Don't You Forget About Me

King Asa was considered a godly king who reigned over Judah (1 Kings 15). He removed a lot of the idols that the Israelites had allowed to infiltrate into their society. In 2 Chronicles 14, Judah came under attack by an Ethiopian ruler named Zerah. Judah was severely outnumbered, but Asa sought the Lord. He was given victory and they ended up with large amounts of plunder.

Following this, also in 1 Kings 15, Baasha becomes king over Israel and there started a constant war between them. However in this conflict, Asa makes a treaty with a foreign ruler to break his treaty with Baasha and side with him. He removes silver and gold from the Temple treasury to bribe King Aram. It works, but Asa pays a penalty. In 2 Chronicles 16, the seer Hanani tells Asa that since he didn’t seek the Lord on the matter, he lost an opportunity to destroy King Aram and his army. King Aram was never meant to be an ally of Judah or Israel, but an enemy. Due to forgetting God, Hanani spoke that Asa would be at war for the rest of his reign. Up until that point King Asa had enjoyed mostly peace and he was able to accomplish a great deal to secure Judah (1 Chronicles 14).

Towards the end of his life in his 39th year, Asa developed a foot disease (2 Chronicles 16). Despite this, he did not seek the Lord and put his trust in doctors. 2 years later he died and his son, Jehoshaphat took his place. (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 16, 17)

Not seeking God can lead to lifelong troubles.

King Asa’s consequence of forgetting God was that his reign of peace would end. The remainder of his reign would be filled with battles, struggles, and division. When we leave God out of our plans we fall short. Sometimes the consequences of those decisions birth turmoil that will follow us.

Years ago we needed to move quickly. Our lease was up and they wanted to renovate our apartment. We could move into another available place, but end up paying almost $200 more per month. Moving seemed the only option. I needed to pay the last months rent of the current place and then come up with the first month’s and security of the next apartment. The timeline ended up being awful for us. It didn’t match up with any paydays and I was getting anxious about what to do. It also was just a terrible time in general for a move. I was full time in nursing school and my husband had an almost hour and a half one way commute to work. In a moment of desperation I went online looking at Payday Loans. I started to fill out paperwork for them, but never accepted an actual loan. We were able to scrape by and make it work. I mistakingly thought “no harm no foul”. Boy was I wrong. They traded my personal information (phone number and email address) and deducted hundreds of dollars out of my account for something I didn't recall signing up for. It took me weeks and finally hours of determined calling to get back my money. However, to this day I still get calls from payday loan affiliates, emails, and text messages. I haven’t picked up any unfamiliar number for over 7 years now. If I do, they’ll know it’s a live number and the calls will increase.

Looking back I didn’t seek God with our situation. I tried to figure it out all by myself. In many ways that can appear to be the adult thing to do. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and do what you gotta do! Yet, that is not how God wants us to do life. Proverbs 14:12 (NLT) says “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” It’s not always a literal death, but our decisions without God put us on a dangerous path. Instead of a literal death, we may encounter a death of a relationship, death or destruction to our credit and finances, or in Asa’a case, death to a peaceful reign.

Not seeking God can rob us of a blessing, healing, or victory.

King Asa at the end of his life contracted a disease. He chose to put his faith in doctors, rather than God. He chose man’s abilities over God’s abilities. God had already proven Himself to Asa by delivering him before against all odds. For whatever reason he wouldn’t turn to God for this situation either. There is nothing wrong with going with or using modern medicine. We fall short when we forget and leave out the Creator and Provider of medicine. God still absolutely heals today. He may heal someone instantaneously, through diet, medicine, using counselors, or a combination of all of those things. However, we always need God’s wisdom and discernment.

A long time ago I was having excruciating tooth pain. It wasn’t uncommon for 4 or 5 acetaminophen or ibuprofen to barely take the edge off. I tried to put seeing a dentist off as long as possible because we didn't have dental insurance. Finally I went to a place I saw a commercial for that would work with uninsured. Their report basically seemed like I’d end up with major surgery including the removal of many teeth. On top of that, a bill I’d never be able to pay for. I sought out another opinion only to have them tell me and show me the source of my trouble was only a cavity! Months later when we had insurance I was going to go back to the same second dentist. He in the meantime, closed his private practice and joined another. As I went in for a consult at this new location, I was a bit uneasy. I couldn’t understand why. I forged ahead and set up the actual appointment to address the cavity. I did not seek the Lord. Instead this dentist left a huge gap in between my teeth making my likelihood of another cavity in that area a certainty. I did not like any of the work he did and it hurt terribly. My downfall came from putting my trust in man rather than God. I interpreted my one previous encounter as a green light to let this person preform a procedure on me. I won’t lie. He also was attractive, so I can be honest and say I let that cloud my judgement too. Oftentimes, bad decisions appear attractive. Wrong choices can appear "logical". The bad choice can paint itself as the only choice. In my case, I only ended up with regret for ignoring the Holy Spirit’s warning. I also didn't check with God if it was really where I should go. I fell for smoke and mirrors and paid for it in physical pain.

God wants to heal us. God wants us to be restored. God wants us to have victory. All of those things are gifts He wants us to have but on His terms, not ours. He does not want us to go through life just acting first and hoping for the best; jumping off the cliff then asking God to provide the parachute. He wants us to seek Him first and then watch Him work it all out. I’m sure there have been countless missed testimonies in my life because I did things my way and failed. However, when I’ve taken the time to seek God and go His path, it always works out one way or the other. God doesn’t ask us to seek Him, but is actually laying a trap for us. I feel like I repeat this a lot, but God is not sneaky. The devil is. Man is. Matthew 7:11 (NKJ) says “ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Ask God for His help and He will help you.

It can be tempting and sometimes easy to live by “Make choice. Insert God later.”, but that only ends in disaster. King Asa was considered a godly king. He started out well, but made a mistake of taking things into his own hands. He forgot to seek God first. As a result, he lost out on continuing to have a peaceful reign and a healing at the end of his life. We can learn from him to always include God in our decisions. When we need help, He is the ultimate Helper. Shy away from trying to make life altering decisions based on our past strategies, knowledge, or perceived wisdom, and seek out what God is currently saying. Taking the time to pause and get God’s insight can save us from a lifetime of pain and regret.