August 4 - To Whom Shall We Go?

 Read today’s texts first: 2 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 34; John 6

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Serving God brings freedom -
Freely helping yourself leads to bondage!

Peter had his inspired moments. In today’s reading, after Jesus offended the hangers-on looking for another free lunch, He looked at His remaining disciples and asked, “You do not want to leave too, do you?... Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (6:67-69). When we get to know the One who created us, we should finally realize there is no one else who knows us better, who loves us more, and who we can trust more fully.

Even Josiah, the youngest king of Judah, figured that out early in his life. After discovering a copy of God’s Word in the Temple and seeing how far his people had strayed from God’s laws, he tore his royal robes in repentance.  Though he was personally right with God, he identified with the sins of Judah, feeling deep remorse on their behalf and bravely leading them in a complete reformation. His epitaph is impressive: Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did - with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses (23:25).

Notice how compliance to God and His Word brings freedom, whereas defiance against Him brings bondage. The message from the god of this world, since the day he slithered up to the first man and woman in the garden, is “serve no one, make your own decisions, look out for número uno!” In other words, he is saying, “be your own god!” It’s the oldest lie in the book, and Josiah’s successors illustrate the consequences of believing that lie. The first, Jehoahaz, was literally put in chains by Egypt’s Pharoah (23:33); the second, Jehoiakim, was enslaved by the King of Babylon (24:1). If you set out to serve yourself you end up serving Satan (Rom. 6:16).

“Lord, there is no One else I trust with my life, nowhere else I can go for direction, for this life and the life to come!”