I’m sure we can all agree that life isn’t always easy. Some “seasons” are harder than others and staying on track completely focused on the Lord, sometimes takes every ounce of fortitude we can muster. This is how I’ve felt the last few weeks, so it may be why a verse in the Bible got me thinking. I’m sure I’ve read it many times before and it didn’t have an impact at the time…but then suddenly it’s as if it has a spotlight on it. It happened with 2 Chronicles 31:21 which says this about Hezekiah: “In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.” WOW. Is this really possible?
Everything. Not some things…not a few things…not just when it was convenient or easy…everything he did, Hezekiah sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. I’m very confident that these words can’t be said about me. I wish they could…but unfortunately, “me” gets in the way too often. I want to seek God and work wholeheartedly…but there are times when the going gets tough and I give up. I deem it as too big of a sacrifice to give everything that I have, so I back off and hope someone else picks up the pieces.
What was the result of Hezekiah’s complete devotion to his God? He prospered. What that tells me is that we can’t out give God! Yes, I’m sure Hezekiah had to sacrifice a lot to do whatever God asked of him, but in turn, God abundantly blessed him. No matter how much we do for God…He gives us more!
This makes me wonder then what blessings I have missed out on. What was God waiting to do for me, but because I gave up, I didn’t receive the blessings? What was just around the corner, or just over the hill in my life that would have just “blown my socks off” in amazement as I would have seen His power at work…but instead I was left feeling empty and unfulfilled?
I’m sure you have heard the saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. Wikipedia says this about this adage: In context, "the going" means "the situation," "gets tough" means "becomes difficult," "the tough" means "people who are strong or enduring," and "get going" means "become fully engaged." Taken together, the meaning of the phrase is "When the situation becomes difficult, the strong will work harder to meet the challenge."
That is exactly what we are called to do. When the road gets tough…we are to dig our heels in and just work all the harder to meet the challenge. “Giving up” should not be in our vocabulary. We are to give our all in everything God leads us to do, remembering that our God is faithful and true and powerful enough to see us through. Hezekiah’s life proves to us that it IS possible to live our lives this way and we need to learn from his example.
I hope you will join me in turning the corners and going over the hills that are in our future to see what is waiting for us. Let’s seek our God and work wholeheartedly for Him. I can’t promise that it will be easy, but I can promise you that it WILL be worth it!
