We may not realize it, but we all have public and private lives. Our public lives are what people see us doing and how we present ourselves publicly. Our private lives are how we live and act privately when no one is watching. When it comes to these public and private lives, Scripture makes it clear that God wants not just our public lives but our private lives as well.
2 Chronicles 16 tells us that God is looking for people who give Him every area of their lives. In this chapter, Asa, the king of Judah at the time, was given a message from God through a man named Hanani. Hanani called Asa out for not putting His trust in God but in earthly kings and other things. As a result, Asa would never again be successful in battle. As Hanani spoke with Asa, he said, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (verse 9). Asa started as a king fully committed to God, but after time, he lost sight and shifted his devotion and commitment. Asa should have heeded this advice. Unfortunately, he did not set his eyes back on God. He faced destruction and loss in battle as a result.
The words spoken to Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9 are still valid today. God is searching for fully devoted followers. He is not looking for people who claim publicly to follow Him, yet in their private lives, they do not obey Him or spend time with Him. Instead, he is looking for people wholly committed to Him, both in their private and public lives.
The question we have to answer today is: “Are we fully devoted to God?” Are we devoting our lives to Him and following Him in every area, or are we publicly claiming to follow Jesus while privately living for ourselves? So let’s commit to devoting our lives to Him, holding nothing back fully.
Is there anything holding you back from being fully devoted to Christ? Maybe you have felt the Lord prompting you to do something difficult, and you have held off from obeying. Maybe you have been holding back from being generous and know God is calling you to give. Whatever is holding you back, commit to serving Him without reservation, fully devoted to Him today by taking that step of obedience.
"In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa’s territory in Judah.
2 Asa responded by removing the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace. He sent it to King Ben-hadad of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message:
3 “Let there be a treaty between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”
4 Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa’s request and sent the commanders of his army to attack the towns of Israel. They conquered the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all the store cities in Naphtali. 5 As soon as Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he abandoned his project of fortifying Ramah and stopped all work on it. 6 Then King Asa called out all the men of Judah to carry away the building stones and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify the towns of Geba and Mizpah.
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. 8 Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. 9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.”
10 Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some of his people.
11 The rest of the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded in The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians. 13 So he died in the forty-first year of his reign. 14 He was buried in the tomb he had carved out for himself in the City of David. He was laid on a bed perfumed with sweet spices and fragrant ointments, and the people built a huge funeral fire in his honor."
