SECRETS TO SUCCESS
Part 3

“If you seek Him, He will be found by you,
but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever”
(1 Chronicles 28:9 HCSB).

6. NEVER GIVE UP SEEKING GOD

We learn this principle for success from two kings of Judah, Asa and Uzziah. Both began seeking God, but sadly their lives ended tragically.

Asa began his reign over Judah with great gusto. He did that which was good and right in the sight of the Lord. He stood strong against evil. He smashed down the altars of the strange gods, chopped down the Asherah poles, and removed the pagan shrines and incense altars. And he commanded the people to seek the LORD God. And because they sought God with all their hearts, He gave them rest.

 In 2 Chronicles 14:4 Asa told the people: “Because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.”

He also trained a great army of 580,000 who were all brave warriors. But in this time of peace and blessing a huge army of one million men and 300 chariots came against them from Ethiopia. They were outnumbered. What would they do? Asa was in the habit of seeking the Lord so he cried out to God: “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God: let not man prevail against thee” (2 Chronicles 14:11).

God heard his cry and smote the Ethiopians and they fled before Judah. All because he sought the Lord.

God wanted Asa to keep seeking Him so it would become a habit in his life. After this victory, He sent a prophet to him with the word of the Lord: “Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him;; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you: but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.:”

At that time Asa and the all the people “entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. And they sware unto the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire: and he was found of them: and the LORD gave them rest round about.”

What a wonderful revival! But . . . after Asa had been reigning for 36 years, he became complacent and stopped seeking the Lord with all his heart. The king of Basha came against him and instead of crying out to the Lord as he did with the Ethiopian army, he contacted the king of Syria (a foreign king) to help him!

Another prophet of the Lord came to Asa and said: “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. . . . Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.”

Then Asa became “diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.” (2 Chronicles 16:12).

What a sad ending to a man who began seeking the Lord with his whole heart. This story is a great warning to us all that we must continue seeking the Lord. We must never give up until the day we die.

Psalm 105:4: “Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.” The NET translation says: “Seek the LORD and the strength he gives! Seek his presence continually.”

You can read the full story of Asa in 2 Chronicles, chapters 14 – 16.

Next week we’ll find out what happened to Uzziah.

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, I want to seek your face daily. And I want to keep seeking your presence in my life until the day I see you face to face. Please keep tugging at me if ever I move away from Your presence. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

We are a family who seek God’s presence daily.