Making excuses for our disobedience

…you are to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses…

However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’

He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray.

He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. (Deuteronomy 17:15-17)

Those were the instructions God gave the Israelites through Moses concerning their kings.

Solomon broke every single one (1 Kings 9:28; 10:14-21, 26-29; 11:1-3).

Why did Solomon break God’s instructions?

I don’t know.

Maybe it was because he thought they weren’t so important.

We can make all kinds of excuses for our disobedience to God’s Word.

We can say to ourselves, “Hey, I still love the Lord. I still worship him. Besides, everyone else lives this way.”

I’m sure that’s what Solomon thought. He continued to worship God. That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that he “was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God (1 Kings 11:4).”

And that ultimately led him to do what was utterly evil in God’s sight (1 Kings 11:6).

It’s so easy to deceive ourselves and come up with all kinds of “good reasons” for our disobedience.

But when we do, at best, our hearts are no longer wholly God’s. At worst, we start to do things that are downright evil in his sight.

Jesus, you said that if I love you, I will obey you. I do love you. Help me throw away all my excuses for disobedience. I want my heart to be completely yours in everything.