Trying to manage your own problems? Don't! Ask God for help.

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2 Chronicles 16

• Summary

In Asa's 36th year of reign Baasha, the King of Israel builds Ramah to prevent people having access to or from Asa.  Asa sends treasures from his house and the temple to Benhadad, King of Syria, reminding him of the treaty that was between their fathers.  He asks him to break his treaty with Baasha to make him withdraw from Judah.  Benhadad agrees and sends his army to invade Israelite cities.  When Baasha hears he leaves off the building of Ramah. Asa and his subjects take down all the building work and build two cities of their own.

A prophet comes to see Asa and reprimands him for relying on Benhadad for help and not God.  He reminds him of how the Lord had delivered him from the huge Ethiopian and Lubim armies.  Because of his actions there would now be wars.  Asa is very angry and has the prophet locked up.  He also oppresses some of his people at this time.  

In the 39th year of his reign Asa became very diseased in his feet, but again he didn't ask God for help but relied on the physicians.  He died in the 41st year of his reign and was buried in a very perfumed bed in a sepulchre which he had prepared for himself.

• Thoughts (first written in August 2020)

In verse 9 the prophet tells Asa,

"...the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" 

(My Study Bible interprets this word 'perfect' to mean 'loyal' or 'at peace with').

In the previous chapter, and also in the book of Kings, it is recorded that Asa's heart was perfect or loyal to God all of his days, but it appears here that he didn't ask God for help - both in the matter of this invasion and his diseased feet. 

We too can be guilty of this.  We see God's hand in helping us in a certain matter, and may be very thankful and praise him, but then another trouble occurs and we don't ask him for help.  Why is this?  Is it because we think we know how to handle the matter?  Asa certainly got the results he wanted by asking Benhadad for help and was maybe quite pleased with the outcome - but the prophet told him that God would have delivered Benhadad into his hands (Benhadad was also a potential enemy).  

Then in regard to his diseased feet, perhaps he thought the doctors could handle it.  How this searches us!  How often do we think we can manage things ourselves?!  This is not to say that we shouldn't use the means available to help ourselves, but rather to ask God for help, and then look for his direction in how the means appear to be available, or options open up, or certain thoughts come - or if no direction seems to be obvious, to go forward trusting that God is directing.  We see this countless times in the Bible:

• the Israelites at the Red Sea, trapped by the mountains and Egyptians chasing them from behind are told to go forward by God, into what seems hopeless - a sea!  But as Moses, by faith and by God's command lifts his rod over the sea, God parts the water and makes a way through it - a miracle!
• Nehemiah, when faced by enemies threatening to attack as he and the Judeans tried to rebuild the Jerusalem city walls, kept their weapons in one hand and built with the other hand
• Jehoshaphat, when faced with a huge invasion, ordered that he and all his people sought the Lord and fasted, they were then instructed what to do and God gave them victory
• David, when faced with invasions by the Philistines asked the Lord what they should do and was given instruction which he obeyed, and victory.
• David, when faced with Goliath, went forward in the name of the Lord and used the means he had with him, his pebbles and sling to kill him.

These are all examples of Proverbs 3:6, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths".

We are currently troubled by our adjoining neighbours.  When the mother stays away at night the daughter has loud parties - the music does now generally go off by 11pm but the loud voices, hullabaloo, frequent car and front door slamming, running up and down the driveway (I often think they are outside of our bedroom window - we are in a bungalow), swearing loudly into the night air, all kept us awake last Saturday until 3am.  I did doze off and then woke trying to shout in fright as I dreamed they were breaking into our kitchen...

We keep praying about what we should do - should we report them?  Should we tell our landlady?  Should we write them a kind note or try to speak to the mother?  None of these options sit well with us - we are anxious it might backfire and cause future problems with retaliation.  Should we have more faith that the Lord will prevent this?  

 This verse encourages me to pray further - "the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth...."   He knows all about this trouble - he knows how it robs our sleep and how last Sunday we struggled to stay awake and listen to the services - he knows how it affects our health and energy longer term..."to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him".

Do you have troubles you have been trying to manage yourself?  Things that you thought were too little to bother the Lord with?  Things that perhaps didn't occur to you to pray about?  Let us confess to the Lord our forgetfulness to ask him, our desire to have a perfect (loyal) heart towards him, and honour him by asking for his help.

In the words, of Asa's own prayer in an earlier chapter,' LORD it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee' .

Man on sofa photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash.  With thanks.

Man praying photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.  With thanks.