End Like You Started
"And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel." (2 Chronicles 16:11)
Imagine a young man stepping onto a stage that has been cluttered with the wreckage of his predecessors. King Asa walked into a royal court filled with idols and compromise, yet his heart was fixed on a singular pursuit. At forty-one, he inherited a kingdom, but he did not inherit the mistakes of those who came before him. He chose to set his priorities on the glory of the Lord, making a conscious decision that his reign would not be about personal fame or political maneuvering, but about reflecting the Kingdom of God. It is a powerful picture of a beginning marked by passion, zeal, and a heart fully committed to seeking the Almighty.
The test of his conviction arrived not in the quiet halls of the palace, but on the battlefield. An army of one million men, supported by three hundred chariots, rose up against Judah. The odds were impossible. Yet, the scriptures reveal that Asa did not wait until the heat of the conflict to connect with heaven. He prayed before the battle even began. He cried out in 2 Chronicles 14:11, saying, "Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power." He understood that the secret to victory was not in the size of the army but in the intensity of his seeking.
There is a sobering truth in the journey of Asa. It is entirely possible to have a beautiful beginning and a catastrophic ending. God desires for us to carry our initial zeal all the way to the finish line, but pride often waits in the shadows of our success. As Asa grew in influence, the humility that once defined his prayer life began to erode. He started to lean on his own understanding and sought help from human alliances instead of the hand of God. The tragedy was not that he failed once, but that he allowed his reliance on God to slip away as his power increased.
When the Lord looked to and fro to show Himself strong, He sought those whose hearts were fully committed to Him. Sadly, Asa had lost the victory of seeking God. Eventually, a physical disease settled into his feet. This was not merely a medical issue, but a spiritual symbol of a walk gone wrong. Sin spreads like gangrene, and when we stop walking in the counsel of the Lord, we find ourselves standing in the counsel of the ungodly.
"The most dangerous place to be is not at the start of your journey, but in the middle of your success where you begin to believe you no longer need the One who gave it to you."
The answer to diseased feet, or a heart that has drifted into self-reliance, is to return to the place of seeking. It means getting down on our knees and crying out to the Lord with the same desperation we felt when we first met Him. We cannot allow ourselves to become comfortable with human strength. We must recognize that every business, every success, and every blessing is His business first. We are called to steward these gifts by keeping our eyes fixed on the Giver, not the gifts.
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This truth applies to every moment of our everyday lives. When we face pressure, do we instinctively pray, or do we instinctively panic and look for human solutions? Whether we are dealing with a difficult conversation, a financial challenge, or a simple struggle in our schedule, the temptation is to rely on our own intellect, our own resources, or our own connections. To finish as we started, we must replace human reliance with a renewed, daily habit of seeking God’s presence before we move. We often look for the "physicians" of this world to fix what only God can heal. True health returns when we stop asking the world for answers and start asking the Lord for direction.
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