Do you serve God with a whole heart? In our day of mediocrity where doing just enough to get by is the norm, it is very difficult for people to pour themselves into serving someone or something else with their whole heart. Maybe it is because we have been burned by others including the church and we equate God with the church. Bad mistake on our part. God isn’t the church, religious organizations or what we see on television. He is Creator of everything and He holds everything together. In our reading today when the kings trusted God will all their heart and served Him they saw God defeat armies twice the size their armies were. They saw even through trials and tribulations that God took care of them. No the journey wasn’t without challenges, but they prevailed with God’s help. Last night as I was preparing for bed I got a text from someone I care deeply for. They said, “please pray, ugly things going on.” For the next couple of hours I prayed. The song God kept reminding me of as I prayed was Learning to Lean. The words go:
Learning to lean,
Learning to lean, I’m learning to lean on Jesus.
Finding more power than I ever dreamed,
I’m learning to lean on Jesus.
I believe that is what it looks like to have a whole heart dependency on Jesus. Trusting Him to hold you up and rescue you when hard times come. Most of the kings in today’s reading found leaning on God to be their salvation. When they turned to trust other men their kingdom fell. What a great reminder to all of us. (I got a call later on last night that though rocky things worked out. My advice to my friend was Lean on Jesus!) Maybe that is the advice you need today as well. I know I do.