February 20
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ Deuteronomy 6:5
Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 25:1-4 (Go to the Bible passage)
In these few verses a lot is told about king Amaziah. ‘He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.’
There are so many people who never get beyond the point of striving to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. And of course, one should do that with all his heart. But here it is said of king Amaziah that he did not do this wholeheartedly.
Hereby it becomes clear what God - actually - expects of us. God does not ask us merely to obey Him, but to do so wholeheartedly. And then the crux of the matter is not that we should be wholeheartedly devoted to our work, but that our heart should be wholly devoted to Him while we do our work. That is a very big difference!
In the New Testament it is said that we cannot serve two masters, for we will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other (Luke 16:13).
The corruption of our time is that we can achieve so much without any devotion to someone, except at best devotion to ourselves. Often we do our daily work just because of the payment we gain. And the horrible thing is that everyone considers it quite normal to work just for the wages, the achievements, the results, without any higher, non-material goal.
But how our attitude is in daily life, so it is with regard to the kingdom of God. For if we do not do our daily work while being wholeheartedly committed to God, we do not serve God but ourselves, and that always ends in total decay. So it was with Solomon, so it was with Amaziah, so it is with every one of us.

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