You may remember that my Sunday School class is studying the kings of Judah and Israel from the Old Testament. Well, we recently studied Asa who was a king in Judah. And I learned some really cool things about God!

Here's a summary of the background (as copied from my Sunday School book): Asa's heart was sincere and loyal to God. His actions showed his loyalty, and God rewarded him by bringing Judah peace. God's blessing on Asa remained until the last few years of his reign.

Asa's trouble began when Baasha, king of Israel, was able to push southward as far as Ramah, just five miles north of Jerusalem, Judah's capital. Obviously, this threat caused Asa to worry. Taking matters into his own hands, Asa sent a tribute to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria. Asa asked Ben-Hadad to attack Baasha. Ben-Hadad did as Asa requested, and Baasha had to abandon his fortress-building at Ramah to deal with the attacking Syrians.

(Now it's me talking.) So my response to this story was, "Hey, cool, Asa used his brain. He was resourceful, and God blessed him by having his enemies fight each other instead of fighting him.

But here's God's response: (2 Chron. 16:7-9) "At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: "Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war."

Here are three of the things God showed me about Himself:
1. God delights in blessing His children. When I bought presents for Kimmie this Christmas, I delighted in picking out just the right thing, and I anticipated her facial expressions and her joy when she opened the package. The entire process enthralled me, and I would have been extremely sad if someone prevented me from giving my gifts to her. That must have been the way God felt when he realized that the rescue gift He had been saving for Asa was destroyed by Asa's taking matters into his own hands. How sad God must have felt!

2. God delights in our confidence in Him. When I was a kid, we frequently heard on the playground "My dad's bigger than your dad," or "My dad could beat your dad up." (I even said that once, even though I felt guilty when I said it, because I knew that if it came to proving my boast, my dad would choose NOT to beat the other dad up!) But think of the confidence displayed in that statement, and think of how proud a dad must feel when he hears that his kid thinks he's the biggest and the strongest around. God feels that same heart-bursting sensation, when His kids display their confidence in Him by turning to Him first-and-only in a bad situation. And Asa took that opportunity away from him.

3. God delights in our praise. When God comes to my rescue in impossible situations, the response, "Oh wow, God! Thank you!" pops out, and God LOVES it! When Jeremy tells me how beautiful I am or how wonderful a supper I made was, it fills my heart with happiness, and when I praise my God for how wonderful He is to me, it fills His heart with happiness. But when Asa rescued himself, his heart was not filled with wonder towards God.

It makes me think of all the times that I rescue myself and steal delight from God. I hope that this realization will stick with me, and I will slow down and look to God for rescue. Yay for God!