Friday, August 28 2020 Devotional

“His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord.” ‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭17:6‬ This is God’s way of summing up the attitude of Jehoshaphat’s heart.  Jehoshaphat was a great king of Judah. By his godly wisdom and example the nation grew closer to God and was blessed in every way. He had a team of Bible teachers who went from city to city and held Bible Conferences, at the king’s expense. A great revival resulted as people’s hearts, touched by the Word of God, were brought to repentance and their faith was renewed. Jehoshaphat in Judah successfully got rid of the false religion of Baal and the other idols that the people of Israel had begun to worship, and this was while Ahab and his wicked witch of a queen, Jezebel, were ruling in Israel. Jehoshaphat didn’t do everything right. His heart’s desire was that there would be peace between Judah and Israel, so he foolishly arranged for his own son, the Crown Prince, to marry the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. The results of this alliance would be disastrous. The Bible is full of stories of men and women who are highly regarded by God for their faithfulness, who were also sometimes weak and fell into sin, or were well-meaning but ignorant, or who failed to seek the Lord in one area of their lives and suffered the consequences; people very much like us. In His Word, God reports His view of their lives, His assessment of their faith. We see how He has forgiven their sin. He mercifully reports the true story of their failures as well as their successes so that we can learn from the whole picture He presents. He doesn’t try to sugar-coat or cover up their weaknesses to create false, unrealistic heroes for us. God sees us as we are.  He knows our frame; He remembers that we are but dust.”  But He sees us in Christ as though we had never sinned. Forgiven, washed in the blood of Jesus, sanctified, redeemed, accepted in the Beloved, made a child of God, saved: God has many ways of declaring what He has done for us. His grace is sufficient for you and Jesus is "able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him." So we pray along with the song: “Thank You Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You, Lord, for making me whole! Thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation, so rich and free!”  Amen. Pastor Dan Giles