READ: 1 Kings 10-11
THINK: Every person is vulnerable at one point of their character. Strong everywhere else, and armor-plated, there is a weakness there; and our great enemy knows just where to strike home. It would have been useless to argue with Solomon for the claims of idols. He could at once, by his wisdom, have annihilated all infidel arguments, and have established the existence and unity of God. But, step by step, he was led by silken cords, a captive, to the worship of other gods. It is a solemn warning; and Nehemiah was perfectly justified when, in his contention with the Jews who had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab, he said, “Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him who was beloved of his God.”
Beware where you let your heart go forth in love. Whom we love we resemble; and in the marriage tie it is almost inevitable that seductions to the lower will overcome the drawings to the higher. When a Christian disobeys God’s distinct command against intermarriage with the ungodly, he or she begins to sink to the level of the ungodly partner instead of raising them to his own religious standing.
Our friends and those whom we love determine the drift and current of our life. It is so easy to launch upon the current that flows past our feet; it seems impossible that the laughing, enticing water should ever carry us against sharp, splintering rocks, or over-breaking cataracts. When we are compelled to associate with the ungodly, let us maintain a strict self-watch, and pray that the breath of the heavenward gale may more than counteract the tendency of the earthward current.
Adapted from: F.B. Meyer
PRAY: Ask that God would give you wisdom in your relationships with unbelievers. Pray that you would be able to be in the world and form relationships with those who don’t know Christ but that you wouldn’t be dragged away from him in the process. Ask God to guard your heart.
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