We might be going through phases both good and bad in our professional, personal or spiritual life. As a child in Jesus, we might look up to Him fervently during the bad phases and rejoice ourselves in Him in the good ones. But the scripture reminds us to be mindful of equipping ourselves in God's presence by working on our talents, gifts and salvation in the peaceful times to survive the arrows of the evil one in the days of adversity (Eph 6 : 13-19).

In the Bible, we see that King Asa, the third king of Judah (the first king to do good deeds after the split of Israel and Judah), had pleased God and God had graciously given peace to Judah for 10 years. He was a king who had set out to do something different that two of his past predecessors did not do. With the love for God and under the advice of prophet Azariah (2 Chronicles 1-7), he set out to "Destroy & Rebuild" - destroy the pagan places of worship and rebuild the city walls (a term that Jesus himself used to prophesy about his crucifixion and ascension, in John 2: 19).

 “Let us build up these towns,” he said to Judah, “and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we sought Him and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. 2 Chronicles 14:7

When the prophet Azariah had asked Asa to be good, Asa could have limited himself to cleansing the land of pagan temples and overlooked the task of fortifying the city walls as there was peace in Judah, which was not found in the surrounding territories at that time. King Asa could have taken this protection for granted and looked at alternate reforms. But he was wise enough to not do so.  Further on in the chapter, we can see how God protected the kingdom of Judah when the Sudanese army, comprising of a million men came to invade Judah. For then did they realise that the peace in the land was promised for the first ten years of King Asa's reign. As mentioned in Ecclesiastes 3:2, "a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot", likewise we must also remember that the good and the bad times alternate in everyone’s lives.

We can learn from King Asa's life to continuously work on our abilities, our capabilities, to make ourselves better individuals and not take the blessings and grace bestowed upon us for granted.

Like King Asa, Joseph and Daniel also had to work on their gifts and talents time and again before the ultimate work for which they were called were handed down to them. I believe the peaceful time is an opportunity that God gives us to do the ground work of building faith and honing our talents to stand for Him during difficult days.

I pray that we identify the purpose for which each one of us are called for and work on it tirelessly to stand as testimony to Him when our time comes.

Sis. Jessie Don

God’s Love Missions Family