July 24

“…and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.” 1 Kings 11:6

Solomon weakened his stand for God as he aged. The verse says he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and his evil was idolatry. He had held a privileged position with God and had been blessed with great advantages by Yahwah, but unlike his father David, Solomon added to the worship of Yahwah, his allegiance and adoration of pagan idols. In this sense then, the scriptures say that he did not go ‘fully after the Lord’! Full-hearted desire and service for the Lord, is still a measure of the quality we offer the Almighty God. The mandate of scripture is that we should love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength. If our love for Him is wholehearted, then our service to Him will reflect that same fullness. There seems to exist a trend among many Christians today, which reflects more the ways of Solomon, than the ways of his father David. I refer to the half-heartedness, partial devotion and splintered love, which so many professing believers offer to God, while at the same time holding onto a passionate, intense and consuming desire for many things of the world. This, the Bible calls enmity against God, spiritual adultery and faithlessness! We must judge and weigh out the condition of our hearts towards the Lord. Is an ardent, deep and fervent love for God held firmly in our hearts, grasped so steadfastly that it cannot be easily dislodged? Does it surpass the affection we have for anyone and everything else? Is it fully devoted to Him as our only God, or shared with things and interests we hold so dear that they have become idols in our lives? The lukewarm heart condition of the Laodecian church of Revelation, or the condition of having lost our first love as the Ephesian Church was charged, are not the state our hearts should be found in at the coming of Jesus! The summation of our lives should read more like the résumé which God gave to King David, a shining testimony of a person who while perhaps not perfect, yet followed after the Lord with all his heart! Such excellence of love and wholeheartedness is our reasonable service to God and appropriate response to His love for us!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion