Is there anything in your life that consumes you more than Jesus Christ?

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

As we wander through the Old Testament, considering the people in the Bible that started well but did not finish well, how could we not consider Solomon? Just like Saul which we considered yesterday, Solomon had numerous issues in his life from a father who murdered one of his servants to a brother that raped his sister, probably the epitome of a dysfunctional family. In reading the story of Solomon's life, he had many great successes yet he did not finish well. His downfall appears, at least in part, to stem from his lust for women. Although warned against doing so, Solomon had many foreign wives who turned his heart away from God. He failed to love the LORD God with all his heart.
There is no doubt that Solomon started well: "And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David,...then god said to him: "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, not have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, h0nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days." 1 Kings 3: 3,11-14.
However, Solomon did not finish well: "But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites- from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, "You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David."
Just about anything or anyone can draw our hearts away from God. Is there anything in your life that consumes you more than Jesus Christ? Is there anything or anyone that you lust for that distracts you from your devotion to Christ? It can be very subtle and left unchecked will overwhelm you and draw you deeper and deeper into idolatry.
How will you demonstrate your obedience to the first great commandment today? "'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.'" Matthew 22:36-38.

Diane