WHOLEhearted

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” (1 Kings 11:1-13, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
It doesn’t take a degree in divinity or theology to see what’s wrong here.  In Matthew 22:37 the reader is told that the greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  Three distinct areas essential to our very being and Jesus tells us He wants all of it.  I find it very sad that instead of growing closer to God in his old age, Solomon grows more distant from the One whom loves him the most.  Solomon’s life is a great example of how to take a good thing and make it bad.  All it takes is to allow something, anything, to usurp the place of God in our life and then wham-o life is out of whack.

Life with God requires that you be ALL in.  I don’t fully understand this concept because it seems like it would sure be a lot easier if once we surrender to God that first time, if He would just make us a robot for Him from that point onward.  It could save Him lots of trouble.  Instead we are called to live out a life in which we struggle each day to mold our will to the Father’s will and turn our heart, mind, and soul towards Him and away from the things of this world.  

You may be surprised to find out that some of the things that can turn our heart away from God include family, helping the helpless, serving others, and loving your spouse.  Of course these all sound like wonderful things and they are, but as a follower of Jesus we are instructed, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  Often we are so busy loving our neighbor or trying to serve the Lord we forget that it is Jesus through us who does these things.  All of our best effort done by our own ability counts for nothing.  Works done by our own hands no matter how good they seem to be are useless to God.  These things only serve to elevate ourselves to a place that is God’s alone.   Wholehearted devotion doesn’t come easy.  It takes all we have and then asks us to check and see if there is any more to give.  If we give everything to God we should have nothing left to give to others.  However, we are promised much fruit in this life if we surrender our whole life to God and allow Him to pour out through us His unending, inexhaustible love, grace, and mercy into the lives of those we encounter minute by minute, day by day.

There are things in this world which seem to naturally draw away wholehearted devotion to God.  Marriage can be one of these things.  Family too can keep us from giving full devotion to God.  Work, those things we think are up to us to accomplish, can blind us to our need for absolute surrender to God.  These three things lead Solomon down a path that ultimately cursed his own son and divided the kingdom of his father.

What path are you on?  Are you on a path of wholehearted devotion to God in which all things are made a blessing for both you and the Lord?  Or are you on a path of divided loyalties, double mindedness, a path which causes things of blessing to become cursed?


PRAYER:
Father, please teach us and guide us in what it means for each of us to be all in and give up our life completely for your sake.  Teach us how to love you in a way that is pleasing to you.  Thank you for your mercy and gentle grace.  We do love you and I pray that you would make it true in our whole being.    


WHO AM I?
My name is Paul Babb and I fail to love God with all of my heart, mind, and soul most minutes of every day.  I’m a work in slow progress but at least there is progress.  That’s all I can ask or hope for.