Study Notes

I've said several times lately that God keeps repeating Himself throughout Chronicles. Seek Him. Rely on Him. Listen to Him. Be careful who you allow to influence you. Stay close to Him.

And this morning I had another thought-

Live like this might be a test.

             What do you do before a test?

                               You study.

You go over the same things again and again. You review your notes. You highlight what's important. You repeat it until you know it.

      Think of Chronicles like that.

These are our study notes for the big test.

God isn't repeating Himself to fill pages. He's showing us the things we need to know when real life puts what we believe to the test. And today's notes are pretty important.

   Jehoshaphat starts strong. He seeks God, removes idols, and sends people throughout Judah to teach God's Word. I love that, especially with everything we've been talking about with generations. We can't just tell the next generation to follow Jesus. We have to teach them His Word, live it in front of them, and give them something solid to stand on.

    Then chapter 18 happens. Jehoshaphat, a man who genuinely loves God, makes a really bad decision. He aligns himself with Ahab.

                            Yes. That Ahab.

Then Ahab asks him to go into battle, and Jehoshaphat agrees. After agreeing, he says they should seek the Lord. Wait a min. He already said yes.

     But how often do we do that? Make the plan, decide what we want, get everything moving, and then pray, “Okay God, bless this.”

I don't want to ask God for direction after I've already decided which direction I'm going.

Then Ahab brings in hundreds of prophets who tell him exactly what he wants to hear. Micaiah is willing to tell him the truth, and Ahab doesn't want to hear it. We just saw this with Asa huh.

     There's another question on the test....

What do you do when God tells you something you don't want to hear?

   I need people in my life who can tell me the truth. Not people who tell me every idea I have is wonderful. I need people who love me enough to say, “Mandy, I don't think that's a good idea.” And I need to listen.

    Jehoshaphat doesn't listen well enough. He goes into battle with Ahab, and it almost gets him killed. He ends up surrounded and cries out to God. And God rescues him. Jehoshaphat got himself into that mess. He was warned but he still made the wrong choice. But his bad decision wasn't the end of his story.

    When he gets home, God sends Jehu to confront him. And this is where his story goes differently. He doesn't throw the prophet in prison. He doesn't find 400 people to tell him he did nothing wrong. He receives the correction and gets back to what God called him to do.

I dont know about you but I've made decisions I would make differently now. I've had God correct me and show me things I didn't see before. I've had to change my thinking, my reactions, my relationships, and my direction.

That's part of growing with God. Correction isn't the end. It's an opportunity to change direction. I don't need to spend the rest of my life beating myself up over something God has already shown me, corrected, and taught me through. I need to Own it, Learn from it, Change it and Keep going.

   We've been talking about breaking things off our lives and what we're handing to the next generation. Jehoshaphat reminds us that our decisions and relationships are part of that too.

Who we allow to influence us matters. What we normalize matters. And when God puts His finger on something, we need to listen. We aren't going to get everything right. I certainly haven't. But I want to stay teachable.

    So add this one to the Chronicles study notes: Seek God before you decide.

Keep people around you who will tell you the truth. Receive correction when you get it wrong. And don't stay down when God tells you to get back up.

The test will come.

Study the notes now.

Love Pastor Mandy

MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope