DON'T LOSE YOUR FAVOR OR YOUR FOCUS

Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. (I Kings 11:11 NKJV)

We are all blessed to have gifts, talents and abilities to carry out the purposes God ordained for our lives. God has allowed us to be divine partakers in His kingdom work here on earth. There are many things we face in life that have the potential to mold and shape our lives if we follow after them. Some things are for our good, some things are detrimental to our good, and only what God has is for our best. The problem often occurs because we do not seek God for direction, and we lack the ability to discern which is which. It's not that we don't know, it's not that God doesn't have the power to show us; instead it's usually because we have allowed other things to draw our hearts away from God, and block our view and hearing. We make the mistake of allowing what we see, think and feel to cloud what we know God has said.

King Solomon is a great example to us of the dangers of allowing other things to draw away our hearts and focus from God, and ultimately causes us to forfeit our favor. Solomon was consider a man of great wisdom and wealth and had favor in the eyes of God. However, along the way King Solomon stopped applying the wisdom he had and dropped the standards that God set for him and the people. God had forbidden the children of Israel to marry people of other races because of their idolatry, He didn't want them influenced by the presence of false Gods, a standard Solomon was fully aware of. Yet for some unknown reason he decided to go with what he felt, instead of what God had determined. This decision led him to have over 1,000 wives and over 300 concubines of all nationalities. This loss of focus wound up costing Solomon everything, and God removed the favor from His life and the life of his children.

We must daily live to follow the precepts God has set for our lives. Choosing to do our own thing can cost us everything we were not expected to lose.