If You Want God’s Favor, Then Do This

Romans 15:4 (ESV)

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction…”

2 Kings 21:1-6 (NIV)
“Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.”

“An idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”
- Timothy Keller (Counterfeit Gods)

“An idol is something we cannot live without. We must have it. Therefore, it drives us to break rules we once honored to harm others, even ourselves, in order to get it.”

- Timothy Keller (Counterfeit Gods)

2 Kings 21:20-21 (NIV)
“He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. He followed completely the ways of his father, worshiping the idols his father had worshiped, and bowing down to them. He forsook the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to him.”

2 Kings 22:2 (NIV)
“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”

2 Chronicles 34:3a (NIV)
“In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David.”

2 Chronicles 34:3b (NIV)
“In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols”

2 Kings 22:11 (ESV)
“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.”

2 Kings 22:19 (NLT)
“You were sorry and humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I said against this city and its people—that this land would be cursed and become desolate. You tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance. And I have indeed heard you, says the Lord.”

1 Peter 5:5-6 (NKJV)

“be clothed with humility, for

God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time”

1 Corinthians 8:1 (NKJV)
“Knowledge puffs up”

Psalm 138:6 (NLT)

“Though the LORD is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud.”

Isaiah 57:15 (NLT)

“I live in the high and holy place

with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.”

Philippians 2:5-9 (NLT)

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor…”