The difference in King Asa’s faith from when he first became king to the end of his reign is bewildering, yet totally understandable in our Christian lives today.
When Asa first became king, he faced an army of one million soldiers. Can you imagine? Picture an army the size of 10 full UT football stadiums surrounding you…
And yet, here is Asa’s response—
“And Asa cried to the LORD his God, ‘O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.’ So the LORD defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.” (2 Chronicles 14:11–12)
Asa’s cry is a confession of faith: “God, you are God! I am not! We need Your help!” He turns to no one but God for his deliverance, and God delivers!
You might think that after experiencing such a profound moment of God’s faithfulness and power, surely he would never turn away from God. And yet, Asa’s story unfolds as just the opposite.
Over time, Asa becomes increasingly self-reliant. Instead of leaning on prayer to God, he falls back on pragmatic, man-made solutions. When he’s confronted again with another army (and a much smaller one at that), he leverages his wealth to make a political treaty instead of turning to God. When he gets sick, he turns to his physicians for healing instead of the Great Physician, ultimately resulting in two years of suffering and eventual death.
So, where did it all go wrong? How did Asa go from pleading with God for deliverance to ignoring Him altogether? Asa’s self-reliant heart didn’t suddenly appear—it was forged by little moments over time of prayerlessness. He stopped seeking the Lord (2 Chronicles 16:12) and started seeking his own strength. Prayerlessness is the voice of a self-reliant heart.
Although none of us has ever been saved from an army of one million, we’ve all experienced the need to be saved from our one million sins. When a person is saved by grace through faith in Jesus, the cry of their heart is no different from Asa’s.
“O LORD, there is none like you to help. Help me, O LORD my God, for I rely on you, and in your name I have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are my God; let not my sin prevail against me.”
Has God delivered you from sin? Praise God! Why would you ever turn to anyone or anything other than Him when you need help now? If Christ overcame sin and death for us, surely He can help us in our daily battles.
And yet, like Asa, we often turn to pragmatic solutions without ever seeking God's help. God, in His grace, may even use those pragmatic solutions to help us. But is it possible that, sometimes, these solutions don’t save us because we choose to only rely on them? Consider your prayer life. You may find the answer.
So, what do you need help with today? What trials are you facing? Are you asking God for help? If not, remember what He’s already done for you. Don’t forget the magnitude of deliverance that God has already shown you through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our perfect King Jesus. Rely on God today; He has all the power to help.
Want to dive deeper? Check out our sermon series guide on Kings of Judah, or watch the most recent sermon from our Kings of Judah sermon series.
