Royals Part I: United KingdomPrøve

# No King but God If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. This is how Lemony Snicket starts his famous series of novels “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” and it almost feels this way approaching the stories of Israel and Judah’s famous kings. However, there is a big difference between the author of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and the author of history. Despite all the brokenness and mistakes right from the very outset of Israel’s monarchy, God was tying it all together for his redemptive purposes. Despite the Israelites turning away from him at almost every point, God continues to draw them back to himself. Just like Israel, we are so quick to put fallen, broken, corruptible things as rulers over our lives. Today, it’s our own desires that rule us. We want complete authority over our lives, and we convince ourselves that we are experiencing liberation, but really we just become enslaved to our own desires. We end up chained by addictions, consumed by comparison, or endlessly chasing after things that only provide temporary relief to our emptiness. But when we cry out for relief from the things we put as lord over our lives, we have a perfect king in Jesus who is ready and waiting to take us back. Jesus is the only Lord who meets all of our needs. Thought Point Is there anything in your life that you give more authority to than to Jesus? Prayer Point Ask God to forgive you for the times you put other things ahead of him. Ask Jesus to be Lord of your life by His Spirit.