Marriages are sometimes fractured, because one party or the other chooses to disobey, or walk away from, the covenant promise they made to each other and God. In today’s Scripture, because of Solomon’s disobedience, and because of his caving-in to worship the gods of his foreign wives, God became angry and promised to restructure the long reign of Solomon’s family. Instead, He offered eternal peace to a man who served in Solomon’s administration, Jeroboam. David, Solomon and Jeroboam were given the conditional promise of eternal peace, success and happiness IF they obeyed God. Do you suppose you and I would ever make it to heaven, if the promise was conditional upon our obedience and commitment to God? We will look closer at this in today’s devotional.

DATE POSTED Friday, 2022-10-21
WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL

BY: Ed Algreen 

SCRIPTURE FROM: 1 Kings 11:38
TRANSLATION: The Message (MSG)

BIBLE TEXT:  If you listen to what I tell you and live the way I show you and do what pleases me, following directions and obeying orders as my servant David did, I’ll stick with you no matter what.

APPLICATION: Having done a little in programming, I became educated on the purpose and use of conditional statements, so this promise to Jeroboam immediately caught my attention. We must also remember that God is always right, and He is always on time, all the time. We are the created, so we have no room to question the Creator when it looks like He went back on His word. I believe that we too are blessed by the mercies of God and that it is only through the grace of God that He sent us His Son so that we might seek forgiveness of our sin. We seem to follow very much in line with David and his son Solomon, for we are on fire for the Lord while in church, but hardly identifiable as a Christian during the week. We make promises, like marriage, before God and man, but then when the novelty wears off, many are back to their lifestyles before marriage. A preacher who’s on fire for the Lord, might preach a sermon where God, through His Holy Spirit, will nudge us to put away our evil ways and instead, stay true to the One who gave His life for us. But unless we stay connected, we will soon give way to the temptations of the world that bombard us endlessly. Friends, there are many who have chosen to play Russian-roulette with the promise of God that He will come again to take His church home to glory where He and the Son rules for ever and forever. Many will play recklessly with trying to second-guess when the day of Christ’s return will be, for they want to play Satan’s games until the hour before Christ returns. I believe that the promise made to us is very similar to what God made to David, Solomon and Jeroboam. If we accept the gift of salvation – Jesus Christ, and we live like we are His child, by obeying His commands and applying His teachings to our lives, then I believe that God’s promise to us is no different to that given to the aforementioned kings. For Jesus told us that He has gone to prepare a place for us, where we will live eternally with the Father and the Son. Please allow me to recommend that you recognize the King of all kings, the Great I Am, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and that you accept His precious Son Jesus as Lord of your life. Once you have done this, commit to acting like the Holy Saint of God that you are, and commit daily time to spend time with Jesus as you seek reminders from His Word and speak with Him as your Father. You then owe nothing to the advisory, for you are a child of the King. Show the world what your Father looks like through the way that you speak and live. Jesus promised never to leave you alone, when you live like His child!

BLESSING(S) NOTED: But for the grace of God, we would all be traveling the same path followed by David and Solomon. I want to follow a close and dedicated walk with my Master each and every day, God being my everlasting Helper, Guide and Deliverer.

PRAYER: Having created us in Your likeness, I can’t imagine the disappointment You must feel when you see us disregard the greatest gift ever given to mankind and still cave-in to the wickedness of the enemy, Satan. I have no doubt that You foreknew how we would suck at staying true to our decisions and our commitments, but I can’t imagine You ever thinking it would be this bad. Lord, please touch Your people once again. For those who have always turned a deaf ear to Your Word, and a blind eye to the goodness of God, I pray that You will soften their heart today and once again invite them to surrender their sin and the evil desires within them to the all-powerful Son of God, Jesus Christ. For those who once surrendered their life to Jesus, but then fell back into their sin, please Lord, re-invigorate their innermost desires and lead them wholeheartedly towards the Kingdom each and every day. May others see You and want to know You. AMEN!