Pretending All is Well

 There are times in our lives when we disobey God, and He allows us to go through a time of punishment and testing. He does this out of love, but it still hurts. We have to decide what we will do. Will we get serious about obeying God, or will we pretend everything is alright? Pretending is never the solution.

King Rehoboam disobeyed God's commands by making two golden calves for the people of Israel to worship, so they would not go back to the temple in Jerusalem. God told him to repent, but he wouldn't, so God sent the king of Egypt to punish Rehoboam. (I Kings 14:26-27) The King of Egypt took away all of the treasures of the house of the Lord and the king's house. He took everything, even the gold shields, which Solomon had made. Then Rehoboam made bronze shields and gave them to the commanders of the guard to bring out for show. Then, they would put them back up, so no one would know the gold shields were gone.

I pray we are all being honest with God and with ourselves. If our relationship with the Lord is not what it used to be or not what it should be, we must not decide to pretend that all is just fine. We must not try to put on a show before others on Sundays. We must truly repent and get right with the Lord with all our heart.

God sees when we are not pure before Him. He knows the difference between gold and bronze. We are not fooling Him, and if we ignore Him, we will be heading down a path that leads us misery. We will be hurting ourselves and others by trying to pretend that all is well. Let's just be honest, get right, and have joy.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 15-17.