“He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly.” 2 Chronicles 22:3
It’s complicated. When a story is prefaced with these two words I will go out on a limb and make a general prediction. It involves some combination of sin. You see, rarely does sin make things simple. Sin has a natural ability to complicate things in our life. In fact, it can take something extremely simple and make it extremely complicated. I remember the old days of soap operas on tv and if you missed a few days it would take quite the effort to catch back up with the countless twists and turns. What could have been a simple story now looked like a mountain highway as sin and debauchery wound its way around the lives involved in the story. As you encounter a king in the book of 2 Chronicles with his life prefaced by “he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord”, get ready for a wild ride. We see in chapter 22 the complicated wild ride of evil king Ahaziah, the son of evil king Jehoram. Ahaziah inherits the throne because his father, Jehoram, had murdered all his brothers, effectively eliminating any threat to his throne. Talk about a tough family atmosphere. Ahaziah takes the throne at 22 and in his youth allows his mother exclusive access to his ear. She runs the kingdom through her son and as result, things, well, get complicated. Have you ever noticed that the complicated seasons of your life more than likely had great sin interlaced into them? The straight paths that God intends for us are guaranteed to develop crooks, U-turns, and S- turns as sin disrupts the path that God has already laid for us. But the complication of sin doesn’t have to be the norm for your journey. Yes, calling upon the name of Jesus will save you from the eternal death of your sin, but God never intended for you to keep on sinning. As you are redeemed by Christ and anointed with His Holy Spirit, sin should no longer be a casual friend but a mortal enemy. Sin should be something that torments you as you fall into its complicated grasp. The Holy Spirit should compel you to flee from sin and the complication it is guaranteed to introduce into your life. Refuse to let sin complicate your life, repent from it, run from it, refuse to let it dictate the path of your tomorrow. For you see, Christ came to save us not only from the eternal death of our sin, but to offer us an abundant life over sin while we serve Him here in this world. An abundant life full of joy, peace, and freedom. And folks, the joy, peace, and freedom of Christ is never complicated.
“The path of the righteous is level; you make the way of the righteous smooth.” Isaiah 26:7
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