Every Great men of God was driven to their nothingness and compelled to pursue God. The perseverance in which they sought God attracted Him to visit them. It is our state of wilderness that often creates an unparalleled urge to leave everything and seek God. Sometimes comfort turns out to be your greatest barrier.
King Asa had a great zeal for God. He was blessed with many years of peaceful reign. But eventually, Asa lost the habit of depending on God during those years. When the calamity hit him, he woke up to resolve it to himself. He left God from where he picked up the peaceful reign. God silently watched his steps. Instead of looking up, king Asa bent down and took the help of King Aram. God had given Asa a great victory when he had faced a huge army before. The Lord fought his battle and give an astonishing victory. but now a smaller problem has turned Asa upside down. Asa depended on external source for help. God was upset. Asa failed to seek the face of God and enquire of Him. Eventually King Asa grew cold, independent, and walked away from the Lord his God. Even in his sickness, he did not return to the Lord till his last breath.
“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” – Psalm 119:67
Little do we realise that our storms are the very things that actually push us closer to God. They keep us intact to God. I thank God for all my storms, challenges and problems. It kept me depending on God. It still is. It pushed me in a way closer to Him. My pains paved way to voice out to God. If it isn’t for them, I might have lost track of God.
If you haven’t thanked God for all your troubles, you should be doing it now! Well, it is still the one which is making you hold on to God! An easy life may lead you astray, your blessing may take you away from Him. A comfort life could blind you to the realities of life, and make you less dependent on God, and someday you will walk so independent, you’d not even realise that you’ve lost God on your journey!
Everything that helps us draw closer to God is a blessing in a way. And it is not the comfort and easy going life but the storms of our lives, the pain and agony, troubles and challenges.
The book of Psalm is full of cry, wailing, pain, running away and then thanksgiving, praises, and adoration as an answer. If there’s no pain, there’s no cry. If there’s no cry, there’s no need of help, no help – no praises. You see, if the psalmist had an easy, nice on-going life, he would probably never write the book of Psalm.
Ask King David, He’d probably tell you how his life is a roller coaster, and yet no one has experienced grace and love of God like him. All his victories won were in the rigorous battle and troubles of his life but a day of rest and comfort opened the door of sin with Bathsheba.
Ask Jacob, the one who wrestled with God for blessings; his life had been full of pain, twist and turns, and yet, it is here he found God. Seventy years of captivity did not bring God into picture. It is the fiery furnace that brought forth the son of God in the nation of Babylon and shifted the call for worship towards the God of Israel.
Beware of trouble free, calm or easy life. It is a trap, and the nature of man is to forget God, and learn to live life without Him. The danger is, you walk out of life into darkness and vanish not finding your way back.
The life of King Asa serve us all an important lesson. Don’t seek for a trouble free life. That’s not what you need. Seek for a life with Jesus, through the storms and raging seas, He shall keep you and you’ll be amazed as to how you still have peace and rest amidst them, even with all the noise around you! God bless!