Wholehearted Devotion Our Entire Life
It seems to me that most people are having a very hard time making lifelong commitments these days. People seem to change their minds based on their feelings or on their selfish desires. This is a terrible development. There are some areas of life where we all need to be totally devoted to someone or something for our entire life. Of course, marriage is one example. God made us to have the closest possible human relationship with our mate for all of our life. If we fail in that commitment, it effects our children and others in our family in harmful way. It causes a breakdown in our culture when the majority of people do not have stable marriages for life. However, the main area we must have this type of commitment is to the Lord. (I Kings 15:11,14) We see a positive example of this in King Asa's life. He did what was right in the Lord's sight, like David his ancestor did. He wasn't perfect. The high places were not taken away, but Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his entire life. Now, that is a fantastic testimony.
When we surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior of our life that fact never changes. He is Lord forever, and we are His servants forever. We are to love Him and to depend on Him all of our days. That means Monday-Saturday, not just on Sunday. This devotion must be sincere and wholehearted. It can't be 50% or 75% and truly be the Christian life God designed for us. It is a daily walk with Jesus, and it should get stronger and stronger, instead of getting weaker over the years. We have examples around us, like Asa had David for his example. Also, we are examples for our family members and others. They should be able to tell that our full devotion is to Jesus. Then, when we die, and they give our eulogy, they should be able to say that we came to know Jesus early in our life, and we were wholeheartedly devoted to Him for our entire life. That is the greatest testimony a person can have. However, if we have gotten away from the Lord, we should always confess our sins, repent, and return to Him. Then, we can begin that full devotion for the rest of our days. That is the path to a full and meaningful life, full of love, joy, and peace forever.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 16-18.