Today's Devotional:
The Upper Room Daily Devotional "What Is Right" for Sunday, 24 May 2015 - Scripture: 2 Kings 18:1 It was in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Isra’el, that Hizkiyahu the son of Achaz, king of Y’hudah, began his reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Avi the daughter of Z’kharyah. 3 He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything David his ancestor had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the standing-stones, cut down the asherah and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moshe had made; because in those days the people of Isra’el were making offerings to it, calling it N’chushtan.* 5 He put his trust in Adonai the God of Isra’el; after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Y’hudah, nor had there been among those before him. 6 For he clung to Adonai and did not leave off following him, but obeyed his mitzvot, which Adonai had given Moshe. 7 So Adonai was with him. Wherever he went out to battle, he did well. He rebelled against the king of Ashur and refused to be his vassal. 8 He drove the P’lishtim back to ‘Azah and laid waste to their territory from the watchtower to the fortified city.
9 It was in the fourth year of King Hizkiyahu, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Isra’el, that Shalman’eser king of Ashur advanced against Shomron and laid siege to it. 10 At the end of three years they captured it — that is, Shomron was captured in the sixth year of Hizkiyahu, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Isra’el. 11 The king of Ashur carried Isra’el away captive to Ashur and settled them in Halach, in Havor on the Gozan River and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This happened because they did not heed the voice of Adonai their God, but violated his covenant, everything that Moshe the servant of Adonai had ordered them to do, and would neither hear it nor do it.
13 In the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu, Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y’hudah and captured them. 14 Hizkiyahu king of Y’hudah sent this message to the king of Ashur at Lakhish: “I have done wrong. If you will go away from me, I will pay whatever penalty you impose on me.” The king of Ashur imposed on Hizkiyahu a penalty of ten tons of silver and a ton of gold. 15 Hizkiyahu gave him all the silver that could be found in the house of Adonai and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 16 It was at that time that Hizkiyahu stripped the gold from the doors of the sanctuary of Adonai and from the doorposts which Hizkiyahu king of Y’hudah himself had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Ashur.
Hezekiah prayed, “Remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.”[2 Kings 20:3 (NIV)]
In the Old Testament, people’s lives are repeatedly classified in one of two ways, as a sort of scriptural eulogy: either “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord” or “he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”
I rarely consider my life in such simple terms. Media messages entice me to dwell on how nice I look as I age, the type of decor in my home, and what I do for a living. It is easy to forget that — in light of eternity — obedience to God is much more important than such trivialities.
It can be tempting to ignore God’s standard of selfless love, but all those life summaries in the Old Testament remind me that my choices need to be anchored to something bigger than I and bigger than my shifting emotions. My choices should revolve around God and what pleases God. When God reflects on the sum of my life — who I was and what I did — I want to hear, “She did what is good in the eyes of the Lord.”
"Remembering What Really Matters"
Recently I watched two movies--God Grew Tired of Us and The Good Lie--about children displaced by war who walked for miles, eventually ending up in refugee camps where most of their childhood years were spent. Images of these kids reminded me that many people live with less than they need. I felt ashamed of how quickly I forget this, distracted as I am by a "me first" culture that seems to suck me in hypnotically.
As I watched these Sudanese refugees (who are now young adults) on my television screen, I was struck by their spiritual and relational richness. One comforted a crying stranger on a bus. Another lost his job for refusing to do something he believed was wrong.
I cannot stop reflecting on those films, thinking of those who lost their homes and families, growing up in a camp without most of the comforts I take for granted; I do not envy their suffering but I do wish that I had their clear grasp of what matters and what does not. Time spent with others was a priority for them as was helping those who had less than they did; in the end they hardly had anything because they gave most of what they had away.
I find it hard to release films like these from my mind because seeing them is like rediscovering an essential part of myself; suddenly I remember what really matters in life as I absorb the example of people living here in my world with values that do not belong to this world. I want to become more like them. I want to hold on to God's priorities, living a life that is radically different from those around me. As I mentioned in the devotional I wrote for today, I want it to be possible for people to say of me, when my life comes to an end, “She did what was right in the eyes of the Lord!”[Holly Dickson-Ramos]
The Author: Holly Dickson-Ramos (Ontario, Canada)
Thought for the Day: Today I can choose to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Prayer: Help us, O God, to love you with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.
Prayer focus: Someone Facing A Serious Choice
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