Scripture

First, it’s about giving something that costs you:

12In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe; yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians. 13Then Asa slept with his ancestors, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I

“O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. . . . No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:8, 11).

Loyalty “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).

Without miracles, the Kingdom of God is reduced to words, concepts and good works.

Their position of leadership requires them to undergo an even more thorough cleansing process than the people undergo.