In 8 days, the world will celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birthday. His birth is truly one of pure love and devotion. Have you ever stopped to really ponder how God the Father wants you to respond to His Son? The Bible gives clear direction in how you (and I) are to respond to the greatest love offered to sinful man.
The definition of respond from merriam-webster.com, the verb tense, is 1. To say something in return, make an answer, 2. To react in response, 3. To show favorable reaction, and 4. To be answerable.
God is offering Himself to you on a daily basis. He desires for you to respond to who He is and what He does for you. Ponder the four active definitions above and and ask God to show you how He wants you to respond. When He does show you things through the Holy Spirit, will you respond in obedience to Him? What keeps you from responding to His love?
David and his son Solomon responded to His love and God accepted it. God chose them to be kings in Israel. Then, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became the next king. In 2 Chronicles 12:1-12, you read how Rehoboam didn’t respond to God like his father and grandfather. He let his guard down. Let’s see how easy it is to let your guard down and make the same errors.
Rehoboam was five years into his reign as king. His father left him in good standings with Israel. Will he keep in his footsteps or do his own thing? His first mistake that kept him from responding to God’s love is his own perspective on his kingdom being well established and strong. He took credit for his success instead of understanding that his success comes from God. Have you had a successful career, made plenty of money? Is your identity in that or in Christ? Anything other than Christ is disobedient living. This sin caused Rehoboam to abandon the Law of the Lord, read verse 1. He became disinterested in what God had to say, thus he lived for himself and not for God.
Rehoboam left God and His ways which led Israel to sin. His unfaithfulness affected others. Because of it, the enemy attacked and conquered Israel and Judah. Whenever you turn your back on God, you open the door for Satan to attack. Take a look at marriage, when a couple doesn’t live obedient to God, the relationship suffers and tension infiltrates their unity. Their union can never be united in love. A man, for example, is called to step up and lead spiritually. When he chooses laziness, the wife suffer greatly. The Holy Spirit is sequestered from moving freely to protect her. The enemy is allowed to run free wreaking havoc where disobedience reigns.
But praise the Lord, when you turn your back on God (it’s an easy to thing to do), He faithfully continues to make a way for you to come back! For Rehoboam and his leaders, the prophet, Shemaiah, gave them a message from God. “You have abandoned Me, so I am abandoning you (to the enemy).”5 While truth convicts, look at how they responded.
This is how you are to respond when you leave God’s presence, “Then the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The Lord is right in doing this to us!'”6 God needed to see a humbleness, a brokenness, over their disobedience to Him. “When the Lord saw their change of hearts, He said, ‘Since the people have humbled themselves, I will not completely destroy them and will soon give them some relief.'”7 God also added, “So they will know the difference between serving Me and serving earthly rulers.”8 You are called to serve Christ in all areas of your life. Anything less is disobedient to the Almighty God.
God did not send Jesus to earth for you to live indifferent towards Him. He did not send Jesus to suffer the cross and allow you to focus on worldly things more than Him. He did not resurrect from the dead only to be denied first place in your life.
In 2 Chronicles 12:14, you read the truth about King Rehoboam, “But he was an evil king, for he did not seek the Lord with all his heart.” Demise will come upon you when you do not surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
How can you respond to the love of Jesus this Christmas season? Don’t live like Rehoboam, and look at these verses, “From then on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.‘” (Matthew 4:17) “The time promised by God has come at last!” Jesus announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15) “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.“ (Luke 5:32) “Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to Me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.” (Revelations 2:5)
May this Christmas be life giving within your heart, your marriage, your family. Respond to love, God’s love through Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Merry Christmas.
(Note: United in Love is taking a break for the rest of the year.
Carol J German 