One of the
most important requirements or components or attributes of a wholly devoted
life, is not just ecstatic praise and worship. Earlier on we talked about ‘Wholehearted love’.
However, we
cannot achieve wholehearted devotion without wholehearted commitment, or total
commitment.
I learnt
about something about ‘Total Commitment’, from the story of King Hezekiah, who
was a king of Judah, after the order of King David.
In 2
Chronicles chapter 31, verses 20-21, we read this amazing scripture:
“20 And thus Hezekiah throughout all
Judah, and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his
God.
And in every work that he began in
the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to
seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.”This tells me that in every area of his life as a worshipper, Hezekiah excelled. Hezekiah, before he did anything, checked if it was good, and then if it was truth, and again, if it was right. When he confirmed that it was all okay in the sight of God, he then proceeded to carry it out.
Secondly,
Hezekiah ensured that never ignored the necessary intricate details of the law
and the commandments. He ensured that he never deviated from the instructions
given to Moses-this obviously made him outstanding.
Notice that
Hezekiah won some incredible battles-in fact he did not lose any battles. God
always fought for him supernaturally.
It was only brotherly love, and a desire not to
cast away or fight against Israel according to divine instructions that brought
Hezekiah in contact with the wicked king of Israel-Ahab.
However, the Lord later separated, and
delivered him from destruction, because it would have come from there.
Our lesson
from all this is to prefer total commitment to excuses in small things. It is
always easy to say, well it is good, but it is not right, however God will
understand. Someone can also say, it right, but it is not the truth-God will
understand. Yet another will say, it is the truth (word), but is not good or
right, well (understand any way that the word of God cannot be wrong), so I
don’t care. In all these things, let us not allow excuses to take the place of
total commitment.
