2 Chronicles 12:1-5: in context

The account of Rehoboam's reign turns on a single, telling sentence: when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established, and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him. His strength became the occasion of his forsaking God. And judgment followed: in his fifth year, Shishak of Egypt invaded with an overwhelming army, took the fortified cities, and threatened Jerusalem. The prophet Shemaiah delivered God's word: you have forsaken me, therefore I have left you in the hand of Shishak.

The revealing phrase is when he was strong, he abandoned the LORD. It was not adversity that turned Rehoboam from God, but strength; not weakness, but security. As long as his kingdom was unestablished and he felt his need, he presumably kept close to God; but once he was strong, established, secure, he abandoned God's law. His very success became the occasion of his forsaking God. There is a sober warning here, and it runs against our expectations. We tend to think that hardship is the great danger to faith, that trouble and weakness are what drive people from God; and sometimes they do. But often the greater danger is the opposite: strength, success, security, prosperity. When we are weak and needy, we cling to God; when we grow strong and secure, we are tempted to think we no longer need him, and to drift, to abandon the closeness that our former need had kept. Rehoboam did well enough while he was weak, and forsook God once he was strong. This is a danger worth watching for precisely in our good seasons. When things are going well, when we are established and secure, when we feel strong and self-sufficient, that is often when we are most tempted to neglect God, to let our devotion slacken, to abandon the dependence that our harder days had taught us. Prosperity has ruined more faith than poverty. Moses warned Israel of exactly this: beware, when you have eaten and are full, lest your heart be lifted up and you forget the LORD. The remedy is to remember, in our strength, that we are no less dependent on God than in our weakness, and to guard our devotion most carefully in the very seasons when we feel we need it least. Rehoboam abandoned God when he was strong; and the danger is that we do the same, letting our security become the occasion of forgetting the God we clung to in our need.

In my seasons of strength and security, when things are going well and I feel self-sufficient, am I tempted, like Rehoboam, to abandon the closeness with God that my harder days had taught me, drifting because I no longer feel my need, and can I guard my devotion most carefully precisely when I feel I need God least?