The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

2 Chronicles 15:1-7, “Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded,

2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, ‘Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

3 ‘For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.

4 ‘But in their distress, they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him.

5 In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.

6 “Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.

7 “But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”

It is indeed a sad thought, but we all suffer from discouragement at times. What exacerbates us more than we desire to admit is that there seems to be no way out! We find ourselves locked in and unable to find release.

Our text above says that Azariah told Asa, “…the LORD is with you when you are with Him…” Think about that! We can only count on true help when we are connected with the Helper! That requires us to take the initiative and make the first step. The LORD is not hiding from us. The Scriptures say, “…seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul” (Deut. 4:29).

In many respects, we have become a selfish people, always looking for someone to help instead of taking the initiative ourselves in finding it. Little children are like that; but adults are instructed otherwise. I have identified in excess of 60 verses in Scripture that implore us to take the initiative and “seek the LORD.” Surely, those verses are not there without purpose.

If your house were on fire, would you expect the fire department to suddenly arrive without a call for help? Does your physician initiate phone calls to see if you are well? Neither should we expect help at any level without our personal summons. The LORD is there for us. Give Him a call!

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

“We will never know that Christ is all we need, until He becomes all that we have.” –Corrie ten Boom