When God Is for Us...

Daily Reading: 2 Kings 11

And he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land. (2 Kings 11.3)

Devotional Thought: Today we read the account of the wicked Athaliah's plot to cut off the line of King David.  After her son’s death, she determined to kill all of the remaining members of the royal family so that she could rule over the kingdom of Judah.  But one member of the royal family was rescued, Athaliah’s baby grandson.  He was hidden and then crowned king of Judah when he was seven years old.

The line of David would not be broken, simply because God had promised that it would not be.  Athaliah intended evil against not only the royal family, but against God Himself.  God used her wickedness to show His faithfulness.  “The council of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation,” (Ps. 33.11).  When the Lord promises something through His revealed Word, there is nothing – no force of evil, no scheme of man, no change of circumstances – that can ever thwart His purposes.  Living life in this fallen world with evil running unchecked everywhere we look, we can rest on the Lord’s unchanging love. 

Not only are the plans of the evil-hearted overcome by the will of the Lord, but sometimes our own plans and ideas are overcome by the Lord’s purposes as well.  Most of us can remember a time in our lives where we expected the Lord to rescue us from suffering or from our circumstances.  And when He didn’t answer our prayers in the way we expected, we questioned His love for us or even His goodness.  Sometimes it isn’t until later (or maybe never in this lifetime) that we can see that He had something better in mind, something “immeasurably more” than we could ask or imagine (Eph. 3.20).  Praise God for His good purposes – they will prevail!

Jenny

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that though adversaries and circumstances may work against me, you are working for me.  You work all things together for my good!  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: 16.7-11

7 I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.

8 I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.