SWHW Bible Reading Plan: June 2021Sample

Top Takeaway from Liz Patton: 

“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.” 2 Chronicles 33:10

They paid no attention.  

Uggg...what a gut punch this verse is to me.  I can’t help but think about how many times, in my past, I missed out on hearing from the Lord because I was paying no attention.  Maybe you can relate?

But the Lord quickly got the attention of Manasseh when He allowed the army commanders of the King of Assyria to take Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bind him with shackles, and take him to Babylon.

And the result?  “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.”  2 Chronicles 33:12 

I don’t know what God did or is doing to get your attention, but He is constantly pursuing us.  He will go to any lengths to capture our hearts.  (Side note…Thankfully, I haven’t seen Him do it by putting a hook in my nose!) 

For me, He has used my infertility journey to bring me to Him, to help me recognize that I needed to surrender my striving and to put my full and complete trust in Him.  He has used goals that I desperately wanted to accomplish, but didn’t, to help me realize that I need to lay down my definition of success and instead define “success” as surrender and obedience to Him.  He has used my unhealthy desire to be a people pleaser to woo me even closer to Him and teach me that all I really need to do is love people, not please them.

No matter what God is using in our lives to woo us to Him, once He has our attention, may we follow in the steps of Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33:12-13: 

1. Seek the favor of the Lord.   
2. Humble ourselves.  
3. Pray.  

“And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.  Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.” 2 Chronicles 33:13

And once Manasseh knew that the Lord is God, I love his response:  he got rid of the foreign gods and idols and motivated others to do the same.

The same is true for us--once we have experienced the amazing love of God, it changes us!  We can no longer continue living in our sin.  We learn that all lesser things, all of our “little g” gods, will never ever satisfy us, and so we need to get rid of them.  We need to lay them down at the feet of Jesus, which in turn, motivates others to do the same.  

The beautiful thing about being a Christ-follower is that we don’t have to do any of this to earn His love.  He already demonstrated His love for us by sending His only Son to die on the cross in our place, for our sins.  So we don’t seek His favor, humble ourselves before Him, and pray because we have to, but rather because we desire Him alone. 

Dear God, please forgive us for all of the times You spoke to us and we paid no attention.  Today we seek You, we humble ourselves before You, and we cry out to You!  We lay our foolish idols at Your feet and worship You and You alone.  May our love for You make us look different to this lost and hurting world so that others turn to You, too.  We love You!  Amen.