“Shake it Off”, Taylor Swift’s 2014 hit song, is all about not being knocked down by the things others say. The haters are going to hate, the critics are going to criticize, but she’s just going to “shake it off”. In explaining the sentiment of the song, the singer, just 24 at the time, noted how her popularity brought every single aspect of her life under scrutiny and many felt the need to tear her down. Showing uncommon strength and wisdom she decided that it came with the territory so rather than let it break her down she would dodge the punches, and whenever one would hit, and hurt, she would just “shake it off”.

In many ways that’s a message a whole lot of NT Christians should learn today. This world is filled with people who don’t like God, which means they won’t like anyone who genuinely serves God by faith. Jesus warned His apostles that the world hated Him and would hate and persecute them too (John 15:18-21). We need to shake off the world’s vicious attacks, as well as the religious liars who are aligned with the world not God and preach a false Messiah of wealth and prosperity.

When David’s great-great-grandson Asa came to the throne it was just 20 years after the death of Solomon and the nation had fallen far from the height it had reached under David and Solomon. But Asa didn’t give in to the lies of idolatry brought in by his father and grand-father. Instead he decided to shake them off by removing them from the land. 1 Kings 15: 8-15 gives a short synopsis of the “shake it off” process. Verses 11 declares the fact; “Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father.” Verse 14 declares the reason; “the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days.”

As we think about what that means we must understand it wasn’t easy and required significant sacrifice which would have created a lot of conflict, even within his own family. Part of the shaking off process including removing his grandmother, the queen bee herself. Maacah. As the wife of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and mother of Asa’s father Abijah, she had a lot of power in Jerusalem and had to be shaken off. 1 Kings 15:13 tells us he removed her “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.” You know that had to hurt, but since his heart “was wholly devoted to the Lord” he was able to “shake it off”.

What sins, or sinners, reign in our hearts that we can’t seem to shake off? We can’t let those stay in our lives and the way to get them out is by putting the Lord first in our hearts. Like Asa, devote your heart wholly to the Lord all your days and you can “shake it off.”