminder that any one of us can blow it. In the words of the apostle Paul, we need to strain toward what is ahead and “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
Dear Father, may it not be said of me that my best spiritual days are behind me. Please give me the strength and focus to press on to win the prize. Whatever has happened in the past, I pray that my best spiritual days are ahead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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