Summer Devotional | 2020 - Day 7
Heart Problem
By Karen Hunter
“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”
2 Chronicles 16:9
We find Asa, King of Judah, “did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God…and commanded (the tribe of Judah) to seek the Lord God” (2 Chronicles 14:2-4). However, by chapter 16, Asa quit following God’s commands and instead decided to rely on his own manmade plan to defeat Baash, King of Israel. The Lord sent Hanani, the prophet, to confront Asa about his sin in 2 Chronicles 16:7: “Because you have relied on the King of Arma and not relied on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.”’
Hanani reminds Asa of a previous time when Asa did rely on God’s plan. In verse 9, Hanani says, “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.” This proclamation made Asa angry, and he imprisoned the prophet! Asa sounds real mature, right?
Why did Asa turn away from following God? Jeremiah 17:9 tell us, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it?” And why do we sometimes turn away from the Lord and try to “fix” things on our own? Because our heart can deceive us! Proverbs 4:23 warns us to “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” When we listen to our hearts without checking ourselves against scriptural truth, we get ourselves into trouble. That is our heart problem.
The only solution for our heart problem is to allow Jesus to have control over each and every nook and cranny in our hearts. We cannot wall off sections of our heart and let Jesus have control of only certain portions. We will indeed experience “wars” in our lives if we do not allow Jesus full access to our hearts. One way to do a check up on our hearts is to keep a journal of all the spiritual markers in our lives so that we will not be like Asa and forget what God had done for us in the past.
When we do surrender all of our heart and desires to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 16:9 tells us His eyes RUN to support us. Jeremiah 5:1 says God searches for the righteous of heart. Isn’t it amazing to think the Creator of the universe wants to help and support us?
Daily Challenge
Make a list of the spiritual markers in your life and reflect on them today to help keep your heart healthy.
Author Bio
Karen Hunter
Karen is an educator, certified teacher in early childhood, and former missionary. She is a Baylor University alum! She and Steve, her husband of 28 years, have seven wonderful children.
