following God to a point or following Him completely?

Lately I have been reading in 1 & 2 Kings - the records of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Sometimes it is a bit depressing to read about one king after another who did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord and the consequences that the king and whole of Israel or Judah bear from that. But, in the midst of that there are kings that do what is good in the eyes of the Lord.

One of these kings of Judah was Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:3-7 describes him as a king this way:

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.  (It was called Nehushtan.)
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. (NIV)

Those words  make it clear that he was a king who followed God and wanted to do what was right in God's eyes. In many ways, he went a step further than some of the other kings who had followed God because he removed the high places and destroyed objects of idol worship; while some of the other kings who followed God had left those places in tact.

Hezekiah followed God as completely as he could. He was not afraid to risk the ire of the people of Judah because he destroyed their places of idol worship. His heart was sold out to God first and foremost. And God blessed that.

God does not want us to just follow Him to a point. He wants us to follow Him completely - even if it is unpopular. Unlike the kings who followed God but left the places for idol worship in tact, God wants us to be the kind of followers that will ruthlessly destroy anything in our lives that might keep us from following God completely.

How about in your own life? Are you following God completely? Or just to a point? Are there areas in your life where you need to remove something that has become an idol that you worship? Are you willing to take the steps to remove that from your life - even if they seem drastic?

God calls us to follow Him completely - in all areas - no matter what the cost! Are we willing to do that? Or do we want to follow Him everywhere, but ______________ (insert the area where you struggle to follow God completely)? Maybe we need to make the choice again to follow God in everything and then take the steps to do so.