Precious

 

“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live.” Deuteronomy 4:9

I have been given a precious gift. The Son of The Almighty God. He is precious to me. I was dead in my sins, and He brought me to life and the life I now live is to know Him as I have been known by Him. That is precious to me. He lives in me. In the very core of who I am. The problem is that I am sinful and prone to forget and prone to wonder, so in order that I don’t lose sight of my King, I need to be on my guard lest I forget, lest I get sidetracked, lest I fall. Because make no mistake, there is an enemy out there only too willing to attack and steal and kill my treasure.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

As I was writing and thinking of an illustration that would best describe what I’m trying to say, I think the best image I can come up with is the story of King Jehoash and Athaliah.

King Ahaziah, of the kingdom of Judah, dies and as soon as his mother finds out about it, she decided to kill everybody in her son’s line so she could rule the kingdom by herself (2 Kings 11:1, 2 Chronicles 22:10). King Ahaziah’s sister takes away the king’s son, Jehoash, and hides him away from his grandmother. Ahaziah’s sister was married to the high priest Jehoiada, so they hide him for 6 years in God’s Temple. There was no chance for Athaliah to go look for Jehoash in The Temple, because she was serving other gods that had other temples. When Jehoash was 7 years old, Jehoiada strengthened himself, gathered all the priests and Levites and the heads of all the families in Judah and proceeded to make a human shield around the king whenever the king would make any move or go anywhere. They went so far as to even carry sword and shield to protect the king. At last they brought the king and proclaimed him king and made him sit on his throne and all the people were rejoicing so loudly that Athaliah heard the commotion. She came and saw the king sited on the throne and she tore her robes and began yelling like a lunatic, “treason!” but of course she gets executed by the order of Jehoiada.

My King is in the Temple. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19) The enemy can scheme all he wants; I’ve hidden The King in The Temple and I have put guards around Him. He’s precious to me. I don’t watch whatever I want, I don’t listen to whatever I want, I don’t speak however I want, because that would not honour my King. I live for more than this life. I try to daily carve into the flesh of my heart His covenant, lest I forget what it is all about.

Do I always get it right? No! But I make it my aim to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9). Even on days when I am faced like Solomon with a dilemma of distinguishing between my King and the imposter, I know the test that will reveal the true owner of my heart. In Solomon’s case, there are 2 mothers and 1 baby, both mothers claiming that the living baby is theirs and the dead baby belongs to the other (1 Kings 3:17-28) Solomon asks for a sword and orders that the living child be cut in two so they each get a share. The real mother of the child says, “no, let him live even if you have to give him to this other woman.” The imposter says, “cut him in half! Neither of us should have him!” The owner of my heart will always choose to spare its life while the enemy will yell like a lunatic, “no, cut it in half! Neither of us should have it!”

My Lord is precious to me because He paid the ultimate price to have me. The least I can do is protect Him from my doubts and double mindedness, from my unfaithfulness and pride, from my self-righteousness, and my manipulation to get Him to do what I want. My King is precious to me and I’ll protect Him in my heart, no matter what, even if I have to kill every Athaliah in the land.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

By Cristina Pop