04/15/2023
This morning I am sifting through my life and identifying those things which God has asked of me that remain undone. For the most part I have done the big things, but what about those details that didn't seem too significant or relevant to the big picture... did I gloss over them and leave them undone? I was reading my morning devotional and Oswald Chambers struck me square between the eyes when he recalled the story of King Asa. This king brought Israel back to God in a powerful way, he even took the title of queen mother from his own mother because she was found to have an image of Asherah (that he also took and destroyed). But in all his obedience to God, he left one task undone...
“But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.”
2 Chronicles 15:17 ESV
King Asa didn't destroy the worship places where people had worshiped a god other than Yahweh.
The question to myself became this; do I have high places that still remain in my life of faith? Do I have things that God has told me to no longer do, or places I should no longer visit that haven't been eradicated from my life? Perhaps a denunciation of some depravity and yet a certain tolerance of it being around me? Have I been living a life that on the whole is spiritually pure, yet, like Asa, have I left some comfortable reminder of who I once was in place?
There is an old saying that is familiar to us; it is attributed to having first been uttered by Gustave Flaubert in the 1800s. It goes like this... "The devil is in the details!" You have probably said this yourself, but that isn't the actual quote of Flaubert. What he actually said was "God is in the details!" His saying was later reversed from "God" and a positive connotation to "Satan" and a negative one. But the idea of God extolling us to pay attention to the details, is much more appealing to me than Satan waiting to ensnare us in them. In either case... details are important and a very critical battle in the war against sin in our lives.
Asa didn't destroy the high places, Moses didn't speak to the rock, Joshua didn't kill the Canaanites, Peter denied Jesus; the Bible is full of details that were missed... and so are our lives. The remnants of the old self remain in sometimes obscure details of unfinished business. God says "Love thy neighbor" and we do this in hundreds of ways; then ignore a member of our own family who we expect more of than all those others. Do you see the unfinished detail? We are told not to use the Lord's name in vain and so we change an expression to skirt around actually saying His name. Do you see the unfinished detail?
Yes, we all have high places that still need to be razed. We have those tiny little details which remain unfinished. We are all like Asa in some regard, and this morning is a good time to begin searching out those details; then, one by one, completing them and thus what God originally gave us to do.
Our search for pureness of faith and heart takes a lifetime of living, and there will be a myriad of details, but then again, that is what God wants of us; our worship, our love, and our attention... down to the smallest detail. Oswald Chambers ended my devotional reading today with a similar thought when he wrote these words:
"God wants you to be entirely His, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to "clear the numberless ascensions" in about two minutes." - Oswald Chambers
Is that me? Is that you? Are we two minute Christians? Are we living wonderful lives of faith only to fail in the final two minutes of our calling... in some incomplete detail?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your calling, and all the tasks you set before me. Thank you for leading me to places in my faith that I never thought possible, and that seemed so out of reach. Lord don't let me stumble as I approach the finish line by leaving some obscure detail undone. Help me Father to hear your voice and obey your desire of me to the tiniest of details. Father God, I often rush to complete as much as I can towards your calling, but in my desire to serve you more, I lose sight of the fact that the details allow me to serve you perfectly. You are a patient God, and although I gauge my life on the quantity in which I serve you... your intention is that I serve your perfectly. Help me Father to have the determination to complete each request you have for me... even those that might seem insignificant to me as I rush on to bigger and easier victories for you. Jesus, slow my pace so that I walk perfectly beside you rather than run ahead and leave stones unturned. Let me seek out my salvation in all of its details, and realize that even as you are perfect in all you do... so should I be. Show me that one perfect thing in service of you is better than the many which are incomplete.
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48 ESV
Rich Forbes