Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

First Chronicles, chapter 13, verse 10,

and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Yuzah,

and he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark,

and he died there before God.

This is one of those sobering places in the Old Testament where we see God strike someone down

on the spot.

And the context here really isn't just about Yuzha.

It's about God's people, treating God's presence casually,

treating God's glory profanely in the way where they were transporting the ark, not according

to God's word. They were treating God's word lightly. And as the oxen stumbled and the ark looks like it's going to fall,

Yuzah sticks out his hand to touch it.

And you might think, well, I mean, he was just trying to keep it from falling,

but the whole big picture is a people, including Yuzah,

who had lost sight of the holiness of God

and the glory of God, the purity of God, and the word of God, and the importance of the Word

of God. And I just want to invite all of us to do a heart check today. Have we in any way lost sight of grown casual

with the holiness of God, the glory of God, the word of God, the greatness of God? Have we in any way

grown too casual with God? I think about one of the most glaring

temptations of this in my own home when we gather around the dinner table and we pray and we just,

if we're not careful, just start saying words, not really thinking about who we're talking to, kind of going through a religious motion.

And it's good for us to pause and remember who we're talking to and make sure we're not treating prayer lightly.

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