JULY 26 "DON'T BE STUPID!!"

     I was quite encouraged to finally read about a King who is doing well and serving God. "Jehoshaphat, you are the man", I thought....until....until out of nowhere we read, "¹ Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage."  You must be kidding?! Out of nowhere....isn't this how it normally happens. We see people doing "seemingly" so well and then "out of nowhere" they make a blunderous, stupid, ungodly decision.  And we think, "where did that come from?".  It proves that any one of us, can tomorrow make a decision that will totally throw us of course if we are not honest with ourselves, with others and foremost, with God.  The story gets worse as Ahab eventually convinces Jehoshaphat to go to war against Ramoth Gilead, even though, the very prophet Jehoshaphat requested, prophesied against it.  And on top of that, Jehoshaphat also lets Ahab to convince him to dress up as King of Israel.  We don't know if Jehoshaphat is enamored with the King of Ahab and his daughter or what is at work here, but Ahab seems to have more influence over Jehoshaphat, than God does, at this point. For all the good that we have read about Jehoshaphat, we begin to see him take a turn for the worse.
     Thank God that we have an opportunity to have a relationship with God in lieu of just some impotent religion because nothing supersedes a relationship with God.  Although Jehoshaphat is in the midst of some kind of stupid, spiritual fog, he knows one thing and that is to cry out to his God. I'm sure he knows he's gone of course, I'm sure he knows he's made some decisions without seeking God or even wanting God's opinion, we've all been there and done this!!! Jehoshaphat's motives in this series of bad decisions are even known to God, but never revealed to us, but yet when he cries out, God rescues him nonetheless. Verse 31 "So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him" .  By all means, they should have killed Jehoshaphat right there, but for no other reason than God, they do not. Again, nothing can take the place of a relationship with God. We see in this story, that even though this man is very kinked and screwed up, God continues to have a relationship with this man and vice-versa and when he cries out God........God answers him and saves him. 
     There's no excuse for all these bad decisions Jehoshaphat makes, he wanted to do what he wanted to do, whether he was obsessed with Ahab's daughter or infatuated by her and the family dynasty, is all unknown to us and irrelevant, in the end he did wrong. We will all have our day "in the fog" and in wanting to do our own thing, but the key in all of this is never give up your relationship with God, never give up on God, he will always be there to help you, rescue you and save you when you come to the revelation that you have royally messed up and cry out to him for help. I don't believe God would have automatically intervened and saved Jehoshaphat had he not cried out.
     And last, ....nothing comes out of nowhere. Christians who seem to be doing well and then all of a sudden begin to make a series of "off the wall" decisions, as Jehoshaphat does, had issues lurking in their heart that they were not being honest about.  They were not honest with God nor were they honest with their spiritual mentors or headship about the issues.  Always be honest with God and your spiritual mentors and headship about the struggles in your heart, this is the first step, in the right direction, in getting help. God knows your heart whether you confess to Him or not, so why not just be honest with him and then let a trusted friend know also, that will pray for you and help keep you in check until you get these issues resolved through a process of time, prayer and accountability.