www.bible.com/reading-plans/13696/day/18

This devotional presents one of the simplest and easily understood explanation of consecration that I think I have ever read. We have to turn away from the things of the world and turn towards God. The wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, started out right, wholeheartedly devoted to God. He built the temple and dedicated it to the Lord in a long prayer asking for God to dwell there and bless His people. But as he aged, Solomon’s heart was turned towards the wives that he had married from other nations, the very thing that God had warned him not to do. In turning away from God, Solomon turned to the world, worshipping the false gods of Moab among others. As a result, God took the kingdom away from Solomon and Israel was divided between Jeroboam and Rehoboam. What great blessings could have continued for generations if only Solomon had kept his first love for God and not for his foreign wives! We will never know the outcome of that scenario because it didn’t happen that way. Solomon had consecrated his life to serving the Lord, asking only for wisdom to rule well. Then he turned AWAY from God and toward the world and his own ego destroyed his kingdom. How many times have we felt the pull of the world, the entertainment that others seem to get so much pleasure from, the language that others use freely and seem to be accepted because of their irreverence, the riches and success that the world clamors for? We feel the pull, but if we are turned away from the world and toward God, these things cannot capture our hearts and souls. They may capture our attention, hopefully only briefly, but not enough to entice us away from our commitment to God. Each time we feel a tug to turn towards the world, we must remember that leads to destruction, not to life. Only God offers life eternally. Thus, our consecration to Him must be wholehearted, sincere and with a complete knowledge that the choices we make today may affect our eternal destiny and the witness we show others affects the way they turn, either towards God or away. Solomon’s choices led to the destruction on a united nation; choices matter. God desires us to turn towards Him but He will not force us to do so. It is our free will choice, and therein lies the problem. We are a sinful people saved by grace, a fact that we must remember every day, especially when we are faced with the choice to turn towards the world instead of towards God.