Would you stand up for God against your grandmother? 1 Kings 14-17

1 Kings 15:13 (NASBStr)

He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron.

Standing tall in a slouching world is something that comes with much pain and much difficulty.  At times, it will cause you to make a stand against some who are very close to you.  In the above passage we have an act of "cleaning house" by King Asa, King of Judah.   Asa was a good king and stood for God, despite those before him and those around him.  The kings in Israel, at the the time, were evil.   Asa own father had an evil reign as king.   We see, from the above verse, that even his grandmother, Maachah, was evil.  She had set up an Asherah; a wooden idol of a female god.    When King Asa began to clean house it must have been difficult to go into a place, set up by his grandmother, and "cut down her horrid image and burn it."   (Maacah is called Asa's "mother" in this verse, but she was probably his grandmother if you look at 1 Kings 15:1-2.   Maacah may have been the one who raised Asa, making this act of the King even more distinct.)   When we are asked by God to do something great for God we are not to consider those around us and the impact of family relationships.  We are simply to act for God and do right.   Family may not (often may not) understand.   King Asa had the desire to stand for God in a slouching world, even though it was his own relatives and loved-ones who were slouching.   Repentance and revival must start with those in leadership.   Asa could not expect Judah to follow him in Godly servanthood if he was going to allow his grandmother, the one who may have raised him, to live in idolatry.   God demands holiness at whatever cost it comes.