Daily Devotional for Monday, August 3

Ahaz’s Reign

“Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father,” 2 Kings 16:2.
Ahaz had the chance to have godly success as King of Judah, however, during his reign, he wasted the opportunity. Ahaz was a young man when he became king. He was twenty years old which meant he was still young, he had a lot of energy and was in good physical and mental condition. Ahaz had a good heritage. He was in the lineage of King David who reigned before him, King David was a good example to follow. A glaring deficiency is that Ahaz’s spiritual life was lacking. The Bible declared in 2 Kings 16:3, “But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.”
Although King Ahaz had a great opportunity to lead the people in the ways of God, he chose to lead the people into idol worship and wickedness. As a child of God and a member of one of the Lord’s New Testament churches, God gives you opportunities to lead people in the ways of the Lord. You have members of your church who are faithful or maybe have taught you in the past that you can look to as examples; however, above all, you have the Word of God and the example of Jesus Christ to help you live right and make godly decisions. The position that the Lord puts you in whereby you can be an influence, use those  opportunities to influence those around you in the ways of God.

FINAL THOUGHT
Only what you do for Christ will last.

Andrew McClung