Today's Passage:  2 Chronicles 25-27

Three kings...three stories that start out as successful.  Three kings who walk with God and find glory in the world.  Three kings who work to rebuild the holy city of Jerusalem.  But only one finishes the job...two of them go from the right track to the wrong track in a hurry, and it leads to destruction.

Did you hear the common denominator in the first two stories of Amaziah and Uzziah?  Pride.  Both of them walked with God and good things happened...but they began to think it was their power that was working for the kingdom.  They both quit listening to the prophets and to the laws of God and set out on their own ways.  For Amaziah, it was a battle he could not win.  For Uzziah, it was the arrogance of entering into God's holy temple.  For both, pride certainly came before the fall.

When we follow God, good things will happen.  Yesterday we read John 15 and heard the promise of bearing much fruit.  But who grows that fruit?  Who lets the good things happen?  All glory from our success belongs to God!  As we learned yesterday, apart from Him we can do nothing...if our pride leads us to think we can do it on our own, bad things will happen.  Both of these guys thought they could do what they wanted...it didn't work out very well for them, did it?

Jotham, the third king, "grew powerful because He walked with the Lord."  What a lesson for us today!