God Is With Us If We're With Him

2 Chronicles 15:1-7
Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you will you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sound Him, He was found by them. And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. But you, be strong, and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!"

"Father, thank You for these words, and for the truths they convey. If we seek You, You will be with us, but if we decide to turn away from You, You will not force us to follow You. Good things happen for those who seek You. Help us to be strong and not weak, Lord, as we try to find ways to seek and serve You. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

Good morning/afternoon/evening everybody! I have a story for you, but after we go through Encouragement Night.

Asa was the son of Abijah, who was the son of Rehoboam, who was the son of Solomon, who was the son of David. And Asa was told that if he led his country to the Lord and served Him, he would be rewarded, but the chaos that had been happening would keep coming if he ignored the warning.

These same words are true for us today. God is with us if we seek Him. If we run to Him, He will run to us. Even though everybody else may be not following God, take a lesson from them: they are going to be destroyed by God in the end times, and if they're not saved they'll be tortured when they go to Hell. As encouraging as this is, it serves as a warning to the Heaven-bound: Follow God, and teach others how great it is to follow God.

Be strong, and do not let your hands be weak, for you will be rewarded! There's our encouragement! We will be rewarded for the good that we do in serving God.

So my story: if you hate sports and people talking about their sports, skip this paragraph, because the moral of the story is in the next paragraph. For anyone who doesn't know, I throw the shotput for my track team. We had our first meet the other day, and I got up to throw. In order for them even to count it, I have to stay inside the circle. The first time, I stepped over the toeboard, which wasn't horrible, because I was actually doing a relatively complicated throw. My second throw, I decided to just stand there and throw, to make sure I at least got one in. I fell out of the circle again, which in actuality is great talent, but not the right kind. Which is when it occured to me why I was doing horribly: I hadn't prayed first. I had literally done things my way and failed. So I sat down on the side and said a quick prayer, and then threw again. This time (Thank God) I stayed in the circle.

In an incredibly small and unimportant-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things, I had done things my way, and failed, and then tried it God's and succeeded. (Proving we do learn something from sports.)

Have a great weekend and I will talk to you again on Monday. Praise God for His blessings and His love!

In His Service,
Joyce