Have you ever known someone who lives in the past? It could be the guy who peaked on his high school football team. It could be a mother who constantly dresses like her teenage daughter. It could be a leader or politician who served God faithfully in the beginning but eventually strayed.
It could be a person like King Rehobam. You can read about his family in 2 Chronicles 11 and his depart from truth in 2 Chronicles 12. Rehobam began faithful. He started strong. But by his fifth year as King he had become unfaithful choosing to rely on his own strength instead of God. His days of pleasing God were history.
No one can depend on former correct actions to ensure a future relationship with God. God is concerned with the choices I make today. He is concerned with the current state of my heart.
No matter how I failed yesterday, today is a chance to start over. I do need to address yesterday’s failures and confess and repent as scripture directs, but they do not hold me back from restoring a broken fellowship with my Father. Furthermore, a former spiritual high or walking closely with God for years past means little if I chose to ignore Him today. God is concerned about the current state of our relationship.
Ouch! I know I’m guilty of coasting through days without picking up my bible depending on last week’s prayer to get me through today’s trial. The big question is: What am I going to do about it? How did Rehobam move from a faithful beginning to becoming a King who abandoned the law of his Lord? Did it start with a short stretch of depending on last week’s prayer? Did he stop listening to sound teaching and start listening to his own voice instead?
King Rehobam’s story contains a warning I intend to heed. I’ve started meeting regularly with three other woman. We all attend different churches, we all have slightly different opinions on various topics. But there are many things we have in
common.
We want to be found faithful.
We want to glorify God in our actions, thoughts, and words EACH day.
We want to live without regrets.
We want to give sacrificially, love unconditionally, and deepen our walk with God.
We want to be held accountable.
That’s why we meet. That’s why we bring our prayer journals and share from them. That why we confess the ugly truth about our fears, doubts, and trials.
That’s why we hold up one another in prayer.
Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”