- For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. 2 Chronicles 34:3 – To add on to this, in his eighteenth year is when the king found the book of the law and heard it for the first time. What we see with Josiah is a slow, but steady, progression of following more faithfully after God. Yes it took years, but his direction was consistent and moving in the right way. We too must remember God is pleased when our progression stays steadily after Him. Yes, it’s may be slow, even years and years of slow moving forward, but when the moving is towards Him He is pleased. So don’t feel defeated if your pursuit of Him isn’t perfect yet, no one’s is. Don’t be discouraged when someone in your life isn’t fully there yet in their walk with God. If they are even just slowly turning to Him that’s a life that is pleasing to God. Slow is okay with God when that slow is steadily after Him. Today then what God wants is a step closer to Him. Maybe it’s not a full marathon after Him today, but a step closer to Him is honoring to Him. What then does your step look like today? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1548
- And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around,7 he broke down the altars and beat the Asherim and the images into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 34:6-7 – Josiah, while young as a king when he came into power, chose the wise path of holiness that many kings before he didn’t. As with the kings before him that did choose to follow the Lord, the first step was the idols and altars to false gods had to be removed from the land. Notice though the level of removal. Broke down and beat the images into a powder. There was no way for people to secretly sneak the idols back into their homes or into their places of secret worship. These things were utterly destroyed beyond repair. Such should we be with the things that lead us astray to sin. Break them down and beat then into a powder that is unable to be put back together. Too often we “get rid” of the things that cause us to sin by simply just putting them in a closet or in a place we can’t see all the time, but when temptations arises, they are easy to have in our hands again. Yet what if those objects that lead us to sin weren’t just in the closet or back garage or deleted of your phone, but they were pulverized out of your life? See the difference? Be willing to fully remove things from your life and be willing to invite others into the process of removal. Sometimes the best way to keep ourselves from ever returning to a sin is to have the brothers and sisters God placed in our life helping us. Let’s say no to sin once and for all. – Mac – Daily DEVO 2623
Daily DEVO 