Today as we studied about King Solomon, some thoughts struck me. While Solomon had it all, wisdom, wealth, fame, he became unfocused and lost his direction toward God. While a young man, he became king of the people. When God came to him in a dream and asked what he wanted, his response was amazing. It was all about this kingdom of God’s people that he did not feel wise enough to lead well. God gave him the wisdom he desired to lead the people of God. Then Solomon got busy and built the temple. No expense was spared, the workmanship was the very best. Solomon dedicated the temple and recommitted the people to God. Then notice what we hear next of Solomon- it was about how wonderful his kingdom was- how other nations came for the wisdom, made treaties, gave their daughters as brides for treaties. We read about how Solomon had large gold shields made (600 of them I believe) and then smaller gold shields. How much gold there was and how silver was so common, it was not valuable. Solomon tried many things, whatever his heart desired- and in the end was lead partially away from God. Notice that he kept God there, but followed other gods as well. His commitment to God had wavered, and that lead to the splitting of the kingdom and an end to the peace that Solomon had enjoyed throughout his years as king. He became complacent and lost his focus. Sometimes, we as Christians, do the same thing. We have served God most of our lives and have become comfortable where we are at. We allow things to pull our attention from God in the center and other things consume our time and energies. God is left on the sidelines- we still acknowledge Him, but He no longer is the focus of our lives. Christianity is an ACTIVE lifestyle (read James) and we as Christians, need to engage that lifestyle and stay involved in doing the work. If we rest on our past good deeds, the same complacency that found Solomon will find us. Something to think about….