So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon Him, He will abandon you.  2 Chronicles 15:2 HCSB

If you attend Sunday School, this passage may sound familiar. It was from our Sunday School lesson yesterday.  It’s very simple instruction. There is nothing confusing about it and it needs no explanation.  I like wording like that, I like to keep it simple. I have a simple mind and for me that works. The Lord is with you when you are with him, but if you abandon Him, He will abandon you.  The choice is yours. You can live your life with God or without God.  It’s as simple as that.

Now the problem is that sometimes we try to complicate this. You see, there have been times in my life when I tried to have one foot in God’s kingdom and another foot in the world. That just didn’t work.  God wants all or nothing. A little dab won’t do you.  Jeremiah 29:13 tells us that we will find God when we seek Him with our whole heart.  You need to give it all you’ve got. Often times we get so wrapped up in trying to make things go our way that we take our focus off of God. We fail to seek Him with our whole hearts. Matthew 6:33 tells us that if we keep our focus on God that He will handle everything for us.  Our focus should always be on God.  We should always seek to do His will.

But God gives us free will.  That means we can do what we choose to do.  We can read our Bible every day or choose not to.  We can pray often, or choose not to.  We can serve God or choose not to. We can go to church or choose not to. You can decide whether you want to live your life for God or you can decide not to.

But know this, the Bible is very clear on the fact that if you choose not to follow God and make Him your LORD and Master, that He will leave you to your own. I used to be afraid to read Revelation.  I would read the Bible through up to that point and I would stop.  I thought it was scary.  Well, after an extensive study done by my former pastor, I learned that it’s not scary at all. The book of Revelation tells us that if we trust in God here on earth and choose to follow Him that when we face Him in judgement, He will allow us to spend eternity in Heaven with Him. But for those that reject Him here on earth, He will reject them at the time of judgement and they will be thrown into the lake of fire to spend eternity in Hell. Sounds like a no brainer to me.

In 1 Chronicles 28:9 David is commissioning Solomon to build the temple and gives him these words of advice. “As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands the intention of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” Now while Revelation no longer scares me, verses like this scare me. There is another one that our pastor pointed out to us last year, Romans 1:24. I find that really scary. Romans 1:24 says, Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. Now our pastor explained that what this means is that if we continue to reject God, He will give us over to our own evil desires. He will basically let the devil have us and we lose all hope.  Now my friend, that’s scary.  Are you willing to run the risk of crossing that line? I’m definitely not.

God wants us to come to Him.  He wants to bless us beyond measure, but He doesn’t force us to come to Him.  He didn’t make us to be robots to serve Him.  He wants us to decide to follow Him and trust in Him and serve Him.  He wants us to come willingly.  Know this, He doesn’t promise us a rose garden, we know that there will be times of trials and tribulations. But, he does promise to be right there with us as we endure the suffering here on earth. And, he does promise us eternity in Heaven with God the Father. Things may not be so great here on earth, but He promises to wipe away every tear once we get to heaven.

Believe me, if I could force those I love to serve God, I would do it in a heartbeat, just because I know how much better their life will be. I know that I will see them again in Heaven. There is not one thing here on earth that is worth me turning away from God. Nothing is better than Jesus. I had to learn that the hard way, but praise God I learned it before it was too late.

You have a decision to make. Are you going to follow God or follow your own evil desires? That is the only choice you have. I pray that you choose wisely. When you choose to follow God, you live under His protection.  You experience His mercy and grace. You may suffer for a time here on earth, but the reward is so much greater than any of us can imagine. Won’t you trust in Him today, before it’s too late? Because the Bible clearly tells us that there will come a time when it is too late.

Have a great day!