Seize the Moment – Day 826
The Call to Radical Obedience!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, June 21.
Has God ever asked you to fast from food for a prolonged time? There was a time when I was in the US Army, faced with a difficult challenge, when the Lord asked me to fast from food for three days in preparation for a significant meeting. I didn’t understand why at the time, but in retrospect, I see that God has always had a better plan than any of my plans.
In 1 Kings 13, an unnamed man of God from Judah traveled to Bethel to confront Jeroboam, the king of Israel, and to prophesy God’s judgment against the altar he had built at Bethel (1-10). The prophet spoke with authority, and gave a sign, but Jeroboam didn’t repent, and Israel remained in its apostasy (33-34).
The prophet walked in submission to God, until, along on his way home to Judah, he ate in the home of a deceptive old man. It was his last meal. Shortly after, God struck him down by a lion proving that he was a prophet, his calling authenticated by God’s immediate judgment of his disobedience (11-32). One hundred years later, the prophet’s words were proven true by King Josiah, as recorded in 2 Kings 23:15-20, as this prophet was remembered as the harbinger of God’s judgment of the altar at Bethel.
Seize the moment and obey God’s call because you never know the impact of one act of radical obedience. You may not know why God asks you to do certain things, but trust that God’s Word never returns void (Isaiah 55:11).