Seven More Days
King Hezekiah of Judah was a very righteous king. He restored the temple and consecrated it. Then, he set out to celebrate the Passover, which had not been fully celebrated since Solomon's reign. It took a lot of cleansing and preparations, but they were faithful. They invited all of the tribes of Israel and Judah to participate, but many were not willing. The ones who did come were very enthusiastic about doing God's will. They observed the feast of unleavened bread and the Passover for seven days as Moses had instructed. Then, they were being so blessed by spending that time with the Lord, they decided to go seven more days, and they did it with joy. (II Chronicles 30:1,23) I believe this is a great challenge for us today.
It seems to me that our culture in the United States is so concerned about convenience and so time conscious that believers are trying to condense the things of the Lord, instead of expanding them. I am not saying this is all bad, but it does cause me concern when we find it hard to spend time with the Lord in worship and in service. It started off that we had plans to read the Bible in a year, so there were One Year Bibles, now there are Bibles to read 1 minute per day. We used to have revivals that were well attended for seven days or more, but now, many revivals are just one day or one service. It seems like we are crowding God out of our lives, and we need to take a lesson from the believers of Hezekiah's day. We need to start stretching out our time with the Lord, instead of minimizing it. I believe we would find that it would bring us great joy to simply put our focus on the Lord and keep it there for extended periods of time.
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Chronicles 31-33.
It seems to me that our culture in the United States is so concerned about convenience and so time conscious that believers are trying to condense the things of the Lord, instead of expanding them. I am not saying this is all bad, but it does cause me concern when we find it hard to spend time with the Lord in worship and in service. It started off that we had plans to read the Bible in a year, so there were One Year Bibles, now there are Bibles to read 1 minute per day. We used to have revivals that were well attended for seven days or more, but now, many revivals are just one day or one service. It seems like we are crowding God out of our lives, and we need to take a lesson from the believers of Hezekiah's day. We need to start stretching out our time with the Lord, instead of minimizing it. I believe we would find that it would bring us great joy to simply put our focus on the Lord and keep it there for extended periods of time.
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Chronicles 31-33.