Moment by Moment

Every day we are faced with a ton of choices:

Do I sleep in today or not?
Am I going to have a good attitude about work today or a bad one?
Should I wear these shoes or the other ones?
Should I wear a scarf or not?
Am I going to pack a lunch or buy today?
Are we going to cook tonight or get delivery?
Am I going to watch TV or go for a walk?
Early to bed or stay up for a little while?
Should I brush my teeth or not?  (The answer here is "you should")  ;)

The list goes on and on...and on...and on...

What about the bigger choices?  The choices that will make a life-changing difference?

2 Chronicles 16:7,9 - 7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the arym of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand... 9 For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.  You have acted foolishly in this.  Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars."

I absolutely fell in love with the imagery of the beginning of verse 9.  Let's take another look at just that section:

For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

Beautiful isn't it? 

Okay, now that we have seen the beauty, we can take a step back and truly examine this passage.

Because the eyes of the Lord roam all of the earth we have two choices before us:

1. We give Him our hearts completely.  
2. Or we don't.

If we are giving Him our everything, our entire hearts, we should naturally be relying on Him.  "Rely" is translated from the Hebrew word sha'an meaning "to lean on, trust in, support" (Strong's H8172).  If He has our hearts completely, the natural outcome is that we trust Him, that we lean on Him for our support...no matter what the circumstance.  Asa did not do this...instead of relying on the Lord, he tried to rely on a human.  We cannot rely on any human being 100%, not our spouses, not our parents, not our best friends.  Humans make mistakes, even when they don't mean to, even when they are trying their hardest not to.  Fact is: they aren't God - "It is a foolish thing to lean on a broken reed, when we have the rock of ages to rely on" (Wesley).  As seen in vs. 7, Asa's reliance on the king of Aram didn't work out.  And because he relied on a human for his troubles and neglected to rely on the Lord (therefore not giving God his entire heart), there were consequences.

1. If we give Him our hearts completely, He will strongly support us.
2. If we don't, He won't.  Simple as that.

Because Asa didn't give the Lord his heart completely, the Lord allowed wars to ravage Israel, He no longer strongly supported Asa.  In my study of the word 'heart,' if there is one thing I have learned, it is that if we don't give Him all of us, He won't give us all of Him.  I've written on it over and over because it is in His word over and over.  Why is that?  My hunch is that it isn't an easy thing.  Giving 100% of our heart to God is a daily choice, a daily struggle.  Scratch that, it is a moment by moment choice.  Every thing we are faced with - our daily routines, our worries, our fears, our problems, our triumphs, our joys - we have to choose to give those to God.  It might be the hardest thing we have to do.

I challenge you today to say a prayer.  Ask God to give you the strength you need to choose Him, to rely on Him, to trust in Him, to lean on Him.  Pray for an extra few moments before you make a choice to hear His voice so that the choice becomes easier.  This life is a journey but He is here to help us every step of the way...  Give Him your heart today.