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Jul 18, 2023 06:00am

Seeking God Matters

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

Talk Time

Have you ever played “hide and seek”?
When you can’t do something successfully the first time, do you keep on trying or tend to give up? Think of something you tried hard on and succeeded.
What does it mean to “seek God”? What does that look like?

Bible Connection

Once upon a time, there was a king named Asa, who did “what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God”. He removed places of idol worship and encouraged his people to seek God. When the Israelites started putting God first in their lives, God blessed Asa and his people with peace and prosperity. Then, one day, an army came to the land of Judah with over one million warriors and 300 chariots. King Asa and his kingdom were vastly outnumbered – they had half as many warriors and no chariots.

Read what happens next in 2 Chronicles 14:8-15.

Times of trouble can often reveal our hearts and in this time of trouble, King Asa showed that his heart trusted in God. In front of his army, he cried out a beautiful prayer of surrender and trust in God. That battle cry of dependency got God’s attention! Verse 12 said that God struck down the enemy, causing the enemy to flee. King Asa and his army pursued the enemy until there was no one left. One million people fell that day because one king depended upon God!

After this, God (through a prophet) made a promise to Asa. Read about it in 2 Chronicles 15:1-7.

This promise motivated Asa to lead his country to a revival of seeking God! Not only did he remove more idols from the land, but he also removed his grandmother from power because of her idol worship! Anyone who didn’t seek God was put to death! Then, Asa repaired the altar of the Lord and made sacrifices, vowing that he and his people would seek God with all their hearts. God blessed Asa and his people with peace for 21 years.

Unfortunately, our story doesn’t end there. Something happened over the course of those 21 years of peace that caused Asa’s heart for God to change. Perhaps the blessing of prosperity turned his heart away from God? Perhaps he stopped depending upon God? All we do know is that when an army came up against his kingdom again, he didn’t call out to God for help this time. Instead, he used gold and silver from the treasury of God’s temple as a means to bribe the enemy’s ally to join his side. His plan was successful, but it came at a great cost.

God used a prophet to confront Asa saying, “Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on, you will be at war.”

Oh, these words had to have stung Asa upon hearing them. Instead of repenting for his lack of trust and turning back to God, Asa grew angry, throwing this prophet into prison. A few years later, he got a serious foot disease. Even then, he sought help from his doctors, rather than seeking God’s help. He died a few years after that.

Faith Connection

King Asa’s story shows us that when we have a heart to get to know God, we will find Him! God loves it when His kids seek Him for relationship and have a desire to live life His way. But, when we seek everyone else for help and direction in our lives, rather than God, we lose out on an opportunity to experience God and His presence in our lives. King Asa shows us how easy it is to drift from God if we aren’t intentionally seeking Him. Despite the sad ending to Asa’s reign, he is still known as a godly king whose son, Jehoshaphat, followed in his footsteps by seeking the Lord.