July 8th 2012

July 8^th 2012

2 Kings 17,18

The Fall of Israel

The beginning of this passage, to me, points out just how far from God Israel has fallen. God had led these people away from their bondage in Egypt, and when Israel is threatened it tried to make an arrangement with the very same people who had enslaved them in the first place! This just shows how low people will go to get what they think they need. I'd like to focus on this, for today, because it's all I could think about while reading the rest of the passage.

We all know someone like this, or we ourselves may have done the very same thing. It is so easy to do what you want, and go against what is actually good for you. You see what you think you need, be it money, power, drugs, alcohol, a cigarette, or even sometimes just a break. Here's what I want you to do:

1. Take a minute and actually think about how you would obtain these things, if you felt you needed them. Don't even think about restraining your imagination!

2. Now, think about how you would keep obtaining these things in the long term, and not lose them.

3. Look at the hypothetical effect on your hypothetical life chasing these things has made.

Now think about what these things are and what they do for you. Money and power offer you security. Drugs of any kind offer you release. Think about that: security and release. These are two themes that occur in the Bible countless times, and that is because God offers both of those things if you'd only seek him out. There is no need to seek out money, power, fame, or release if you're seeking out God. He'll give you all you need, you just have to have faith.

Israel did not turn to God, and it fell. This seems to be a reoccurring lesson in the Bible: people turn away from God, they fall. And also the opposite: people turn to God, they rise. Every time we've read about someone falling from God, I always think about how history might have been different if they had just stayed with Him. It's a humbling thought, because it leads to how different your own life could be if you turn to or away from God.

Hope you all had an amazing Sunday,

Gina