Turning Away from the Lord
If Solomon would turn away from the Lord, which he did, then it could happen to anyone.(I Kings 11:9) He had every reason to stay faithful to the Lord forever, a godly heritage, wisdom, riches, and power. There are some huge lessons to be learned from Solomon's departure from following the Lord. I pray that each of us will heed these warning that God has recorded for us in His Word.
There is no evidence that Solomon ceased believing in God. He did not make a sudden decision to stop believing and turn away from God. The change of heart was gradual. It was brought on by pride, riches, and his foreign wives. Through the years Solomon allowed these influences to cause him to think that God was not Lord, so he could do what he wanted to do, instead of doing what God had plainly revealed to him. In other words Solomon tried to worship the Lord and other gods. That is not possible. If God is not Lord of all, He is not Lord, at all. I am speaking from a personal perspective. If Jesus ceases to be the Lord of your life totally and completely, He is not Lord at all. Therefore, we must never allow anything to come into our lives which stands between us and doing the will of God.
If we stop trusting the Lord fully, it makes God angry. We are disrespecting Him. We are lowering Him to the level of other gods. He is no longer seen to be Lord by others around us, so we are leading others from Him. God's anger is kindled because He realizes His truth has been skewed. so He must take action to stop us from rebelling against Him as Lord, and help us return to Him. He does that by calling us back, but if that does not work, He sends enemies against us. We begin to see that He is not blessing us, and He is even fighting against us, because we have become His enemy. That is a serious situation.
Jesus is Lord! Think about it. We may have confessed Him as Lord, like Solomon confessed that the Lord God of Israel was Lord of his life. However, have we departed from our confession? Are we worshiping other things and going our own way? If we are, the anger of God is against us, like it was against Solomon. We need to run back to Jesus as Lord of all and Lord of our lives.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 12-14.
There is no evidence that Solomon ceased believing in God. He did not make a sudden decision to stop believing and turn away from God. The change of heart was gradual. It was brought on by pride, riches, and his foreign wives. Through the years Solomon allowed these influences to cause him to think that God was not Lord, so he could do what he wanted to do, instead of doing what God had plainly revealed to him. In other words Solomon tried to worship the Lord and other gods. That is not possible. If God is not Lord of all, He is not Lord, at all. I am speaking from a personal perspective. If Jesus ceases to be the Lord of your life totally and completely, He is not Lord at all. Therefore, we must never allow anything to come into our lives which stands between us and doing the will of God.
If we stop trusting the Lord fully, it makes God angry. We are disrespecting Him. We are lowering Him to the level of other gods. He is no longer seen to be Lord by others around us, so we are leading others from Him. God's anger is kindled because He realizes His truth has been skewed. so He must take action to stop us from rebelling against Him as Lord, and help us return to Him. He does that by calling us back, but if that does not work, He sends enemies against us. We begin to see that He is not blessing us, and He is even fighting against us, because we have become His enemy. That is a serious situation.
Jesus is Lord! Think about it. We may have confessed Him as Lord, like Solomon confessed that the Lord God of Israel was Lord of his life. However, have we departed from our confession? Are we worshiping other things and going our own way? If we are, the anger of God is against us, like it was against Solomon. We need to run back to Jesus as Lord of all and Lord of our lives.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 12-14.