Guard Your Affections

In I Kings 11 we have the account of Solomon's heart turning from the Lord because he had allowed the love of women to take first place in his life. He began to serve their gods. This happened when "Solomon was old" the scripture says in verse 4. We see how Solomon's commitment to the Lord fell by the way because of his affections for many wives who were serving other gods even though he started out with a tremendous commitment to the Lord and a desire to keep His statutes.

This passage is appropriate for all of us. We must guard our affections. While this teaches us to be sure to marry believers in Christ, it moves us even further in our relationships with others. It is possible for us to meet friends, co-workers and employers that we all look up to because they have a lot of positive qualities and we get along very well with them. We may even find ourselves spending a lot of time with some of these people. If they do not know the Lord we must be careful. We can begin to allow their thinking to influence us and take us in directions we should not go. The next thing we know our other Christian family and friends can begin to see a change in our behavior subtle as it may be. Then it may even come to a place where they realize we are not walking with the Lord and keeping His statutes.

Verse 9 says the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from Him after he had been commanded that he should go after no other gods. We are saved by grace and it is all of the Lord but we can know for sure that we will be chastised if we forsake Him to chase after other affections (Deuteronomy 8: 5, 6).

Julie Ackerman Link, a writer for "Our Daily Bread" says "It is difficult to make good decisions if our allegiance is to someone who does not know and love God." Guard your affections.