READING:
One-year plan: 1 Kings 9-11, John 5:31-6:21
Two-year plan: Numbers 27-28, Mark 12:18-34
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These words in today’s Old Testament reading are tragic indeed: “When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been” (1 Kgs 11:4). As I read these words, I am reminded that anytime we are not “wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord,” we are increasingly susceptible to turning to other gods. As one writer put it, “The Lord had ceased to be the major factor in his life. Once this shift occurred, the next steps into idolatry became more natural and easier to accept.”*
When we don’t love God with all our being, other things become dangerously attractive and we do not “remain loyal to the Lord” (1 Kgs 11:6). A divided heart is always trouble. On the other hand, when God is everything for us, anything the world and the devil offer us pales in comparison to knowing Him. May that be the choice all of us make today.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you wholeheartedly devoted to God?
PRAYER: “God, show me any place where I’m not fully committed to You.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 1 Kings 12-13, John 6:22-59
Two-year plan: Numbers 29, Mark 12:35-13:2
* House, P. R. (1995). 1, 2 Kings (Vol. 8, p. 167). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
