Are You in Covenant or Idolatry?

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2 Chronicles 15:2b, 8,12 “…The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. (8) When Asa heard these words…he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple. (12) They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. (NIV)

          There was a time in Israel’s history that they were without God. They were full of gods, but they were without the One and only True living God. God hadn’t left them, but they had left Him. Time and time again, they would turn away from Him, only to return once trouble and destruction would come their way. They didn’t have a priest to teach them, and even though the law had been handed down to them from Moses a long time ago, it wasn’t in their hearts. They had totally turned a deaf ear to God and could no longer hear His voice. Therefore, God had not sent anyone to speak to them, or give them a word for a long time because of their disobedience.

          But one day, they took notice of the distress that their lives were in. They were not prospering. They were not growing. Their lives were empty and nothing seemed to fill them. What they thought once made them happy, could no longer do the trick. They had to step back and evaluate to see what the problem was in their lives. There was definitely a problem. They were missing God.

          Upon recognizing the problem that they had, they decided that it was time for them to come back to the true God. They realized their need for God could not be substituted by cheap imitations. They realized that their need for God was larger than what they could handle on their own. They finally understood that they were worshiping the gods of wood, silver and gold instead of the Creator of those elements. They sought God’s face and He in turn, returned back to them.

          They gave up their idols and their adulterous living. They gave up the things that they once considered dear. They didn’t let the value of what they once had deter them from building that relationship back with God. They removed everything that was ungodly from their homes and entire town. They knew that in order for God to be serious with them, they had to be serious with Him. There was no half-stepping. There was no playing around. There was no straddling the fence. There had to be a complete turnaround; a complete 360 was needed.

          They entered into a covenant with God with diligence. They completely dedicated their hearts, minds, and souls to the Lord. This covenant was binding, for once you make a covenant with the Lord, you are not to break it. God keeps His word with us and we are to do the same with Him. They had a complete change of continence about them. The Lord responded to their sincere effort, and they were surrounded by peace.

          This morning, the Lord gave me this word and He said, “We have never entered a covenant with You (The Lord). I wasn’t quite sure what He meant, but as I began to study this scripture, it began to become clear to me. Many of us have turned our hearts against the Lord. We do the right things, say the right things, but our hearts are not truly dedicated to the things of God. We allow our little idols to take over, and therefore, we are not experiencing God for who He is in our lives.

          We have treated God as a ritual. We go to church, we may even work in ministry, but we do not have the heart of God. We have let things from the world creep into our lives and into the slot where God is supposed to be. Our homes, cars, jobs, and even people have become more important to us than God. We value the opinions of others more than we value those of God. We are afraid to stand up for what’s right because it is not popular. Therefore, even when we know something is wrong, we remain silent. We bury our heads in the sand, and act as if the wrongs in the world are right.

          We have become compromisers of the gospel instead of being the ones to set the trends. We follow as the world leads us instead of us leading them. We have so intertwined into the world that people can’t tell us apart anymore. We have “secularized” the gospel for the sake of popularity, money, and fame. We have not made a covenant with God, and even if at one point we did, we have turned to our idols and away from Him. My God!

          God is saying that He wants His people to turn back to Him. He is not looking for a title; He is looking for service. He is not looking for what’s outwardly displayed; He is looking for what’s underneath. He is not looking for mouth, but He is looking for action. He is not looking for the proud, but He is looking for the humble of hearts.

          We need to turn our hearts and minds back to God. We need to reaffirm our covenant with Him in that we will be a “peculiar” people. We need to not only tell God, but show Him that He is first in our lives, and whatever idols we have in our lives, they are not more important than Him. He is looking for commitment from His bride. Yes, we are His bride; we are His people. He wants us to turn from our adulterated ways and come back to Him fully committed. This is the word of the Lord. God bless!