January 29, 2008
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Unresolved disappointments
God’s order of things – if you walk with Him and follow His ways, you will be blessed. If you do evil in the eyes of the Lord, you will be cursed. This message became quite clear to me as I read all of 1 and 2 Kings in the span of just a few days — it happens over and over again with the succession of the kings of Israel and Judah. The reality of this simple truth hit me yesterday morning, and I realized that my problem for awhile now has been thinking too much about how following God doesn’t always mean that everything will work out the way I think is best (which was my faulty definition of ‘blessing’). That thinking slid into a futile, fatalistic thinking: we live in a sinful world, none of us will escape with anything good, so why follow God? I’m not sure how these unconscious thoughts crept in and ended up taking me over completely, but it’s reigned my life for too many days to count.
The kings who did what was pleasing in God’s eyes had His protection and favor over their lives — they lived longer (i.e. weren’t murdered or mauled by lions), they reigned longer (i.e. were in positions of influence) and their descendants were often granted immunity (i.e. experienced blessing too). Their faithfulness to God affected their quality of life. It sometimes meant that they gained wealth and won more battles, but it did not always mean this of course — the reality was that they still had battles to fight, but they still had God’s overall favor and protection on their lives.
Those who had the Lord’s displeasure had shorter lives and shorter reigns and, overall, experienced more dead-ends and fruitlessness in their lives – the choices they made, the things they did often came to naught. But the interesting thing was that whether you were on the good track or bad track, you were not stuck. You could change tracks by seeking to honor the Lord. (Like King Jehoahaz, who sought the Lord’s favor after a long-time oppression by the King of Aram.)
Each king was only given a few paragraphs to sum up their entire life. In the end, there really seems to be only one point of evaulation. So what about me? What would my few lines say? “Mary Ann did evil in the eyes of the Lord…” or “Mary Ann did what was right in the eyes of the Lord…”? Will I seek to follow the ways of the Lord? or will I set up (pagan) idols in high places?
I know what I want it to say. But these thoughts have only led me to one question – what are things in my life that have kept me from following God so closely? Unresolved dissapointments that need to be resolved. I think that’s the answer. Which means… I need to seek resolution…
Comments (7)
Hey Mary Ann,
Just wanted to say it made me very happy to read your entry. Have to run now, but will probably think more about what you said and maybe comment more later. But just wanted to encourage you.
Gilbert
good insight! Didn’t someone famous say that we should live with our own eulogy in mind?
“Cindy did what was right in the eyes of the Lord..”
wow now that’s really powerful. i hope it’ll come true.
I know it’s not exactly the same thing, but I noticed a similar theme when I was reading through 1 and 2 Chronicles. I thought it was interesting that the most talked about kings in those books were the ones who went the extra step by destroying all the idols and places of idol worship, helping to turn the whole nation back towards God.
“I realized that my problem for awhile now has been thinking too much
about how following God doesn’t always mean that everything will work
out the way I think is best”
What does that mean? Do you mean that you think that following God won’t always give you what you want? If so, then that’s absolutely true. Luke 13:1-5 really puts the above idea into perspective, even for those righteous. But yes, in ancient Judaism, what you write about blessing and curse is exactly that. This was the expectation of Israel as they read these passages – the curse was markedly the absence of the presence of God, and the blessing was His presence, in a nutshell.
Ok! So after a long day I’m back to comment again!
It always makes me happy when people are able to step back and see what’s been happening in their hearts, and write about it honestly. That’s such an important step in making positive changes.
I feel it’s so true that God’s protection and favor rests on those that please Him. I feel it’s true in my life. Maybe I shouldn’t claim to be one that pleases God, but despite all the crazy stuff I’ve been through, I truly feel that God’s protection and favor has rested upon me. How much more messed up things would have turned out otherwise!
And I’m convinced God built us to pursue our heart’s passions. Why else would he have put them there? Our heart’s deepest and purest passions, when we are right with God, we are free to pursue them within the context of living under the shadow of his wings. We may not achieve them right away (or ever), but our hearts can be filled with joy in the pursuit of them.
Unresolved disappointments, very good idea to address those.. Anyways, blessings.
Hiya,
sorry for not responding to your comments, everyone. It got busy this
week with seminary classes (exam in Greek) and I also got sick!!
Anyway,
thanks for your thoughts, dreamsicle. Kings and Chronicles are
very similar books — except that while Kings focuses on the evaluation
of whether the kings were loyal to the covenant or not and the
consequence of not being faithful to God, Chronicles focuses on ‘the
good’ (omits a lot of the bad) because it was written after the exile
and was to be a way to remind the people of what it looks like to be
‘the people of God.’ So I think that’s why the author gave so much kudos to the kings who destroyed the idols and high places. (We just talked about that in our Old Testament
class at seminary.)
And Gilbert, thanks for your thoughts. I
Thanks for sharing.
think that’s really cool that you have felt the Lord’s favor/protection
on you. And I agree that God gave us our heart’s passions to pursue.
I have found though that if we are pursuing Him with all our hearts,
then all our passions are the passions of His heart too.
For example, for me and Sam, the idea of loving the orphans — that’s
become a passion on our hearts — but only because we know it’s a
passion of His heart — a passion that He has put on our hearts as we
have pursued Him.
mary ann – i’ve been dwelling on the same thing and have wondered how to “get over this,” esp. during lent. anyway, if you have more thoughts on this, please share!!!