Word on the Web

29 Jun 2009: Starting Well

Starting well is easy but finishing well is much harder. That is not an original thought but was brought home to me recently reading through 2 Chronicles as I re-read the life of King Asa. Asa made a magnificent start 14.2 he ‘did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God removing v.3 the symbols of pagan idol worship repairing v.8 the altar of the LORD and even v.16 deposing his own grandmother from her place as queen mother, but towards the end of his reign he looked to a man – Ben-Hadad king of Aram – rather than to God for help against the attacks of the king of Israel and he died again without seeking God 16.12. So much potential but such a sad end.

Why did such a promising start end so sadly? Because he lost his focus. He allowed his gaze to be drawn away from God to seek salvation and help from men. The temptation to do this is, as with Asa, always with us. We think we can manage in our own strength and the demands that God’s word makes upon us can seem irksome. We are seduced by the attractions of the world and we start to do what is right in our own eyes and so we could go on. It applied to Asa as king of Judah – a man in high office – and it applies to all of us; a salutary truth that should lead us to do two things.
1. To seek by all means and with the help of others to walk closely with our God and
2. To pray for those in positions of responsibility, especially those who minister God’s word to us, that they may be protected from the lure of the world which the evil one will surely display, with all its apparent attractions, before them.

We need to learn from what might seem irrelevant ancient history the importance of keeping in step with the Lord and with his help and the encouragement of others asking him that we may ‘finish well’ to his greater glory.

Andrew Bradley