- He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim….2 Chronicles 14:3 – King Asa found his reign a blessed one because he chose to follow after God and he choose to lead the people under him to do the same. One major thing that Asa did was tearing down the altars and pillars constructed for the worship of false gods. These would have been a trap for his people, something that could easily tempt them to return to a way of unfaithfulness to God. The king knowing this took care of traps for his people. What traps are in the lives of the people around you that you can see? What do you think is going to happen if those traps remain along their path? Maybe the reason God has revealed them to you is because He’s leading you to remove those traps out of their path. The least we can do is make them aware of the traps and help them past so they don’t get caught up in it. Let us not be a people that is aware of the traps in our brother’s way yet does nothing about them. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1528
- He also took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars. And the kingdom had rest under him. 6 He built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest. He had no war in those years, for the Lord gave him peace. 2 Chronicles 14:5-6 – Asa is now king in Judah after his father Abijah passed, and we see a striking difference in the nature of his reign. Peace. Unlike his father whose reign was plagued with war, Asa found rest in his land and peace for his people. Was this peace brought about because Asa had newly fortified cities and an army of mighty men of valor? While yes Asa had that too in his reign, peace wasn’t brought about because of those things. Asa had peace in his land because He commanded that God was to be worshipped in his land. All idols and places of idol worship were taken away and the worship of God took place instead. As a result of such faithfulness, God blessed Asa with peace in his land. Allow these quick summaries of these different kings’ stories to reveal to you how the choice to worship God or not to worship God is the choice to bring peace into your story or not to bring peace in. Each story where God was acknowledged, sought out, and worshipped is the stories we see rest and peace within. Yet each story where God was forgotten and rejected is the stories where unrest and conflict plagues the pages. Certainly even the stories of faithfulness had battles, that’s clearly shown even in our passage today, but conflict was not the theme of this story. Peace was. And so will the theme of the story be of all those who follow the Lord. Choose today to follow the Lord knowing that is also your choice to bring peace into your life. I love you, but Jesus love you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2603
Daily DEVO 