Concentration

   "Are there some things in connection with your bodily life, your intellectual life, upon which you are not concentrating at all? You are all right in the main but you are slipshod; there is a relapse on the line of concentration. You no more need a holiday from spiritual concentration than your heart needs a holiday from beating. You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time." (Oswald Chambers)

   Asa was one of the "good kings" of Judah. His reign reflected what he knew God wanted him to do to reestablish true worship in his land. The people were blessed to have him for a ruler and the land prospered for many years. His reign was long.

   "The high places were not eliminated from Israel, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime." (2 Chron. 15:17)

   In the things that King Asa did he was wholeheartedly devoted to God, but he did not see all that had to be done. The high places were sacred to idol worship in the land, and they were allowed to remain. His concentration was not completely on spiritual things, so that he missed the entirety of God's call.

   My life is filled with so many competing things. My spiritual concentration is haphazard, and, although others may see my life as being concentrated in this area, God knows, and I know different.

   Asa's son, Jehoshaphat, succeeded him on the throne, and he continued his father's good things. He even recognized what had not been done and took down the high places. God's will was done, it just took a little longer that it should have.

   My prayer is that my kids might see the right things that I have done, but also recognize things overlooked and set them right in their time. Let their spiritual concentration be greater and their devotion be firmer.