Did you ever wish you had a recipe for success? A guide you could go to every time there is a question to be answered? A set of “How-to” instructions guaranteed to bring success into everything you touch?
Good news, friends! You do!
Let’s go back to the book of Deuteronomy, back to the time when God was giving Israel instructions they would need when they entered the Promised Land. In the 17th chapter, God begins to give some interesting instructions on kingship. I find these very interesting, because it was never God’s will for Israel to have any other King but God (see 1 Samuel 8). In fact, when the people asked for a king, God looked at it as a personal rejection: “But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your calamities and distresses. And you have said, ‘No, set a king over us.'” (1 Sam 10:19), and the people were even punished for their request (see 1 Samuel 12). However God knew the people would rebel, and it was His purpose to give them guidelines to make that rebellion less painful. God said, through Moses:
“When [the king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.” (Deut. 17:18-20)
Here, God is telling the king to keep God’s Word constantly at his right hand. He is to read it every day so that he learns to honour God in everything he does. He is admonished to not turn away from the law of God in any way, and he is advised to not consider himself better than anyone else. And, God promises that as long as he does so, he will have success: “Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.” (Deut 17:20)
Friends, if it was good enough for the kings of Israel, it is good enough for us! Want to be successful? Keep God’s Word at your right hand! Study it daily! Meditate upon it! Base your decisions upon it! Learn to fear God in everything you do! Do not veer from it in even the tiniest way! Do not consider yourself to be better than anyone else! In so doing, you, too, will find true success in life. You will have ultimate favour among men, but most of all, you will have the blessing of God upon you!
Enough to ponder, but do ponder this: If we follow God’s advice to the kings of Israel; if we meditate upon the Word of God daily and let it be the guiding point in our lives, we are assured success in everything we do!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Mother of two teens, Speech-Language Pathologist, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org , with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org .