{"id":4772,"date":"2019-09-02T20:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T03:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=4772"},"modified":"2019-09-02T20:49:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T03:49:30","slug":"2chronicles_15_1-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2chronicles_15_1-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Seek God and Experience Rest on Every Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Chronicles 15:1-19 \u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Chronicles 15:1-19.<\/p>\n

2 Chronicles 15:4 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But in their distress they turned to the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-19:\u00a0\u00a0In this passage God sends Azariah with a message to King Asa of Judah at a time when Asa fears going to war (v1).\u00a0\u00a0He reminds Asa of how God worked in the past \u2013 how there was a time in Israel\u2019s history when the Israelites did not know God personally (v3-4).\u00a0At that time there was lots of unrest and turmoil from wars and threats of war (v5-6).\u00a0\u00a0But when the Israelites turned to God and sought God, they found Him and experienced Him personally (v2-6).\u00a0\u00a0With this in mind, Azariah tells King Asa to be strong and to keep going with the work Asa started in removing idolatry from the land of Judah (v7).\u00a0\u00a0Encouraged by Azariah\u2019s message, Asa removes idols from the lands of Judah and Benjamin (v8).\u00a0\u00a0He repairs the altar at the front of the temple (v8).\u00a0\u00a0He also assembles all his people at Jerusalem for a worship service (v9-10).\u00a0\u00a0At the worship service Asa and the people offer plentiful sacrifices to God (v11) and covenant to seek God together (v12-14), all with great rejoicing (v15a).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As further evidence of how committed and eager Asa\u2019s heart was to seeking the Lord (v17), he deposes his grandmother Maacah as queen mother and burns up the Asherah pole she had erected (v16).\u00a0\u00a0He also brings the silver, gold and articles of his father Abijah into the temple (v18).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a result, Asa and the nation of Judah enjoyed ten years of peace (v19; see also 2 Chronicles 14:1).<\/p>\n

This chapter is best summed by verse 15b where it says \u201cThey sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the\u00a0LORD\u00a0gave them rest on every side.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact, the pattern of \u201cthey sought God, and He was found by them\u201d shows up three times in this chapter (v2, 4, 15)<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When you seek God eagerly, you will find Him.\u00a0\u00a0God is not in the business of constantly hiding from You.\u00a0\u00a0He longs to be close to You.\u00a0\u00a0He longs for You to seek Him.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the biggest reason people don\u2019t find God or experience Him?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s because they\u2019re not seeking eagerly for Him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But 2 Chronicles 14-15 are here to show us that\u00a0if we seek God eagerly, we will find Him<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says in Matthew 7:7 and Luke 11:9, \u201cAsk and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus our Lord also says in Matthew 11:28-30:<\/p>\n

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So don\u2019t be lazy or complacent.\u00a0\u00a0Seek the Lord eagerly today.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s waiting to be found by You.\u00a0\u00a0And when you find Him, He will give you rest on every side, rest that the world cannot give.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that You invite me to seek You eagerly, and when I do, I will find You.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that when I come to You eagerly, You will give me rest.\u00a0\u00a0May this day be a day of seeking You and resting in You.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Chronicles 15:1-19.<\/p>\n

2 Chronicles 15:4 (NIV)\u00a0
\n4\u00a0\u00a0But in their distress they turned to the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-19:\u00a0\u00a0In this passage God sends Azariah with a message to King Asa of Judah at a time when Asa fears going to war (v1).\u00a0\u00a0He reminds Asa of how God worked in the past \u2013 how there was a time in Israel\u2019s history when the Israelites did not know God personally (v3-4).\u00a0At that time there was lots of unrest and turmoil from wars and threats of war (v5-6).\u00a0\u00a0But when the Israelites turned to God and sought God, they found Him and experienced Him personally (v2-6).\u00a0\u00a0With this in mind, Azariah tells King Asa to be strong and to keep going with the work Asa started in removing idolatry from the land of Judah (v7).\u00a0\u00a0Encouraged by Azariah\u2019s message, Asa removes idols from the lands of Judah and Benjamin (v8).\u00a0\u00a0He repairs the altar at the front of the temple (v8).\u00a0\u00a0He also assembles all his people at Jerusalem for a worship service (v9-10).\u00a0\u00a0At the worship service Asa and the people offer plentiful sacrifices to God (v11) and covenant to seek God together (v12-14), all with great rejoicing (v15a).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As further evidence of how committed and eager Asa\u2019s heart was to seeking the Lord (v17), he deposes his grandmother Maacah as queen mother and burns up the Asherah pole she had erected (v16).\u00a0\u00a0He also brings the silver, gold and articles of his father Abijah into the temple (v18).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a result, Asa and the nation of Judah enjoyed ten years of peace (v19; see also 2 Chronicles 14:1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4772"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4801,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions\/4801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}