Monday, December 28, 2009

David's Advice

1 Chronicles 28:9-10 NKJV
“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it.”

Advice from David, possibly the greatest Old Testament man, the man after God’s own heart. Solomon was supposed to take over the nation. So what does David tell him? Follow God’s rules perfectly? Obey the 10 commandments? Focus on what the people need? Don’t overtax them? Follow your heart? What did David consider to be the most important thing to remember going into this?

“Know God, serve Him with a loyal heart and a willing mind because He searches our hearts and understands our motives. If you follow Him, you’ll find Him, but if you go your own way, He’ll cast you off. Decide what your path will be, because God has a big task just for you, that He choose you specifically for. Be strong, and do what He tells you.” (paraphrased slightly).

So David told Solomon to follow God as he was taking over Israel. What does this have to do with us? We’re not taking over a country for our parents.

Solomon was starting a new phase in his life. People were going to be watching and imitating him, if they hadn’t already. So David wanted to make sure his son was going to be a good man, and a good leader.

David gave Solomon Godly advice: follow God and serve Him. When reading this, we should all try to obey David’s advice. It may have been to Solomon at the time, but God had it recorded for a purpose.

As the New Year approaches, what’s some good advice for the new year? Pick a New Year’s resolution like reading the Bible for the first time, or praying every morning and every night (if you don’t already)? Get rid of every sin in your life? Not really. Just to follow God and serve Him. That stuff falls into place later.

While we’re on the topic of New Year’s resolutions, mine from this past year was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I decided to read through the entire Bible in a year. I wrote all the names of the books on a piece of paper (New on one, Old on another) and read four chapters a night. This way, if I wanted to read some of the prophesies in Isaiah that the gospels kept mentioning, I could without leaving a set schedule. If you’ve never read the full Bible (I hadn’t), this is a good way to start. If you do four chapters a day, you could take a break if you needed to, while you were at camp or on vacation, and needed to use something different. It was the best New Year‘s resolution, and if you skip a day, just come back the next day (as with every New Year’s resolution).

In His Service,
Joyce

1 comment:

rocktalk951 said...

What is your New Year's Resolution for this year?

Mine is to get to bed earlier (9:30 is what I'm shooting for).

Does anyone have any ideas for good New Year's Resolutions that have either worked well for you or haven't.