When God moves man...

Background: In Israel, kings came and kings went, some were good, some weren't. Samaria lost its land and stand before the Lord, due to their disobedience as they chose to worship gods rather than the One True Living God who had brought them up out of Egypt. They chose death, rather than life. Jerusalem on the other hand, stood strong a little while longer, but soon saw kings who would lead them down the same road, Samaria had taken, into forfeiting their inheritance and land God has promised them. The book of 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, give a detailed history of Israel, their acquiring their promised land and then forfeiting it "15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. "

Lessons: While reading of the way Israel had lost its glorious walk with the Lord and its glorious inheritance, I noticed some very important things about how and why God works in our lives

1. Man's heart constantly seeks to do evil, knowingly and unknowingly-God had seen this behaviour in man, from the beginning of creation-Genesis 6:5 "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time."-Evil begat evil and it went on.
2. God seeks to move man, to enable them to do the good works He has planned for us-Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." and also in Philippians 2:13 "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Among all the accounts of kings I read through in 1 st & 2nd Kings and 1st &2nd Chronicles, I found God had seen and known how satan had diluted our minds with evil and God wanted to bring us back to the original image in which we were created, to do good.
3. The choice is with us-Every time, God moved man, He left the choice with man, to either go God's way or go your own selfish way. I call man's own way as selfish because, rarely now does man think of someone else when they are working towards something. I will earn this degree I will get a good job, have a good house, have lots of money, I will take care of my kids. Rarely do we think, I will pay for that man on that road, to go to college, have a good life, it doesn't matter what happens to me!!! I don't and I dont think others do too, unless, their hearts have been moved by God. The choice still remains with us, to be moved and be movers of lives into the Kingdom of God, or just get by life with the minimum we think we can do.

Conclusion-What if Noah, had not listened to God's voice about the flood that day? What if Abraham had not been moved by God's promise of his own land and generations to come? What if you and I heard God's voice regarding our lives and were moved?