“He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah.”
If you are a human then you have a family. Even Jesus, even though he was born of a virgin, had a family. And where we find family, we find difficulty. I have raised four daughters and I can tell first hand that adversity goes hand and hand with family. It is often how you deal with the adversity that leads to either healing or tearing apart. This adversity does not have to define your family, but for some people this is sadly how they remember their family environment growing up.
Even Jesus, when he was in his public ministry, went to his home town of Nazareth and the Bible says in Matthew 13:58, “ And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” The bottom line is that our family atmosphere can be negative and oppressive sometimes.
Asa was the great great grandson of Solomon. Solomon had a Rehoboam and Rehoboam had Abijah and Abijah had Asa. His grandmother, Maakah, was the mother Abijah and Asa was the only one in the family tree to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Asa would reign as king of Judah for forty one years. However, all of Asa’s family did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Verse 13 leaps off the page for a couple of reasons:
1: The Bible says that Asa cleaned up and got rid of all the items dealing with worship to other gods. In Asa’s case it was the male prostitutes and idols such as Asherah poles. (A common worship practice for the ones who worshiped Baal was prostitution in the temples of Baal, male and female)
2: Sometimes the closest people to us are the hardest to confront. It is one thing for us to notice a friend doing something wrong, but bring that to the family and it gets harder. Asa was king and deposing his own grandmother must have sent a clear message to the kingdom and to the rest of his family where he stood on the following the Lord.
In John 14:6 Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and life.” If your response to this crazy life is anything but going to God first, you might need to check yourself. It could be the idol of what you put your trust in or the thing you go to for direction such as horoscopes. Tony Evans says it best. “If your prayer never changes at night then you don’t know God.” Pray first instead of research, pray first instead of worry, pray first before consulting friends, pray first and let the Lord show you what to do.
Faith has action attached to it. Following the Lord looks like getting rid of all of those things you used to go to for direction and begin going to the Bible for direction. The next step looks like what Asa did; getting rid of all of the people in the kingdom practicing ungodly things. You might have to cut ties with some people in your life that are bad influences in order to keep your walk with the Lord uncompromised. Draw the chicken line in sand with your family and close friends and don’t cross it. The Lord will bless you because it.
Prayer: Father, family can be very hard to deal with. I pray that we would have the strength to appose with love and grace things our family and close friends are doing that are against you and your Word Lord. Help us cut ties with toxic people who can derail our lives. Help us cling to godly friends and family that edify and exhort us with the Word of God. I pray that we would make a clear distinction in our close circles of life that we are followers of Jesus Christ and we have a biblical world view. In Jesus name, amen.
Let It Go 
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