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Preparing our hearts to do good 5/5/2008 9:43:24 AM
So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned….
And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart
to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 12:13, 14).
As born-again believers, we know we are saved by grace, kept by grace, and completely reliant on God’s grace for every breath we take. And yet…
Don’t we at times forget that? Don’t we occasionally think we can do something good in our own strength, despite the fact that Jesus said, “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)? The scary thing about that sort of faulty thinking is that it constitutes more than error; it is, in fact, evil.
King Rehoboam’s life epitomized the very heart and life of those who do not know God—and have no desire to do so. He “strengthened himself,” rather than depending on God’s strength, and “he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.” Just as it isn’t our good deeds that make us holy and “pay” our way into heaven, neither is it our bad deeds that make us sinners and “pave” our way to hell. Rather it is a heart issue—whom we seek to know and serve while we live on this earth, and whose strength we rely on to fulfill God’s purpose and call for us while we’re here. Rehoboam made the mistake of relying on his own strength and not preparing his heart to seek the Lord; as a result, the Bible says he “did evil.” It therefore stands to reason that we must do just the opposite of Rehoboam in order to “do good,” doesn’t it?
May we determine to “do good” throughout our sojourn here on earth by preparing our hearts to seek the Lord—today and always—and to depend only on His strength. When we do that—the only truly “good” things we humans can do—we can be confident that God will honor His name and fulfill His purpose in our lives.
