{"id":4914,"date":"2023-07-29T06:40:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T11:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4914"},"modified":"2023-07-29T06:40:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T11:40:15","slug":"devotional-on-2-chronicles-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-2-chronicles-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 2 Chronicles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-dXXY0mNS7UY\/XsMJetNJL1I\/AAAAAAABFEA\/oGPxIS3umVQ2QruVMW1SOZnXEcNg7BqUwCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_20180727_144106.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"836\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2018 &#8211; Casco Bay Lines Ferry Mail Run &#8211; Portland, ME<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nDon\u2019t waste the blessings of life<br \/>\n2 Chronicles 14: While we have the chance and the land is quiet, let\u2019s build a solid defense system.<br \/>\nAsa\u2019s one of the good guys to lead Judah. He enjoys 10 years of peace in the early part of his reign and he takes full advantage of it. Now only does he clean house, getting rid of the idols, etc. that have crept into his kingdom he also persuades his subjects to join him in fortifying the major cities of Judah. Any nation should be thankful for 10 years of peace. After all, peace is an all too rare national condition. Sorry to say but history proves that the \u201cwar to end all wars\u201d is yet to be fought. So even when peace is achieved and we\u2019re tempted to dismantle our defenses and focus on other things, reality calls us to take advantage of the current situation by preparing for whatever comes next. Not only is this true on the national scale, it\u2019s true of our individual lives as well. Life has both good and bad days. When things are going well we need to be careful we don\u2019t foolishly act as though hard times are gone forever. Most certainly they aren\u2019t. On one hand, I want to enjoy the good things that come to me. I want to look toward heaven and say a sincere word of thanks and live as though I really appreciate the blessings that come. On the other hand, I want to be aware that life won\u2019t always be easy. As much as I\u2019m able I want to prepare for the day when it\u2019ll be my turn to experience some of the hardship of life. Asa\u2019s a good king because he doesn\u2019t \u201cwaste the peace.\u201d From a personal point of view, I don\u2019t want to \u201cwaste the blessings\u201d either.<br \/>\nTake Away: Live wisely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t waste the blessings of life 2 Chronicles 14: While we have the chance and the land is quiet, let\u2019s build a solid defense system. Asa\u2019s one of the good guys to lead Judah. He enjoys 10 years of peace in the early part of his reign and he takes full advantage of it. Now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1477,7],"tags":[58,116,407,832,853],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14585,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions\/14585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}