The Un-Series: Week 6 Day 4

2 Chronicles 33:10-13

10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. 11 Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

I once was talking to a friend about another person I knew who did not yet know God. The person whom we were discussing was going the opposite direction of the Lord in virtually every way; this made me frustrated and sad. My friend with whom I was discussing this altered my perspective with just a few words: “I like to think this is how some people build their testimony.” It hit me like a truck. Sometimes we don’t think about how big the light of a match is until we are stuck in a dark room. People lost and without hope that are later changed for the better show the radical transformation only possible through the love of God.

Think of Manasseh, a once mighty and fearful king, who was then bound and dragged by a hook in his nose; he was scared. So Manasseh did what I believe his father Hezekiah would have encouraged him to do, he surrendered to the God of his ancestors.  Manasseh appealed and repented of his sins, humbling himself as he had been so humbled, that God would change and forgive him. A wicked man reformed by the corrective hand of the Father.

Who do you know who is still building their testimony? Pray that God is glorified in their salvation!