Watching toddlers in safe environments is interesting and amusing to see. But as parents; it can be frustrating.  At first, toddlers going from crawling and scooting across the floor will pull up to the sofa, and reach out for a hand to help them. They depend on that hand to secure the new way to get around.  They will then take a few steps while gripping the hand of the one they trust the most—mom or dad.  In the days ahead, toddlers will grow from wobbly dependence to more independent determined steps, planting on foot in front of the other. With this accomplishment; they confidently feel as if they have walked on their own forever.  You can see it on their faces!

Then a day comes when they let go of the hand that steadied them altogether. Confident toddlers take their eyes off the parent who encouraged them then hurry to the toy that now entices them.  They pump their hands and try to run to the object of their desire with their loved one warning, “Be careful, you might fall!”  But the warning is ignored because their eyes see what they want and must have—the object and control.  Then they fall.  A surprised look comes over their faces as they tumble to the floor as if to say, “what just happened here, I thought I had this.” Mom, dad, sister, or brother then rushes to their aid to pick them up and get them going and growing again. 

Asa, king of Judah, lived his life “doing good in the eyes of the Lord,” serving God’s people by trusting God’s wisdom in his leadership for most of his reign.  But a day came, when he took his eyes of the Lord and instead aligned himself with an enemy. God had blessed King Asa and His people with “rest” from war for decades because of Asa’s trust in Him in decision making. But when King Asa let go of the grip of God’s wisdom, took his eyes off God to look around to see how he could solve a threat all on his own; he fell.  His uncommitted heart was the cause of his fall.

King Asa had sought the Lord when in danger of warring nations around him who had armies larger and mightier than Judah’s and conquered them with God’s help. God supports those whose hearts are completely His.  But when Asa placed his confidence only in himself his walk with God became as wobbly as a toddler. Asa aligned himself with all the wrong people who did not believe in God and the outcome affected His walk with God greatly.

2 Chronicles 16

Asa’s Last Years

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.

² Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. ³ “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.”

⁴ Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim and all the store cities of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. ⁶ Then King Asa brought all the men of Judah, and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using. With them he built up Geba and Mizpah.

⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

¹⁰ Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.

¹¹ The events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. ¹³ Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors. ¹⁴ They buried him in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier covered with spices and various blended perfumes, and they made a huge fire in his honor.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Micah, the prophet declares these words from God;

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Our walk gets as wobbly as a toddler when we let go of the Hand that steadies our walk. God helps us as a parent helps his child to walk.  Pray, asking for God to help us in our walk; God helps by providing spiritual mentors who, by His help, are mastering their humble walk.  No one has arrived in perfection of the walk. However, there will be those who have learned the lessons we might be dealing with today.  We must also look for those who need our help in life stuff we learned yesterday!  Believers, as “join heirs with Christ,” we are brothers and sisters in Christ who come running to lovingly pick each other up after and falling. We guide each other’s hands back into the hand of our Father once more with an even stronger grip! 

This learning to walk humbly with God is not for the faint of heart and comes with a cost—surrender to Jesus.  We must let go of looking around to all the wrong people to help us!  Follow Jesus, the Master of the Walk! Walking humbly was taught and demonstrated perfectly by the One who saved us from our sins!  “Imitate Christ” Paul passionately and urgently writes;

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus proclaimed, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

Jesus demonstratedwalking humbly with God the night before the cross;

“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”—Jesus, John 13:1-17

Jesus is the God who washes dirty feet—even the feet of His betrayer, Judas!  Jesus then says— “do what I do.”  It wasn’t about the feet or the dirty water; it was about bending down to serve each other with His love deeply embedded in our hearts.

We serve from knowing God’s love resulting in more love for each other.

Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 The second is like it—love each other, later adding, as I have loved you.

Our passage today says that God is looking for the committed who love and trust Him! For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. God is looking for those who seek Him with a desire to walk humbly with Him!  God stands ready to bless, protect, and provide!

Asa’s fundamental problem was not Judah’s lack of defenses but the king’s lack of faith. Unlike David, whose heart had been sincere before the Lord; Asa’s heart was divided—one day trusting God and the next day trusting in the arm of flesh. A perfect heart isn’t a sinless heart but a heart wholly yielded to the Lord and fully trusting Him. King Asa revealed the wickedness of his heart by becoming angry at the prophet’s message and put him in prison.  Asa fell back to the walk of a toddler and fell. It is not lost on us that a disease of the feet eventually took Asa’s life!  Yikes.  But, he actually had a heart condition.

Trust God; He knows what He is doing!

Lord,

Thank you for reaching out to hold my hand as I learn to walk humbly with you.  I have not arrived nor have I attained perfection in all my steps; but I trust you to mold and shape me with each wobbly but firm step.  Only You, the Master of the walk can make my steps right. Thank you, Jesus for not only redeeming us of our sins but showing us how to walk humbly with our Father.

In Jesus Name, Amen